"It was Vaccaro who advised agents during the ABA-NBA wars of the 1970s, who launched Nike's Air Jordan empire in the 1980s, and who ushered in the professionalization of youth basketball in the 1990s, when players such as Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, both of whom signed shoe deals brokered by Vaccaro, turned high school games into auditions for the NBA." . . . . .