Sonny Vaccaro to Speak at Harvard Law School and Yale Law School

Sonny Vaccaro, widely-regarded as the most influential person in amateur basketball and sometimes called "The Godfather of Basketball," will be speaking at Harvard Law School tonight at 7:00 p.m. and at Yale Law School at 2:00 p.m. on Friday. Next week I will blog about his upcoming talk at the Robert H. Smith School of Business on the University of Maryland’s College Park campus on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m.

Sonny is perhaps best known for signing Michael Jordan (Nike) and Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady (Adidas) to endorsement contracts and for running the nation's most prestigious high school all-star camps and tournaments, most notably the ABCD camp. His talks will center on the NCAA's treatment of college basketball players in relation to the NCAA's mission and also on the NBA's age restriction, which requires that an amateur American player be at least 19 years old on December 31 of the year of the NBA draft and that at least one NBA season has passed from when he graduated from high school, or when he would have graduated from high school, and the NBA draft.

Harvard Law School Lecturer on Law Peter Carfagna and the law school's Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law (CSEL) will be hosting Sonny, who will be speaking in Langdell Hall North (directions to Harvard Law School/campus map). The event is open to the public. For additional information, please contact CSEL President and Harvard 2L Mike Menitove by e-mail or phone (914-582-9238). For information on attending the Yale event, please contact Ashlee Lynn by e-mail; for the same on attending the Maryland event, which, like the Harvard event, is open to the public, please contact Carrie Handwerker by e-mail.

I regret that I won't be able to attend Sonny's talk at Harvard Law tonight, as I am in Mississippi, but I will be attending his talk at Yale Law School on Friday. Full disclosure: Sonny is a good friend of mine. Having spoken with him at length just a couple of days ago, I can confirm his genuine enthusiasm and excitement over these talks. He is going to offer some comments and insight that will definitely make the headlines and wow people.

So for those of you near Harvard tonight, I strongly encourage you to get over there and see Sonny. He is truly a legend--so much so, in fact, that James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) will be playing him in the upcoming HBO movie, "ABCD camp," which will be based on Sonny's life.