According to the complaint, Avenatti was going to show the world that Nike had engaged in the scandalous practice of paying talented, marketable athletes to wear its shoes. This, in a sane world, wouldn’t be damaging at all: Nike routinely pays athletes, including some of the biggest superstars in sports, millions of dollars to wear as many Swooshes as possible. It is only in the asinine world of college sports that engaging in such a transaction could damage anyone, or make someone like Avenatti think it might. Those criminal prosecutions are apparently what made Avenatti think the info he supposedly had on Nike was “damaging.” In effect, the feds’ investigation into college basketball “corruption” gave Avenatti the misguided idea to allegedly try to extort Nike over it. Avenatti all but admitted this on Twitter last week:

Source: Huffington Post March 26, 2019 01:07 UTC