They pushed a ship off a mountain
Yes folks, that's Fitzcarraldo and the resurrection of Noah's ark in a single, booming phrase. This may be all over the sneakerwebs already, but my kicks game has been lax as fuck lately, and I suspect that not all of FreeDarko's constituency frequents Hypebeast. I don't really want to get into the Pandora's Box of cross-generational sneaker-mating this opens, or what a number this does on the parts of my memory organized according to the III-VI. I would like to instead quote the Recluse, who in a context I can't quite recall once said the following:
"Of course a Jason Williams/Chris Anderson hybid would be the best thing ever."
This now begs the question of whether the Air Jordan evolved or destroyed its past on an annual basis. . . .or whether Chris Anderson and the former Chocloat Blanc are somehow both phases of an unholy creator's master plan.
posted by Bethlehem Shoals @ 8/27/2006 10:36:00 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
On first impulse I would have voted for the newer Jordans destroying the glorious past on an annual basis. But Spike's personal Frankenstein sneaker got me thinking about my favorites, and to me the sneakers coincide pretty well with Jordan's career phases.
To me the best Jordans are stil I-V, which is the phase where Jordan was as close as he ever got to the credo of this website, his innovative phase if you want to call it that. Scoring at will, not yet caring about the team-first right-way motto, winning slam dunk titles, releasing great commercials...
He won his first title in the Jordan VI, with which the style of the shoes goes downhill for. The he came back from his baseball phase in the year of the stylistically weak Jordan X, but returned to glory with the amazing Jordan XI.
AJ's XII and XIII don't do much for me, but the XIV was great again. Of course, those were the shoes he wore when he pushed of Bryon Russell and nailed the jumper from the free throw line against the Jazz.
And if you wanted to stretch the analogy to its limits, MJ returned to the Wizards as a player wearing the AJ XVII which did a disservice to the legacy of the shoes in a similar way that old MJ did playing alongside Rip and Kwame and them.
So on second thought I'd say there has been an evolution in the shoes that mirrors the players evolution. But since this evolution was designed, opinions on the 'success' of this evolution will probably be plenty. To me the peak is the Jordan IV and V, from where it goes downhill with the second-last and last hurrah being the AJ's XI and XIV.
Yotam Halperin is about to sign with the Seattle/Ok City Sonics. It has been a couple weeks without a jewish article. Do i smell another one?
I also received one of the worst messages an online sports head can get. "Your ESPN insider account has been accessed by too many IPs." There goes my free insider. Now i have to find someone else to mooch off of. Not that insider has anything great, but i love to read the ridiculous trades that chad ford tries to make up, and the angry ramblings of bad writers. Less basketball info to read is always a bad thing though.
aug - they must've been doing a sweep - my shared account just got busted too. Unless, of course, we were on the same account.
I was just curious to read what sort of inane ramblings Sheridan had about Team USA (Shane Battier: Well, if we're uncomfortable in Japan (and we aren't) - wouldn't the Spanish and Greeks be as well?)
As to the kicks game (a big part of the basketball culture which I feel is underexplored in the realm of FreeDarko) - I wasn't a huge fan of the retro-ing of all the Jordans. On the other hand, it allowed me to purchase a much desired/are you crazy - those are $100! pair of Jordan IVs. I wasn't spending 3 figures on basketball shoes in junior high/high school.
the iv's were the sneaker i really could never have but always wanted. . .the air flight 89's were just the ones i thought that there might've be the slimmest chance of my getting. but after meaning to cop a pair of retro iv's for a while (since there's a new colorway every week this summer), i decided i like the 89's better. the iv's only look good on certain people, and on others they look like some weird, abortive eighties attempt at imagining future basketball.
my favorite favorite shoes of all time are the Air Maestros (Jason Kidd/Scottie Pippen/John Stockton - circa 1994). Not being a big fan of either Pip or Stock, but being a classmate of Kidd's (along with 5,000 other Cal undergrads) - I bought a pair of Maestros for balling in the RSF. My goodness, were they comfortable. Since the advent of being employed and eBay and whatnot I scored the internets for pairs of Maestros - buying a pair at Big 5 for $15, a deadstock pair from eBay for $80 - on and on down the list until I ended up with 9 pairs.
And then they retroed them. And I never bothered to buy a pair of retro ones - not even to play basketball in. Weird.
sqkxztd = Shaquille's kix zoom Tim Duncan
Most interesting sneaker plotline of the year: Marbury trying to become the people's champ with his low-priced shoe line.
Also, here's an expert's take on Dwyane Wade which might explain further why he's not Freedarko. Tex Winter on Wade:
"Of course, the intriguing question is, who among the modern players would make Tex’s all-time team?
How about Shaq and Kobe?
Here’s one tidbit: Miami’s Dwyane Wade is on the list. “I think he’s shown at a very early stage that he’s one of the top guards in basketball history,” Winter said. “He’s got all that talent, but what I really like about him is that he’s one of the most efficient guards to ever play the game.”
Efficient?
There have been a lot of adjectives used to describe Wade since his extraordinary NBA Finals performance, but only Winter breaks the game down in that way."
I work for the company that released Marbury's $14.98 "Starbury sneaker."
It's weird for me bc I grew up as a huge Knicks fan and can't watch what they've become, Marbury being the epitome of all things terrible with the Knicks. He refers to himself in the third person nickname tense, which is weird. Marbury says, "Larry Brown won't let Starbury be Starburym," and so forth.
I was convinced he was the reason team USA placed 3rd in the 2004 Olympics just by being on the time, nevermind the fact he was in the regular rotation.
I listen to NPR in the mornings and they had a 10 minute feature on Stabury and how he is trying to revolutinize the retail industry and play Robin Hood. He says Isiah Thomas told him he should give back to the community and Marbury now feels like he is continuing in the legacy of civil rights leaders of the 1960s.
What's FD take on this surreal life?
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