Actually, Knight went to Adidas much earlier in his IU tenure, and his contracts were initially (and for much of his IU time) between himself and the Company. His annual salary at IU was comparatively low to other elite coaches but it was greatly supplemented by his Adidas deal. He was at the front end of that “evolution” and his distaste for the shoe companies came when their influence grew beyond his control when they began contracting with schools directly and started to have influence on recruiting.
One time, Buckner, May and Wilkerson warmed up in Nike shoes, even though the team wore Adidas Promodels (high top Superstars), per Knight’s personal contract with Adidas that included shoes to the team. Knight didn’t go out with the team during initial warm ups so he didn’t see them in Nike’s until they came back in and we’re changing shoes before going out to start the game. He went ballistic and told everyone that they were never to have other brands in there ever again. Pretty funny but an example of the power and influence he had.
