About halfway through the new HBO Sports documentary “Student Athlete,” Kentucky basketball player Nick Richards — a high school senior at the time — shows up at the Dean Playground in Brooklyn for a Nike-sponsored youth league game.
Richards, who had just participated in an Under Armour all-star event, tells St. Patrick’s High School coach Chris Chavannes that there’s a problem: He has no Nike shoes to play in.
“You’re wearing an Under Armour shirt on camera,” Chavannes whispers to Richards. “Are you kidding me?”
St. Patrick’s, you see, wears Nike. More specifically, because of state high school association and NCAA rules, Chavannes has a contract with Nike so that’s what his players are supposed to wear.