A little more detail for those that didn't see the story:

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Wednesday August 27 7:05 AM EDT

Nike Insiders Dump 467,492 Shares - WSJ

NEW YORK (Reuter) - A group of 12 Nike Inc insiders sold 467,492 shares in the company's stock last month, the Wall Street
Journal reported Wednesday in its "Heard on the Street" column.

The insiders, including Nike's president, Thomas Clarke, and its chief financial officer, Robert Falcone, sold the shares at prices
ranging from about $59 to $63 a share, the paper said in its electronic edition Wednesday.

"If you look at who sold, it was everyone who was important in the company," said Alice Ruth, an analyst at Montgomery Securities.

Nike chairman and chief executive Philip Knight was not among the sellers, the paper said.

Nike shares closed down 2/16 Tuesday at 55-3/16.
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To answer ONEBIGFOOL's question about whether this can be viewed as anything but negative - isn't that always the case with insider sales. But, when looking at insider sales, you have to consider why the insiders are selling and how much of their holdings they are selling. In the case of Nike, as of July 15, 1997, the directors & executive officers owned the following number of shares:

Class A Common 97,294,068
Class B Common 100,882,103

With sales of 467,492 shares, you can see that this is hardly a dent in management's holdings. As such, it appears to me that management is just taking the opportunity to liquidate to pay the bills for an August vacation (or it may have something to do with the recent changes in the capital gains tax rate). It may be important to note that Phil Knight, with his $2 mil per year salary, did not sell any of his shares (he owns 95.6 million shares of Class A and 95.6 million of Class B).

I hope this helps to clarify what really happened.

CouchPoDATO