So what brand shoes do some of the guys left off the team wear? Guys like Joe Johnson, Shane Battier, Tyson Chandler, Mike Miller? If none of them wore Nike brand shoes either they might be onto something.
Conspiracy? That article said it was Nike photo, why would Nike advertise a competitors brand for free? Nothing wrong with covering up the adidas logo, it's a good business practice by Nike if anything.
Now on the other hand Howard should have never let this happen, adidas is paying him millions, he's gotta rep his brand! He should have refused to be photographed like that. What could the photographer have done then? You can't have a team photo without Howard, and then if Howard refused to let the photographer hide is adidas logo, and was then left out of the photo (probably with a claim he missed the photo shoot or something) think of the story then once it leaked to the media, that would be great and probably generate even more good pub for adidas (and negative pub for Nike as they would come off as a corrupt, heartless corporation) and make Howard look like a great guy to sponsor your products and maybe raise Howard's marketability considerably. Howard is just too much of a marshmallow though to have stood up for his brand like that. Think if someone tried to do that to Gilber Arenas, that would never fly, he'd blab it to everyone.