The college basketball and sports worlds had better hope it's a workmanship error...

Officials from Nike have shown up at Duke University today, and there's a very good reason why they are there.

Wednesday night, in the college basketball Game of the Year, the game effectively ended in the first 45 seconds, when absolute Player of the Year Zion Williamson went down with an ankle injury caused when his Nike shoe split on him, causing the injury.

Duke has had an exclusive contract with Nike for various forms of shoes and other compensations since at least 2008.

--

They better hope they find it's a simple workmanship error -- which conservatives and Libertarians who oppose Nike's slave-labor policies note is a very real possibility.

That said, however, they better make sure we know about it if it is.

For one very OMINOUS reason...

If this turns out not to be a simple workmanship error, it raises the possibility someone was able to get to Williamson's shoes, tamper with them, and influence the result of the contest (Duke was no match at all for North Carolina without him, losing by 16.).

I think that's another reason Nike has sent some of it's top officials.  Stay tuned.

EDIT TO ADD 2/23/19 about midnight:  Well, there's a second reason.  Nike stock plunged 2% at the open on Thursday, shearing $1,100,000,000 off the market share of the company -- probably ALL due to the Williamson incident.