Vaccaro: ‘World Wide Wes’ is No. 1 Knicks asset
NEW YORK — Sonny Vaccaro and William Wesley operated in the same sphere of basketball, sneakers and money. Vaccaro observed Wesley’s rise from runner to agent to Knicks executive, and remains impressed, even though Wesley was, in many ways, a competitor assisting a different sneaker company.
“He rises to the top,” Vaccaro said in an interview with the Daily News. “He’s had a hell of a journey.”
Vaccaro, 80, was the original power broker working in the background, capable of shifting landscapes in both the NCAA and NBA. Wesley emerged later and aligned himself with Nike, the same company that fired Vaccaro in 1991.
Vaccaro went to Adidas and then Reebok, maintaining a strong influence behind his famed ABCD camps for high-schoolers. Wesley, meanwhile, built a relationship with NBA players, most notably Michael Jordan and LeBron James, as a freelancer. He might’ve steered players to Nike or Kentucky or Memphis or Oregon, but Wesley was never officially on their payrolls.
“He was someone who could help get a player to go to camp or maybe sign a contract with a shoe company or get them to a school, and he was a good one because kids liked him. No question about that,” said Vaccaro, who once signed Jordan to Nike. “And to earn that, they had to trust him. The term ‘Uncle Wes’ was overused in a sense but that’s how he was referred to by the players and when you say something like that, that’s a pretty nice way of saying, ‘You’re close to me.’ ”
Wesley, who has spent his career rejecting attention, was named executive VP of the Knicks last month, a move that presents a unique dynamic within the organization’s hierarchy. Technically, Wesley’s boss is team president Leon Rose. However, Vaccaro explained why he believes Wesley will carry the most power.
“Wes created Leon,” Vaccaro said. “That’s not a negative thing but it is what it is.”
Broken down into simple terms, the arrangement between Wesley and Rose at CAA went like this: Wesley recruited the players, Rose officially represented them. Considering NBA agents are only as powerful as the talent they represent — and in the case of Rose, the clients included LeBron, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, among others — it’s harder to imagine Rose thriving without Wesley.
“This is not meant to be demeaning because Leon’s a smart guy, a lawyer — but without Wes, I doubt Leon would’ve gotten into CAA,” Vaccaro said. “And without CAA, I doubt he would’ve become the president of the Knicks. Wes laid the groundwork. So it was a natural when Leon got the job, the first thing I said is, ‘Well, Wes has to be whatever is the most important job with the Knicks.’ And that’s getting players. Let’s understand that.
“Knowing Wes and knowing Leon and knowing the Knicks — knowing this triangle here — there’s only one out to this. It isn’t Leon being president. It’s Wes having access to bringing players to the Knicks.”
Questions and skepticism around the league about Wesley’s hiring include, among other things, his zero experience as an executive and ability to operate under tampering rules. But Vaccaro views it as a home run for the Knicks.
“I think it’s one of the smartest moves the Knicks have made, not to demean anybody before him, because the NBA is nothing more than a recruiting situation,” he said. “They’ll be a logical explanation if somebody ends up in a Knick uniform. You have a friendly person like Wes who is close to those guys. Obviously, he’s close to all the people he helped Leon get at CAA.”
Wesley probably doesn’t have the same influence over today’s NBA megastars (there’s no connection to Giannis Antetokounmpo, for instance), but it’s worth noting that CAA clients include Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Paul and Karl-Anthony Towns.
“If there’s one job in America, as long as things happen right, the Knicks are the perfect job. Because they still are the Knicks. It’s still New York,” Vaccaro said. “Even with all the bulls*** that’s happened the last 20 years, they’ve actually still meant something.”