Dozens of the nation’s top high school basketball players may have jeopardized their eligibility when they played in a Nike-sponsored all-star tournament in Oregon this month, including Simeon senior Bryant Notree and Farragut sophomore Ronnie Fields.
By attending the two-day tournament, which supplemented Nike’s annual summer camp, the 36 players may have violated high school rules governing all-star game participation and amateur eligibility.
Accepting money or gifts-such as the $100 gift certificate Nike gave the players-is a violation of amateur status rules in all 50 states governed by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Notree says he was instructed not to accept anything and that neither he nor Fields did.
Nike held the two-day, four-game tournament in Beaverton, Ore., on Sept. 11-12, after the start of the school year, to meet NCAA regulations. But Nike apparently didn’t check with the National Federation or its 50 state associations to see if the tournament violated their rules.
Jim Flynn, the Assistant Executive Director of the Illinois High School Association, said the IHSA is looking into the matter and that Notree and Fields could be in danger of losing their eligibility for a year.
