Sonny Vaccaro

Last updated

John Paul Vincent "Sonny" Vaccaro (born September 23, 1939) is an American former sports marketing executive. He lives in Santa Monica, California.

Contents

Career

Vaccaro is best known for his tenure with Nike, Inc., where he signed Michael Jordan to his first sneaker deal. Vaccaro left Nike for Adidas, then Reebok. [1] He founded the ABCD Camp, an elite showcase of high school basketball standouts, which ran from 1984 to 2007. It featured future stars Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and LeBron James. [2] Vaccaro cofounded the first national high school All-Star game, The Dapper Dan Roundball Classic, with concert promoter and boyhood friend Pat DiCesare in Pittsburgh in 1965. The game endured for 43 years and its alumni includes such greats as Calvin Murphy, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Chris Webber, Alonzo Mourning, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Patrick Ewing, Rasheed Wallace and Stephon Marbury. [3] [4]

Vaccaro and basketball coach George Raveling had been close friends, to the point that Raveling was the best man at Sonny's second wedding. [5] Raveling had a falling out with Sonny over the business of summer high school basketball camps that Sonny ran. [5] Raveling became Sonny's competitor in the same position at Nike. [5] Vaccaro was a key figure in the O'Bannon v. NCAA lawsuit, which allowed players to be compensated for appearances in video games. [6] Vaccaro helped to recruit Ed O'Bannon for the case. [7]

Legacy

An ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about Vaccaro titled "Sole Man" aired on April 16, 2015. [8] The show was themed around the "corrosive effect of pumping so much marketing money into the college game." [9]

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon produced a film called Air about his signing of Michael Jordan to Nike and ultimately the Air Jordan brand. [10] Damon plays Vaccaro in the film. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Jordan</span> American basketball player (born 1963)

Michael Jeffrey Jordan, also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. He played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) between 1984 and 2003, winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. He was integral in popularizing basketball and the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural icon. His profile on the NBA website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Damon</span> American actor (born 1970)

Matthew Paige Damon is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. He was ranked among Forbes' most bankable stars in 2007, and in 2010 was one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awards and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kobe Bryant</span> American basketball player (1978–2020)

Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, Bryant won five NBA championships and was an 18-time All-Star, a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, a 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), and a two-time NBA Finals MVP. He also led the NBA in scoring twice and ranks fourth in league all-time regular season and postseason scoring. Bryant was posthumously voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jalen Rose</span> American basketball player (born 1973)

Jalen Anthony Rose is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines' "Fab Five" that reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as both freshmen and sophomores.

Ronald Thompson is an American former college basketball player and coach and current Emmy Award-winning broadcaster for Comcast SportsNet, based in Bethesda, Maryland. He is the son of Gwen Thompson and former Georgetown University head coach John R. Thompson, Jr., whose children also include a daughter, Tiffany, and John Thompson III, who also is a former Georgetown head coach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air Jordan</span> American brand by Nike

Air Jordan is a line of basketball shoes produced by Nike, Inc. Related apparel and accessories are marketed under the Jordan Brand..

James Raymond Jordan was the father of former basketball player Michael Jordan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Raveling</span> American basketball coach and announcer (born 1937)

George Henry Raveling is an American former college basketball player and coach. He played at Villanova University, and was the head coach at Washington State University (1972–1983), the University of Iowa (1983–1986), and the University of Southern California (1986–1994).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed O'Bannon</span> American basketball player (born 1972)

Edward Charles O'Bannon Jr. is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a power forward for the UCLA Bruins on their 1995 NCAA championship team. He was selected by the New Jersey Nets with the ninth overall pick of the 1995 NBA draft. After two seasons in the NBA, he continued his professional career for another eight years, mainly playing in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Damon filmography</span>

American actor Matt Damon made his film debut with a small role in Mystic Pizza (1988), after which he played several supporting roles. His first leading role was in the legal drama film The Rainmaker (1997). His breakthrough came later that year when he played the title role of an unrecognized genius in Good Will Hunting, which he also co-wrote with Ben Affleck. They won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Damon was nominated for Best Actor. He followed it by playing the title roles of a soldier in Steven Spielberg's war drama Saving Private Ryan (1998) and of the criminal Tom Ripley in the thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), both of which gained critical and commercial success. Damon and Sean Bailey worked on the television series Project Greenlight since 2000, helping newcomers make their first film.

<i>OBannon v. NCAA</i> 2015 US federal appeals court case

O'Bannon v. NCAA, 802 F.3d 1049, was an antitrust class action lawsuit filed against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The lawsuit, which former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon filed on behalf of the NCAA's Division I football and men's basketball players, challenged the organization's use of the images and the likenesses of its former student athletes for commercial purposes. The suit argued that upon graduation, a former student athlete should become entitled to financial compensation for NCAA's commercial uses of their image. The NCAA maintained that paying its athletes would be a violation of its concept of amateurism in sports. At stake are "billions of dollars in television revenues and licensing fees."

<i>Schooled: The Price of College Sports</i> 2013 American TV series or program

Schooled: The Price of College Sports is a 2013 documentary film by directors Trevor Martin and Ross Finkel. Based on the Taylor Branch book The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA, the film explores the history and business of college sports as well as the treatment of NCAA athletes.

Howard Morris Garfinkel was an American high school basketball scout who ran the well-known Five-Star Basketball Camp from 1966 to 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABCD Camp</span> US high school basketball camp

The ABCD Basketball Camp was a youth basketball camp founded by Sonny Vaccaro that was held from 1984 to 2006. The camp gathered the highest ranked high school players of the United States, and was considered one of the top events of high school basketball. ABCD stood for Academic Betterment and Career Development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nike Elite Youth Basketball League</span> Basketball circuit for teams of players aged 17 and under

The Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, also known as Nike EYBL, or simply EYBL, is a basketball circuit for teams of players aged 17 and under. The circuit was founded in 2010 and is composed of AAU travel teams. Both boys and girls play in the EYBL in their respective categories. The EYBL is considered one of the top youth basketball circuits in the United States, and includes one Canadian team.

Jon Weinbach is an American film and television writer and producer. He is currently President of Skydance Sports and was previously the executive producer and executive vice president for Mandalay Sports Media, a media and production company that focuses on sports entertainment programming.

Nico Tyrone Harrison is an American professional basketball executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA), who is currently the president of basketball operations and general manager of the Dallas Mavericks. Prior to that, Harrison was an executive at Nike, Inc., where he worked for 19 years. Harrison also had a five-year professional basketball playing career spanning stints in Belgium, Japan, the Continental Basketball Association, and Lebanon. Harrison played college basketball for the United States Army Black Knights at West Point as well as for the Montana State Bobcats.

<i>Air</i> (2023 American film) 2023 American film by Ben Affleck

Air is a 2023 American biographical sports drama film directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery. The film is based on true events about the origin of Air Jordan, a basketball shoeline, of which a Nike employee seeks to strike a business deal with rookie player Michael Jordan. It stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, and Viola Davis.

Artists Equity is an American production company founded by actors and filmmakers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in November 2022.

Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, also known as Gigi Bryant and Mambacita, was an American student-athlete and the daughter of former professional basketball player Kobe Bryant. Together with her father and seven others, she died in a helicopter crash in 2020 at age 13.

References

  1. ↑ Thamel, Pete (June 24, 2007). "Marketing All-Star is Ready to Relax". The New York Times .
  2. ↑ Prisbell, Eric (July 6, 2007). "Camps Turn To Skills, Rather Than Thrills". Washington Post .
  3. ↑ "The Grassroots Godfather".
  4. ↑ "ESPN.com - Dick Vitale - vcolumn010408roundball". ESPN . Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 Bucher, Ric - The Last Don ESPN Magazine. October 28, 2002
  6. ↑ "Judge rules against NCAA in O'Bannon case". August 8, 2014.
  7. ↑ "O'Bannon v. NCAA: Case Challenges Business Model of College Sports". NBC News.
  8. ↑ Sole Man (2015) Sonny Vaccaro rose from Pennsylvania steel town roots to become one of the most powerful and influential men in the athletic shoe industry and in basketball.
  9. ↑ Lowry, Brian - TV Review: ESPN’s ‘Sole Man’. Variety, April 6, 2015
  10. ↑ "Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's New Movie Air Chronicles the Scrappy Rise of Nike". February 9, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Reedley College graduate to be portrayed by Matt Damon in upcoming film". ABC30 Fresno. February 10, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.