The Shoes of My Life

My basketball career was nothing to completely brag about but it had its moments! It included a few trips to state tourneys including a 3rd place my junior year in what will stick in my mind as one of the greatest comebacks ever! I also became a favorite of a local sports anchor who gave me a ton of face time for my classic white boy long range shooting ability. You may have heard of the guy since he now sits in as an anchor on ESPN, Dari Nowkhah.

So besides my fun time playing what I truly enjoyed was all the fantastic shoes I was able to wear throughout my years playing. I found photos of most of my favorites although there are still a few out there I was unable to track down.


Nike Air Team Max Zoom

I rocked this shoe for an entire summer and loved it. Mine was actually black on black with the neon green air bubble and was one of the best shoes I've ever worn performance-wise. This shoe actually led me to a Spokane basketball camp MVP and Chip. Woohoo!



Nike Air Raid


This was my 5th grade every day shoe but for some reason Nike decided to call it a basketball shoe. Not only was this the heaviest damn shoe ever created, it was also way ahead of of its time for looks. Many thought it was ugly as hell, but damn did I think I was fly. Sure enough, years later, it's fashion!



Nike Air MZ3


This was a fantastic looking shoe with the metallic ball and red bubble accent. I do remember the top rim becoming a little uncomfortable if you laced them up too tight but this was a shoe you could rock on the street and not just the court.



Nike Air Force Metal Max


This shoe ranks in my top 3 for performance of all time. Mine were actually all white, but I wore this shoe until the sole practically fell off. See back in the day, Nike wasn't re-releasing shoe after shoe and once your shoe was beat to death, you couldn't just pick up another pair. And don't forget these shoes came with colored straps!



Air Jordan 11


My favorite Jordan of all time! The patent leather! The gummy sole! This was my color scheme and I actually held on to these for years and tried to keep wearing them even after my foot outgrew them. I'm sure Jordan aficionados will disagree with me but this shoe looked so fly and performed at the same time.



Air Jordan 9


Probably my least favorite Jordan of all time was the Air Jordan 9. This shoe looked crazy but was the worst game shoe I've ever worn. No grip, and not much support ruined this shoe for me. Now would I wear this one out at night? For sure, but never again on a basketbal court.



Air Jordan 8


Another amazing Jordan that performed as well as it looked. The double straps with the mini carpet piece on the tongue was so hot! My color scheme was with the red accent instead of the grey (pictured) but was still just as fly. A top 5 choice for sure.



Air Jordan 6


One of the all time best looking shoes! This was my color scheme but there are so many out there to choose from now that you just can't go wrong. The sole did turn a nasty yellow color after a few months on the street but what an amazing shoe on or off the court. Loved 'em!



Air Jordan 4


My current shoes! How amazing are these? I'd have to rank them in my top 5 for comfort, looks and performance. I love this shoe and I baby it like crazy. This shoe will never touch asphalt and will only show itself on the hardwood.

Nike Air Force Supreme 90

My current outdoor court shoe! It's not a bad shoe and definitely carries a lot of support. The white, blue and red color scheme is not my favorite but I got these bad boys for like $50 bucks on Eastbay right before the summer 3on3 tournies started last year.



Nike Air Adjust Force


Another amazing shoe from Nike that let you personalize before Nike iD existed. Of course I had my high school team colored straps and thought I was hot as hell! This was amazing on the court and still carried itself off and will always rank high with me.

Once I find the rest of my favorites, they'll be added! Stay tuned...

NBA All-Star Game: All About the Shoes!

As a kid growing up watching the NBA All-Star game, one of my favorite things was always to see which shoes would be showcased by the stars that year. Michael Jordan always had a fresh color scheme on his current Air Jordan and Shaq even brought out the cell phone shoe one year.

This year could be one of the best All-Star shoe showcases ever with some very significant shoe lines out. This year marks the release of the Air Jordan 23 and the 100th anniversary of Converse. The biggest hit will obviously be the Jordan's with this possibly being the last year ever for the Air Jordan and with a very limited supply released to the public. Carmelo Anthony will be wearing a special color scheme known as the 'Air Jordan 23 All-Star' that should get all those Air Jordan collectors a little too happy.

And don't forget about Yao Ming! He'll even have on a signature pair of his Reebok ATR Elite II's and are rumored to feature a dragon. Dwyane Wade will also have a new shoe out with the release of the WADE 3 by Converse.

"The WADE 3 was designed around the No. 3 being significant in my life," Wade said. "It carries into this weekend with this being my third year in a row to be named an all-star starter."

Here is a look at the 2005 All-Star game shoes just to give you an idea of what to expect. Some 2006 versions and more from ESPN.com. Here was the 2007 Adidas All-Star lineup.

The Nike Zoom Kobe III

The Nike Zoom Kobe III's will be released sometime in February (around the 8th) and the pictures of the various color schemes are starting to dominate the internet shoe sites. Rice High School, a Nike Kobe sponsored program, just received their specific colorway's with black patent, green cage, yellow mesh, and a dominant yellow swoosh. The shoe looks great, but these high school releases have a reputation of never being released to the public. I actually saw some guy spamming a forum telling the world he'd pay $1000 for them!

These new ZKIII's have been receiving all kinds of mixed reactions. All I know is this should be one of the lightest shoes ever made, and Kobe's actually been wearing these, unlike the Kobe II.

Kobe ran a special pre-release of the shoe on December 22nd at the House of Hoops in Harlem and in China where he revealed the new shoe and also gave a few lucky fans a chance to purchase the limited edition ZKIII "China." I believe he even autographed a couple pairs; still not sure why he couldn't just give a few away!

Gil2Zeros...could have been a classic.

You've got to give it up to Gil Arenas this year and the shoe line he put out through Adidas. The Gil2Zero or Gil 20 is the newest creation from the ever clever Agent Zero. The "20" comes from the 18 different releases of the show along with 2 more that will meet the requirements of David Stern at the uniform committee.

Here are the release dates and different versions:

Adidas GilIIZero Release Dates

Cust0mize: Nov. 23, 2007
Agent Zero: Dec. 5, 2007
Vote for Gilbert: Dec. 7, 2007
NBA LIVE 08: Dec. 13, 2007
DC Football: Dec. 29, 2007
Coke Zero: Jan. 11, 2008
Halo: Feb. 8, 2008
Black President: Feb. 10, 2008
Looney Tunes - Bugs: Feb. 11, 2008
Looney Tunes - Tweety: Feb. 13, 2008
SLAM Magazine: Feb. 19, 2008
THREEZERO: Feb. 26, 2008
Cuba: Mar. 21, 2008
Channel Zero: Mar. 25, 2008
Gilwood: Mar. 30, 2008
UNDRCRWN: April 4, 2008
Hibachi: ???

Such a brilliant idea, and the shoe is actually pretty ill. Most Adidas shoes tend to turn me right off but they actually seemed to know what they were doing with this line of sneakers. Most of the Gil 20's are limited releases that can be found at special locations throughout the country. The current release is the DC Football version (which of course is in Redskin colors) and the release locations can be found on Gil's blog here.

This shoe probably would have been a huge hit except Gil hasn't played since November 16th. He had offseason knee surgery and had not fully recovered by the time the season started so the knee just wasn't ready to go. He had some fluid issues with it and decided to go back under the knife to clean it up a bit and has been out since. You can bet that if he was still playing this shoe would be everywhere! It really is too bad, hopefully he can have another great idea like this next year and we can see some more fantastic shoe designs from Adidas and Mr. Arenas himself. His expected return time was supposed to be in February but he has danced around that date lately. Hope to see him soon, he definitely brings a little more excitement to the NBA! Hibachi!