The following podcast contains explicit language. Yo, Mars Blackman here with my main man, Michael Jordan. Yo, Mike, what makes you the best player in the universe? Is it the vicious stumps? No, Mars. Is it the haircut? No, Mars. Is it the shoes? No, Maher. Is it an extra long shorts? No, Mars. Is the shoes in, right? Nah. Is it the short socks? No, Mars. Money's got to be the shoes. Shoes, shoes, shoes. Shoes, shoes. You sure is not the shoes? I'm sure, Marys. What about the shoes? No, Mars. Money's got to be the shoes. Welcome to the Edge of Sports podcast. I'm Dave Ziron.

Today our guest is the most influential person in basketball who never laced up sneakers or coached on a sideline.

Former sports marketing executive Sonny Vicaro, aka the Soul Man.

That's S-O-L-E soul man.

Sonny Vicaro is the guy who connected sneaker money to so-called amateur hoops.

He's also the guy who signed Michael Jordan and Nike out of college and Kobe Bryant out of high school.

And most importantly, for Edge of Sportsfolk, a person who has become perhaps the most important

spokesperson against the sham amateurism of the NCAA, which he sees as a civil rights issue

for college athletes.

And this week, I will speak about a remarkable event I moderated last week, on a stage

with Greg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs, and Dr. Cornell West in front of

350 San Antonio high school students and most of the Spurs team.

I'm going to give you the inside story about that.

But first, here he is, the soul man, Sonny Vicaro.

Music Here he is, the sole man, Sonny Vicaro. Let's go for it now, young man.

We take it for granted now that big- time NCAA coaches have deals with shoe companies.

But this really was your idea decades ago to actually pay coaches, to have kids, wear

Nike's back when Nike was just a running shoe.

I want to ask you if you remember the moment where you came up with this

formulation. Was it a kind of like light bulb going off over your head or was it more gradual than

that? It was not a preconceived idea. I didn't go there with that. I went there with them

sending me some shoes and possibly designing some shoes that some kids at my camp I was running in Pittsburgh at that time

...