By Adam Zagoria | Special to the Arizona Daily
The college basketball season is a few weeks away, but talk of “Sneaker Wars” began to heat up Tuesday in a wood-paneled courtroom.
Arizona and Oregon, both Nike and Pac-12 schools, were mentioned prominently during opening statements in the federal trial against three men accused of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Prosecutors say former Adidas executive Jim Gatto, former Adidas employee Merl Code and would-be agent Christian Dawkins defrauded so-called “victim schools” Kansas, Louisville, Miami and N.C. State, all of which are sponsored by Adidas.
Defense attorneys told Judge Lewis A. Kaplan and the jury that Arizona and Oregon were willing to pay for recruits who were also being sought by the Adidas schools. Defense attorneys painted their clients as products of — and pawns in — “Sneaker Wars.”
