My Shoe Deal

Although I consider myself very good with numbers, I'm beginning to believe that I couldn't be LeBron James' accountant. Between the money he's getting from Cleveland, Nike, Upper Deck and Vitamin Water, I'm pretty sure my head would explode. During his recent 60 Minutes interview he stated that he wanted to turn the name LeBron into "a billion dollar industry" and I believe he's well on his way.

Playing against two of his childhood friends, and seeing the sneakers that Romeo Travis had on, the personalized highschool edition LeBron's got me wondering about the coolest professional athlete shoe I ever owned. My list is based solely on personal experience and is only limited to shoes I owned. Right away that removes many options because, as anyone who really knows me knows, I don't really invest a lot of money on sneakers. However, here were the five pair, in reverse order, that I will never forget owning.



#5 The Allen Iverson Questions
I should have probably kept the list at 4 because I didn't really like these sneakers that much, probably because they weren't made for big men and during the awkward time that I got them I'm pretty sure they weren't meant to be sold in size 13...never the less they just got on the list


#4 The Patrick Ewings
Although mine were all black, these sneakers remind me of my dad and all of his friends going to the courts off of 2nd Ave and 155th St. in Harlem and playing ball every Sunday morning. My dad and I had matching pair and it was an excuse to get out of church...those were the days


#3 Nike Air Griffey Max
During that transition where I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be the next "Big Hurt" or "Big Dog" I got my parents to get the coolest baseball shoe on the planet. My baseball career then took a, Daryl Strawberry turn for the worse, minus the cocaine and hookers


#2 Reebok Shaqnosis
Wow, even though this shoe will forever remind me of that scene in Men In Black, I can only think of one shoe I ever liked more than this (obviously my number 1) but for it's time period this simple, basic ass design just hypnotized me, and everyone else that saw it. These need to make a comeback.


#1 The (Patent Leather) Jordan XI's
I don't know whether it was the comfort or the look, possibly a combination of both, but if I could have bought 100 pairs of these shoes in each color, I'd wear them for the rest of my life. True Story. Jordan's are unique in the fact that you can play ball in them and also wear them to the club. Having read his book "Driven from Within" also just gives me a greater insight as to the mindset when creating his shoes and therefore I don't ever see this shoe losing it's spot.