Reebok Signs Three Year Old Basketball Prodigy [Will Pay for Prep School Tuition]

UK Daily Telegraph ^ | July 17, 2003 | staff report

[ewing]

A sportswear giant is signing up children as young as three years old in a bid to market its products and capture the next generation of stars.

Reebok has offered to pay the school fees of three year old Mark Walker, an amazing basketball talent.

Walker can score baskets from 10 meters out using a full sized basketball with adult sized hoops.

He is the most worrying example of a growing trend among sports companies such as Nike and Reebok.

Freddy Adu, a 14 year old soccer player in the United States, has singed a contract with nike thought to be worth 1 million dollars.

But the case of Walker, who comes from Little Summit Missouri, seems more sinister.

[ewing]

The end times are near..

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[Porterville]

I think it's great, like Mozart.

[ewing]

Bobby Knight scouted Steve Alford in the 6th grade, I think that is more than enough..

[Naspino]

He is the most worrying example of a growing trend among sports companies such as Nike and Reebok

Why is is worrying? He's not worrying me. I'm not worried about the babies and little children on TV commercials or dragged into sitcoms and movies.

[ewing]

Is this really necessary, let him be a kid!

[Mr. Jeeves]

Mark himself is confident he can make it that far and beyond. He says: "I'm the future of basketball".

Asked how he became so good so young, he said: "It's God-given talent".

These aren't the words of a three-year old, and a child that age would have trouble throwing a full-sized basketball one meter, much less putting it in to a ten-foot-high hoop from ten meters.

Did they mean to say that he was thirteen?

[TommyDale]

Doesn't the child forfeit eligibility for all high school and college sports, by his parents/guardians signing such a contract? How will he get experience, once money has changed hands? How will he get to the professionals, if he never plays as an amateur? What NBA team would draft him?

[jae471]

Nope. Three.

http://www.markwalker.reebok.com/

[Mr. Jeeves]

OK, I watched the video. The kid's got a bright future if he doesn't develop any bad habits. Note, however that the hoop is set lower than the regulation ten feet, and he didn't take any shots from further than about ten feet away from the basket - not thirty feet as the article stated.

[ewing]

I dont think there is any eligibilty requrements for some private school atletics, college is out of the question

[TommyDale]

Sure, private schools aren't a problem with eligibility, but those high school associations are tough. At least they used to be.

[Katya]

"Freddy Adu, a 14 year old soccer player in the United States, has singed a contract with nike thought to be worth 1 million dollars.

One of the biggest scandals in youth soccer is totally ignored....Freddy Adu is NOT 14!!!

Everyone in soccer knows this....he has no birth certificate, looks to be about 20 years old, and uses a baptismal certificate.
Of course they went after the little leaguers world series winners for having an over age player, but not I'm sure the scandal would be too great if they checked into soccer. Pathetic.