It was interesting to see who Kevin Love thanked after winning the Johnny Carpenter Award Sunday night at the Oregon Sports Awards. After mentioning his parents Love thanked Sonny Vacarro and his wife. This is just a guess, but I don't think this sat well over at the Nike Campus.

Sonny Vacarro is extremely well known in the world of AAU basketball. In fact he pretty much started all these summer camps that good high school players go to all summer long. Vacarro worked for Nike from 1978-1992, then was at Adidas from 1992-2003, and is now working for Reebok.

Love's high school, Lake Oswego, is a Nike school. This past summer Love played for a Nike sponsored team Portland Elite Legends), but then went and played for a Reebok sponsored team (Southern California Legends). This obviously didn't sit well with the people at Nike. Here's what Kerry Eggers of the Portland tribune wrote about the situation this past summer.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=30879

I don't know the ins and outs of these relationships and their consequences. However, I would bet that Love walking out on that stage, wearing a Nike hat and thanking Sonny Vacarro was the talk of the sneaker world Monday morning.

Ron
RPivo@kgw.com