Bill Sumner Interview
© NIKE Inc .
Were the athletes more approachable back then ?
Oh yeah . Charles Barkley was a great guy . After a shoot one time he said , “ I need some new clothes . You ’ re gonna have to come and tell me what I look good in .” The crew and I hopped in the back of a limo with him and went speeding around Philly to the Big & Tall men ’ s stores and he was trying on this and that and we had a good time . Afterwards , we went out for dinner and a few drinks and he was just a really nice guy . I shot Kevin Durant for Nike a year or two ago . Now the deals are for ‘ X ’ number of millions of dollars and they ’ re required to do five shoots during the course of a whole year . The shoot can only be so long and involve so many things . It ’ s very specified . What happens is you get a guy in and the brands want to do everything at once . The athlete is just going this way and that way . They ’ re saying he has to be here for this and then over there for a wardrobe change for the fashion stuff . Then they ’ re going to be in this TV commercial and they get it all done in one day . You really don ’ t have time to socialize or do those extra things anymore . Most of these guys are really nice though . Even John McEnroe . It was always interesting from that point of view . I enjoyed the time I spent working with them .
Your John McEnroe “ James Dean ” Nike poster is one of the most iconic Nike images of all time .
Yes , I did “ Rebel With A Cause ” with John . That was a fun one . We were in the beginning stages of merging images together so it looked
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