FIBA Basketball

Hopefully BenderGate doesn't become Pandora's box

REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - The build-up to the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship was getting pretty depressing, watching one future star after the next withdraw with either a prior commit

But watching a stone-faced Dragan Bender sit in the stands for what I started hashtaging BenderGate on Twitter felt like a final kick in the stomach after the basketball fan was done on the ground.

Despite all of the withdrawals from the U19 Worlds, the 17-year-old Croatian was a legitimate candidate to make the All-Star Five. And he was going to make Croatia a legitimate contender for the title.

Then came the showdown which has rocked the world of basketball and left nearly everyone wondering what the future would look like hereafter.

For those who haven't heard, Bender left the Croatian team in Greece to return home after a contractual dispute between Adidas and the Croatian Basketball Federation (HKS) ended in a stalemate.

Bender has an exclusivity contract with Adidas which does not allow him to appear in other brands' shoes. The HKS meanwhile has a long-term deal with Jordan Brand, which doesn't allow players to play in shoes not affiliated with Nike.

The standoff saw HKS or Bender facing a hefty fine if the uber-talented forward played in Adidas or Jordan Brand respectively. Despite Bender going through the entire Croatian training camp in Adidas shoes, the issue about whether Bender would play in Jordans remained unresolved coming to Crete.

After consultation with his agent, Bender refused to wear anything other than Adidas and the HKS said that would not be allowed since the federation did not want to breach its contract either.

That left Bender in the stands in the first two game days in Heraklion and the basketball world in amazement.

Has this whole shoe business really come this far?

Missing a tournament because of injury or prior commitment is one thing. But missing it for shoes?

Shoe companies and their affiliations were already determining which players could or could not play at certain events and showcases such as the Adidas Eurocup or Nike Hoop Summit. Those connections also sent players to certain teams or colleges around the world.

And now shoe companies were influencing whether a player - a future superstar in this case - could play for their national team as well.

This whole ordeal casts a dark shadow over the game and it seems fitting that it happened in Crete because it might just have opened Pandora’s box - an artefact in Greek mythology - and unleashed evil into the world with far-reaching consequences.

What happens if Adidas signs exclusivity rights with some of their future players and that means they too cannot play for their respective national teams? What if the situation advances to the senior national team level?

What is to stop other shoe companies from coming in and locking up similar deals with their players? What impact would demands of a third shoe company have in this whole situation?

The Jordan Brand deal is great for the Croatian HKS and there are plenty of other federations which would love to sign on similar deals since it saves massive amounts of money on outfitting the teams.

But looking at the one of the teams lined up for the national anthem at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship made the magnitude of the problem crystal clear.

The team was wearing Peak brand shirts, jerseys and shorts. The coaches were all wearing the same Adidas shoes. Most of the players were wearing Adidas shoes but some were sporting Nikes and two had Under Armour.

Has Pandora's box truly been opened? Let’s hope not.

David Hein

FIBA

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