It's Gotta Be the Shoes

Gotta admire Arkansas State basketball player Jerry Nichols for sticking to his guns. Nichols, the team's returning leading scorer, says he won't play ball wearing adidas shoes, which the team is under contract to wear.

UPDATE: Adidas announced Thursday it will not require Nichols to wear its shoes. Wise PR move. I'm sure the adidas folks want this story to go away ASAP.

Nichols says he was wearing that brand when he suffered a serious knee injury. But the school's athletic director says he has to. The school says Nichols has to dress by its rules.

"We have a contractual agreement with [adidas], and it's not any different than any number of other contracts with other schools. There is not any stipulation or any research that shows any shoes are worse than any others," Arkansas State athletic director Dean Lee told The Jonesboro Sun newspaper.

The coach is more sympathetic but it sounds like there's some tension with the athletic director. Coach Dickey Nutt (brother of University of Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt) just got a new contract but there seemed to be some grumbling that Nutt hadn't been more successful.

Arkansas St. Player Refuses to Wear Adidas [ESPN]
Adidas Says It Won't Make Arkansas St. Player Wear Its Shoes [CBS Sportsline]