Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 8:24 am  |  21 responses

NBA, NCAA, adidas + Nike: Together!

by Ben Osborne

As I mentioned in my Live Blog last night, the NBA and NCAA (in conjunction with sneaker giants/rivals adidas and Nike), have come together to launch iHoops to, says the story on NBA.com, provide a structure and to develop programs to improve the quality of youth basketball in order to enhance the athletic, educational and social experience of the participants.

There will be components of the program for every youth player in the US, from ages 6 to 18, including a social networking aspect that will be run by active.com.

As iHoops CEO Kevin Weiberg put it last night, With today’s announcement, we have laid a very solid foundation for achieving our goal to improve the environment in youth basketball for boys and girls, parents, coaches and officials. We are pleased to have adidas and Nike join as iHoops founding partners, collaborate with the key stakeholders in American basketball, and support the efforts for the long-term good of the game.

These are lofty goals, and I hope that they end up being both for the good of the game and the young people that play it. Obviously basketball is a great sport but we all know that plenty of rules have developed over the years regarding coaches, tournaments, high school eligibility, college eligibility, Draft eligibility, etc that can send mixed messages to the elite youth players in this country. Can iHoops bring some uniformity to the process and help the careers of everyone from the 12th man on an AAU 9-and-under summer team to McDonald’s All-Americans? I don’t know, but the historic pairing of the NBA and NCAA (not alwways the best partners) and adidas and Nike (never the best partners), arguably the four largest influences on the game in this country, means that iHoops has a chance to do something special.

Lastly, the logo gets cut off a bit on our homepage, so here’s the full deal:

ihoops

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  • http://slamonline.com Ben Osborne

    Go Ronnie Z.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/category/blogs/fear/ Freedom Fries

    i heart i hoops

  • rlz

    iHoops? Is Apple a sponsor, too?

  • rlz

    iHoops? Is Apple a sponsor, too?

  • http://sjkldf.com Jukai

    iHope they don’t screw this up

  • Karl

    Nice one, Jukai

  • http://twitter.com/juantimetwotime J everyday

    So when the social networking aspect becomes like a real youth hoops forum, who’s gonna monitor andregulate language content and general sh!t talking, stu jack or stern?

  • http://www.another48minutes.blogspot.com Gerard Himself

    for some reason, I still can’t watch the logo.

  • mj23

    that logo is ugly

  • mj23

    looks like it was done by a kindergartner

  • ber

    It’s not working for me either, Gerard.

  • http://slamonline.com GotHandles?

    “NBA and NCAA (not alwways the best partners) and adidas and Nike (never the best partners), arguably the four largest influences on the game”….and SLAM. WTF???????

  • Cizzo

    Teamwork thats the name of the game!

  • Yann Blavec’s wife’s husband

    do they to make something similar to the french insep ? (National Institute of Sport and Physical Education)

  • Terrance L. Reese

    Seems to me like these outside institutions (nba and ncaa) and who is CEO Kevin Weiberg supposed to be. Are establishing some thing to take advantage of inner city communities and more importantly exploit youngsters as a commodity for their own profit. The only love its being done for is the love of money, in their pockets. How are they able to enforce such a grand scale operation. On what grounds. Who’s backing these men that they feel they should dictate or police communities, parents,family, friends and educators as it pertains to youth basketball. Come on age 6-18. Get your hands off these kids and the community. these kids are not under contract to the nba, ncaa, nike or adidas. Its just false hopes and promises to own and control the talent of these youth by your system of manipulation. Watch who profits from this. Just ask Sonny.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    “In other words, we strive to eliminate physicality, toughness, disobedience, hip hop, and Ron Artest from our game of basketball. Oh, and the NFL can have Allen Iverson. What the heck, take Rasheed Wallace too,” iHoops forgot to add to their mission statement.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Lol in all honesty though, I hope this works out.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Not my above comment, the ACTUAL program.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/category/blogs/fear/ Freedom Fries

    How soon till iHOP sponsors iHoops ?

  • http://www.tblandshoes.com screena

    i would love these!!!!!
    These are tight. Tell me where you can get them and how much.

  • http://www.nikeselling.com ctryonline

    How soon till iHOP sponsors iHoops ? would love these!!!!!
    These are tight. Tell me where you can get them and how much.

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