Nike is bringing high school players to the White House to stop them from wearing Under Armour

How far will Nike go to stop its best high school players from wearing Under Armour gear on TV? An all-expense paid trip to the Bahamas isn’t enough. This year Nike is bringing a 12-man team to the White House before it flies off to the Caribbean to play the Bahamian National Team, according to Adam Zagoria.

It’s all in an effort to stop Under Armour from poaching Nike kids to play in their Elite 24 game Saturday on ESPNU.

The current iteration of grassroots basketball -- commonly referred to as AAU -- works something like this: Nike, Adidas and Under Armour each run spring and summer leagues for the top high school players in the country. Players pick one league and stick with it for the year. The exception happens in All-Stars games like the Jordan Brand Classic, the Nike Hoops Summit and the Under Armour Elite 24.

Under Armour Elite 24 is Saturday, and it needed star power. That meant trying to get Nike kids to play. It’s worked in the past. Remember this picture of former Nike star and now incoming Duke freshman Harry Giles from UA Elite 24 two years ago?

Nike organized another event as an effort to stop its kids from playing in the UA game. As if last year’s trip to the Bahamas wasn’t enough, now there’s a White House visit attached.

Here’s the roster that was announced for the Elite 24 game earlier this week. Billy Preston, Kevin Knox, Hamidou Diallo and Brandon McCoy are all Nike players. Jaylen Hoard and Zion Williamson are both Adidas players.

Zagoria reported the list of players Nike secured for its trip, and McCoy and Preston are both part of it. The top two prospects in the country, DeAndre Ayton (read our feature on him from this spring) and Michael Porter Jr. (read our feature on him from Tuesday) aren’t playing in either event. Both are Nike players.

Consider the latest chapter in the ongoing Shoe Warz between the two companies. It only seems to get more heated with each passing year.