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The End of the AND1 Dynasty |
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Written by Joseph Vecsey
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Friday, 08 June 2007 |
 The AND 1 dynasty no longer reigns supreme. Ten players from the pioneering squad have bolted to form their own Ball4Real Tour, including Spyda, Main Event, AO, Shane The Dribbling Machine, 50, High Octane, Air Up There, Circus, Pharmacist, Special FX and Half Man Half Amazing. I’ll Be Right Back long overdue for being signed to AND 1 and Main Event protégé Killa Kirby also are on the new tour, called Ball4Real, and the players have an ownership stake in the project. The new group says it will hit 30 cities this summer, 20 colleges this fall, plus 25 international events. Meanwhile, AND 1 says it is going back outside to the playground this summer, touring 10 major cities with remaining players Professor, Hot Sauce, Helicopter, Baby Shack, Bad Santa, The Assassin, Escalade, Go Get It, 8th Wonder, Springs and Silk. AND 1 also says it has 20 international events lined up. “We’ve assembled the best AND 1 team ever,†says the company’s marketing director, Mark Woolsey...
AND 1 began in ‘93 as a school project by three students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school. Soon they expanded from trash-talk T-shirts to sneakers, which may well have ended up next to Kangaroos in the history books if not for some grainy footage of the skinny Cardozo HS graduate Rafer “Skip To My Lou†Alston running amok at the Entertainers Basketball Classic. From that point on, the AND 1 Mix Tape series and tour became synonymous around the world with the new style of “streetball†that transformed basketball the way the ‘70s blacktop warriors revolutionized the game.
AND 1 peaked in ‘03, raking in $175 million in revenue and recording chart-busting ratings on ESPN. In ‘05 the company was sold to American Sporting Goods, maker of Avia and other lesser-known shoes, for an undisclosed sum. As ASG took over, many longtime AND 1 employees were pushed out and resentments began to build on the most famous team of playground stars ever assembled.
One of the last original executives left was Lisa Fusco, who handled the tour. In ‘06 she tried to buy the Mix Tape brand with investors and keep AND 1 as the title sponsor. Fusco wanted to build and freshen the Mix Tape property, while AND 1 would still get the advertising exposure and the players endorsing the brand. But that deal fell through, so Fusco started Street Ball Entertainment and Ball4Real, taking many of the players with her and making them part owners.
AO, one of the players who made the Mix Tape tour flourish, said he went with Fusco because she was responsible for AND 1’s success. “I didn’t believe that whoever they brought in or whatever they were trying to do was going to be the equivalent to what she did, and now AND 1 only has a ten-city playground tour, which is definitely not the same thing as what we’re doing,†AO said.
“It’s a better situation with Lisa,†said Shane the Dribbling Machine, “because now we are part owners of something we started. For them to be bringing it back outside is like moving backwards.â€
Another conflict was AND 1 locking players into an apparel deal. AO wasn’t able to do certain modeling gigs and Main Event felt restricted while working with his own multi-faceted company. â€You have to be true to your hustle,†Main said in explaining why he left, “because if you ain’t true to that, than you’re not true to yourself.â€
Back at AND 1, the company described the seismic changes as simply a shift in focus. “AND 1 has been the key driver of streetball and its growing popularity and we want to take the Mix Tape tour back to where it all began-outdoors, on the street,†says Woolsey. AND 1 marketing executive Steve Wright says they want to focus on signing more NBA endorsers: “We lost some of the respect we had gained as being a major player in the NBA as well as in the high school front.â€
Returning to the playground sounds like a great move, but there is more to the story. New owners often seek to cut costs, and while the Mix Tape tour is a fantastic marketing tool, it has never been profitable. AND 1 would not make any of its players available for interviews without a company executive on the line, and the company declined to comment on Fusco’s departure.
One recently departed exec said AND 1 was considering a deal to sell shoes at Payless, which would make big money but damage the brand as a legitimate playground product. (Woolsey said AND 1 “partners with a variety of retailers…to make our products more accessible to consumers.â€) According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site, AND 1 also trademarked Taurian “Air Up There†Fontenette’s nickname, prompting him to change his name to “Mr. 720.†It’s ironic that AND 1 is releasing the 720 mid and having players wear it this summer, but they don’t have the player who performed the famous 720 dunk.
AO says that if Fusco and all the players had stayed, AND 1 would have been back in arenas this summer. Woolsey responded that outdoors “is the most authentic environment for streetball.†At press time, Ball4Real had Mountain Dew as the main sponsor, plus Wrigley’s and also Steve and Barry’s, maker of the Starbury shoe. AND 1 had Old Spice, Gatorade and Wrigley’s.
Still, AND 1 has kept some talented and well-known players. Hot Sauce is one of the originals and has entertained fans for years with his innovative moves. The Professor is in Will Ferrell’s movie Semi-Pro and is up for the lead role in the upcoming basketball film Ball Don’t Lie. Springs can do a through-the-legs dunk from the foul line. Six of the 11 guys on the team have played D-1. Mark Edwards, who manages Escalade, Professor and Springs, said that AND 1 gave his players guaranteed three-year, six-figure deals and hand-delivered them bonus checks. (Ball4Real also offered three-year deals, worth anywhere from $40,000 to $300,000.) And the ten dates AND 1 plays this summer should be blowout events. The company says it is building outdoor courts in every city, with the first stop in Coney Island, New York. Don’t forget, they also have almost 30 cities overseas plus two shows still running on ESPN.
“I went to a Knick game earlier this year and I didn’t see Willis Reed starting at the five,†said Escalade. “Earl Manigault is dead, Joe Hammond is limping around Harlem, does that mean we still can’t do our thing?â€
AO says Ball4Real will do it better. “You don’t get any more entertaining than me and Shane,†he said. “The guys we got really know how to keep the show going. Who’s going to make sure Go Get It, Helicopter, and Assassin gets their dunks? Hot Sauce just wants to get his tricks off, Professor just wants to get his, Baby Shack just wants to get his, Silk is a 1-on-1 player, and their newest guy Springs is one dimensional. Headache, Sik Wit It, Shane and myself all sacrificed our moves to get those guys the ball, so who’s gonna do it now?â€
Shane, Main Event and AO still have love for the remaining AND 1 stars, but they also feel a little betrayed. “A main reason the other players who signed with AND 1 are getting that money offered to them is because we turned it down,†AO said. “AND 1 was only trying to sign 10 or 11 guys.â€
Only time will tell what will happen with these two competing and equally exciting tours. The game is big enough for both of them. AND 1 is the defending champ and the established brand. It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction Ball4Real gets from fans. My prediction is that both tours will succeed in different ways. But it does seem that Ball4Real, which is planning its own TV shows, is moving forward more aggressively than AND 1. Personally, I feel that there’s no one like the true originals who started the AND 1 tour-Main Event, Half Man, AO, Hot Sauce, Shane, Headache and I’ll Be Right Back. They were the first ones whose moves I rewound and imitated. So even if the new version of the legendary tour does well, it will never be the same.
Bounce Magazine |
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