Sports

Nike boss Knight utterly infamous

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Fascinating, how things seem to happen as if on cue.

The NBA announced Friday that Nike capo di tutti capi Phil Knight has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in the “Contributor” category — proof that one can buy his way into this Hall of Fame.

At roughly the same time Friday, as if on cue, riots and near-riots were occurring at selected sneaker stores along the East Coast. Of course they were.

Nike was rolling out its new, overpriced, Third World-made status symbols, and for these sin-ugly psychedelic babies, at $220 plus tax, Nike again kept the prices ridiculously high and the supply extremely limited. Yet again, Nike would cause both a buzz and a feeding frenzy among those who would regard procurement of a pair of cheaply made sneakers as worthy of committing mayhem — and too many times even murder.

For 25 years, Nike has proven it knows exactly what it’s doing, how to do it, whom to do it to, and where to do it to them. Nike does nothing by accident. And, as it knows by now, the sicker the scene, the more successful the plan.

In Friday’s case, Nike’s sense of timing and location again was impeccable, as the biggest street hassle — more than 100 cops in riot gear were summoned — occurred in Orlando, site of the NBA All-Star Game.

Gaby Llanos, 23, was in line to buy a pair when the insanity — which should have been anticipated — erupted.

“It was complete havoc,” she told the AP. “People were running and hiding in trees so the police wouldn’t find them.”

No single commercial entity — not even ESPN — has done more greedy dirt to sports than Nike.

From serving as the underwriter of dubious schools and academies and summer programs that collect and warehouse kids — before they’re sent to play college ball for “Nike coaches” — to buying so much influence it can make university presidents roll over, beg, play dead and sell out their schools’ 100-plus year traditions, Nike’s in front.

Nike payola can turn the colors of teams known as Blue Devils, Reds, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Crimson, Scarlet Knights and Red Storm into gang-basic black. Just do it!

Nike ad campaigns for years have sold sports for their “Nike attitude” — rotten, chest-pounding, boastful, trash-talking, me-first attitude — while relying on street gangs to serve as their unpaid fashion consultants, ignoring the countless muggings, stabbings and killings of the most vulnerable, sucker-ized teens and young men, left bleeding, shoeless, in the streets.

The misanthropy Nike has marketed now permeates and poisons sports, starting from the day a kid first bounces a ball or sees a game on TV.

Recall Jim Keady? In 1998, he was earning his master’s degree in theology from St. John’s, researching a paper on Nike’s labor practices — sweatshop operations — while serving as St. John’s assistant soccer coach.

It was then that St. John’s made a multimillion deal with Nike. Keady refused to wear Nike-issue, logo-laden St. John’s stuff. He was told to shut up and fall in line — or resign. He resigned.

“People were telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about, those were great [factory] jobs,” he recently told the Asbury Park Press. “I wanted to go find out. Doesn’t everybody just want to know the truth? I wanted to see the truth, first hand.”

In one of two trips to Indonesia, Keady chose to live with and like Nike workers.

“I lost 25 pounds living on Nike’s wages,” he said. “I spent the month painfully hungry, tired and near the point of exhaustion, most days.”

Workers, said Keady, were paid the equivalent of $1.25 a day, which bought him two meals of rice and vegetables, peanuts, a bottle of iced tea and dish detergent. He said he lived in a nine-by-nine-foot cement blockhouse, sharing a bathroom with five families.

Oh, well, Friday, while people in Orlando, site of the NBA All-Star Game, rioted — as if on cue — over $220 Nikes, Phil Knight — as if on cue — was honored, named to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

He’ll enter as a “Contributor.” He certainly has been that.

Faldo’s safe ‘armor’

On Cue Ii: Also Friday, on NBC’s Golf Channel, Nick Faldo, who also works for CBS, was calling the Peter HansonBrandt Snedeker match when Hanson won the hole to go 3-up.

“No chinks in Peter Hanson’s armor, is there today?” Faldo said.

Whoa. Though neither Hanson nor Snedeker are Asian, there were Asian players in the tournament, Asians in the gallery, Asians in the TV audience. And though Faldo’s comment was almost certainly innocent, let’s err on the side of caution and suspend his sorry butt anyway.

CBS and NBC can issue a joint statement defending Faldo’s comment as “inadvertent” and “not intended to offend,” then slap a “Racist” sticker on his forehead and make him parade the village square. Hey, why not?

Odd, I’ve heard the expression used thousands of times applied to thousands of things — except, perhaps a real chink in real armor.

Braun case a brain teaser

This Ryan Braun case is a tough call. His body type never changed, his tests were negative, then suddenly went through the roof, then as suddenly returned to negative. And there’s the undisputed claim that the Brewers outfielder’s positive sample sat somewhere for two days.

Of course, MLB said it disagreed with the ruling in favor of Braun. What was it supposed to say, “We’d have preferred that his sample had been accounted for and immediately shipped, the way they should be, but so what”?

Put it this way: Given the particulars, no DA would seek an indictment of Braun, let alone prosecute him. Besides, we knew he’d beat the rap the moment Mike Francesa declared he wouldn’t.

* TNT’s Saturday night NBA All-Star “experience” opened with Nets part-owner Jay-Z and Kanye West performing “Niggas in Paris.” Come on, David Stern, fearless leader, recite the lyrics for us.

* Dave Maloney, during MSG’s Rangers TV postgame Saturday, characterized a trade rumor as — ugh — “retarded.” Minutes later and looking shaken, he apologized.

* Holy, Donna Shalala! Glenn Sharpe, the NFL defensive back who Friday was charged with a shooting murder, was a student-athlete at Miami. Shock to the system.

* Reader James Hickey of Merrick submits: “If Jeremy Lin falters, would the phenomena be considered a case of temporary Linsanity?”