Michael Jordan no longer gets to decide who wears the shoes that bear his name, thanks to the NBA.
The Hornets owner has been banned from deciding who receives Nike's Air Jordan brand shoe endorsement deals by the league, according to ESPN.
NBA says MJ can't choose who gets a Jordan shoe deal because of cap rules. (At least 6 Hornets have gotten Jordan deals in last 7 years.)
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 25, 2015The decision to disallow Jordan to give out shoe deals stems from the NBA's concern that such endorsements could be used to skirt the league's salary cap because of Jordan's conflict of interest as Hornets owner.
The Air Jordan brand is currently endorsed by players like Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook, as well as current Hornets Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Cody Zeller. It accounted for more than half of all basketball shoes sold last year.
Nike itself owns 95.5 percent of the basketball shoe market, according to Forbes.