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Yesterday I quoted Brian Berger of Sports Business Radio who has sources saying, essentially, that there is a divide in the Durant camp. Kevin Durant (who is still wearing Nike shoes every day) is said to want to sign with Nike, while his mother and his agent -- Aaron Goodwin -- are reportedly fans of the adidas offer which is said to be higher.

I don't have special insight into the Durant camp, and the other possibility is that this just old fashioned negotiating, which can take a while for a deal of this size.

Berger and others have pointed out that Durant's value to a shoe company wanes a little with each passing day. When I first heard that line of reasoning, I questioned it, to be honest. Isn't this really a battle to put your logo on Durant's feet when he's a real star? When he's in the All-Star Game, and in the playoffs? When, essentially, he's making his bid to become the next Michael Jordan? When he has the kind of career moment that LeBron James just had a few weeks ago, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals?

Remember, the real money in sports is made not from the die-hard fans watching now, but from those moments when everyone and their brother is watching. That's when athletes are truly influential.

If you're Nike or adidas, vying to be there for the peaks of his career, do you really care what logo Durant has on his shoes the morning after the draft? (In all the draft photos, Durant is wearing a hat with a big adidas logo on it, which is a product of adidas' sponsorship of the league as a whole.) Do a couple of mediocre summer league performances in this or that pair of shoes really move the needle at all to the long-term value of the deal?

Now, however, I understand a little better.

Consider the case of adidas. Their basketball ad campaigns are all about teamwork, and cohesion. Multiple players working together as one. That's why their TV commercial shoot, which is scheduled at the end of this week in Los Angeles, will ideally feature all of their top players, like Gilbert Arenas, Dwight Howard (who is also a Goodwin client and a free agent this summer when it comes to his shoe deal -- at least until there is official word that his rumored new adidas deal is reality), Chauncey Billups, and ... wouldn't it be nice to get this done quickly ... Durant.

Summer is by far the best time to shoot TV commercials -- obviously, it's when the players have free time -- and it's probably the only chance to get all of these players in one studio together.

So you can see that it would be valuable to adidas to get this done pronto.

As it happens, Kevin Durant is already planning to be in Los Angeles later today for the taping of the ESPYS. If Durant signs an adidas deal in the next day or so, and stays a little longer in Los Angeles, he could be in those commercials as originally planned.

If not, adidas could try to shoot him later, I suppose, and edit him in? Or not have him in this campaign at all?

What's more, adidas original proposal to the Durant camp featured draft-related promotional elements that are now moot.

Maybe that amounts to a blip on the radar, maybe that's a sign of a rift in the Durant camp as Berger reported, or maybe it's something else. No idea.

Meanwhile, Durant and Goodwin have schizophrenic wardrobes. Durant is playing in the Nikes he wore in college, but I am told he is wearing adidas in his EA sports commercials with Gilbert Arenas ... it's hard to tell. Goodwin is switching back and forth between the brands on is back too.

Time is money, though in the end. This thing is dragging on a long time, and it's getting to be time to remove a big distraction from Kevin Durant's schedule, and to get on with making him a bigger and better player and pitchman.

So, I predict this will end soon. I would be very surprised if there is not a shoe deal in place this week. I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: The Kevin Durant story is kind of out of control at the moment. Darren Rovell of CNBC is poking holes in Brian Berger's reporting, but Berger is far from backing off. 

(Photo: NBAE/Getty Images)