The End of the Ronald Reagan/Michael Jordan Era

Materialism didn’t initiate with the Reagan Revolution, but it certainly was accelerated.  It seemed to usher in a new era of wealth-above-all-else, you’re-defined-by-your-possessions-mentality.  One small symptom of that is clear to anyone who is a sports fan.   It's pretty indisputable that all the professional team sports have changed drastically over the last 30 years due to rising player salaries and the player-before-team attitude that resulted.  But the multi-million dollar salaries weren’t enough for the games’ biggest stars.  Endorsements were a way to make even more than what they were paid to play the game.  There has been no better example of that than the connection between NBA players and shoe contracts.  But I just read a story that suggests maybe this is changing ever so slightly.

New York Knick star Stephon Marbury has a line of affordable shoes out now called the Starbury shoe.  OK, so the self-promotion is still in effect.  But contrast the $15 price tag on Marbury’s shoe with the $150 price tag on LeBron James’ Nike version, and suddenly you see Stephon Marbury in a whole new light.

As a kid growing up with six siblings, Stephon Marbury couldn’t understand why his parents couldn’t scrape together $150 to buy him the hot sneakers his heroes wore in the NBA.
When he grew up and understood how much money that was and how little his parents had, he decided to do something about it.
His solution? A $15 quality basketball shoe worn in games by the star point guard of the New York Knicks, Stephon Marbury.

The NBA player/shoe phenomenon started, of course, with Michael Jordan.  Jordan has often been praised for his business and marketing skills, but I always thought so much less of him for that.  As great a player as he was, I never fully respected Jordan because he always struck me as so goddamned selfish.  As the MSNBC story describes:

Once upon a time, all basketball shoes were affordable. But then Nike founder Phil Knight realized that if he could design a special shoe and put it on the feet of one of the game’s greatest players, he could charge a premium for them.
In 1985, he signed Michael Jordan, the promising young star of the Chicago Bulls, to an endorsement deal and brought out the first Air Jordan sneaker. The shoe was red and black with a big Nike Swoosh on the side and was so brash in their design that the NBA told Jordan he would be fined if he wore them in games. Knight gladly paid the fines and in no time at all, every kid in America had to have a pair.
As Jordan matured into the greatest player of all time, fans camped out in front of shoe stores to be the first to buy the latest model Air Jordan, and kids were mugged for their shoes. Jordan himself made more money from Nike endorsements than he did from playing basketball.

Other shoe companies got in on the act and countless other players and now you have the $150 dollar Lebron James shoe.  Hell... all the shoes I own combined don’t cost $150.  But it doesn’t end with shoes.  The other thing I hate is the sports drink phenomenon.  This was Jordan again.  Jordan, and countless athletes since, have convinced American youths that true athletes need an expensive, sugary drink when playing a game of pick-up basketball instead of just healthy, refreshing, (usually free) cold water.  

But maybe things are slowly changing.  As we watch the modern-day Conservative movement slowly crumble in this country, maybe some of that selfish, materialism will go with it.  Starbury’s may catch on and start a new trend.

Steve & Barry’s has given no sales figures, but it has been reported elsewhere that in little more than half a year, some three million pairs of Starburys have been sold. That’s been enough to inspire Chicago Bulls star center Ben Wallace to join Marbury in wearing the shoes for the remainder of this year. Next year, Wallace will have his own Steve & Barry’s line —the
Big Ben.

Marbury has gotten a bad rap on the basketball court for his selfishness and inability to be a leader of a winning team, but as Jordan showed us, sometimes what happens off the court is the real story.  Maybe I’ll give Marbury the player another chance.