John Paul Vaccaro (born September 23, 1939 in Trafford, PA) is an iconic sports marketing executive best known for his tenure with Nike, where he signed Micheael Jordan to his first sneaker contract.
He is also a former top marketer at Adidas and Reebok. He founded the ABCD All America Camp which operated from 1984 to 2007, featuring the top high school basketball prospects in the country and also founded, with Pat DiCesare, the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic, which was the first national high school all-star game. He is often referred to as the “godfather of grassroots hoops” and is credited as the man behind the O’Bannon antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA which sought athletes’ rights to their names, images and likenesses.