FanHouse Sonny Vaccaro

Take it from the pioneer who started this idea of cozy, contractual relationships between the shoe giants and the NCAA schools: adidas has screwed up this time.

Sonny Vaccaro speaks from experience.

"What a PR nightmare for adidas. This should have been a no-brainer,'' Vaccaro said. "It's nothing but a personal thing against Michael Jordan.''

At issue is the recent decision by adidas to severe its relationship with the University of Central Florida, which has a contract that requires all of its athletes and coaches to wear adidas products.

Sonny Vaccaro and B.J. Armstrong aren't advising Jeremy Tyler. They are exploiting him for their own gain.

Tyler is the 18-year-old San Diego youngster who is trying to become the first American-born student to leave high school early to play professional basketball overseas. He signed a one-year contract worth $140,000 Wednesday to play with Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Premier League.

While everyone else in his class is getting ready to start his senior year of high school, Tyler is being led down a path to a nightmare.

Jeremy Tyler, the San Diego prospect who dropped out of high school as a junior to pursue a professional career in Europe, has been looking for a team since April. The issue is not that there is no interest from the Old World, it's that handler Sonny Vaccaro wants the right fit (and the best deal).

In May, concerns were raised that Vaccaro aimed too high, that if Tyler landed on too good a team, he'd spend two years wallowing on the bench. Coaches in Europe can't afford to allow their top teams to suffer growing pains for the benefit of an American who will leave at first chance.

Well, Tyler reportedly has a team -- Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia -- and DraftExpress's Jonathan Givony thinks it's a bad idea.

It started at Sonny Vaccaro's ABCD Basketball Camp, a camp, yes, but also a meet-and-greet for street agents and young, impressionable kids. Street agents, runners, slimeball AAU coaches all start getting their hands on our kids early, and ...

"The only problem I have is the word 'slime,' '' Vaccaro said. "A lot of what you say is right. But why is that word only connected to AAU? You've got to define what that means and who you're talking about. When you say slime, that envelopes everybody."

Yes, OK. Well, Rodney Guillory met 15-year old basketball phenom O.J Mayo at the camp in 2003.

It just doesn't stop, with these slimeballs. The whole Tim Floyd story just slips and slides right off the page. Floyd, the USC basketball coach, is accused of giving $1,000 to get stud recruit O.J. Mayo a few years ago.

Another coach, another envelope of cash. But did you see the details?

Because we keep getting more examples of dirty coaches, but then we shake our heads and ignore, basically, what went into making that sausage.

Pete Thamel of the New York Times moved ahead with the intriguing Jeremy Tyler story, investigating the European recruitment process for the amateur star who will skip his senior year of high school to spend two years playing professionally aboard before entering the 2011 NBA draft.

Tyler advisor Sonny Vaccaro -- the man behind Brandon Jennings' Italian foray and a former high-powered sneaker exec -- is attempting to place the prospect with Olympiacos or Panathinaikos. Those squads happen to be among the best in all of Europe. And that poses a problem, according to draft expert Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com.