Christmas Day, NB-Ay!

Despite the unfavorable final two minutes in the NBA marquee match-up on Christmas day, which included way too much Pau Gasol, way too many times Tony Allen thinking he could score the basketball & too many bad calls by Steve Jaffe & crew, NBA Christmas day is/was AWESOME. Five games in one day! The first sucked, I watched about 7 minutes of Orlando & New Orleans, then 11 minutes of Phoenix & San Antonio, then 46 minutes of Boston & Los Angeles, then 32 minutes of Cleveland & Washington, with one more game to go, Portland & Dallas (All times are real life time , not game time, nice clarification right?). A lot of basketball to watch in between opening presents, playing with presents, a family movie (Wanted, not good & not a family movie), trying to fix Lily's new cell phone & a long large family Christmas dinner get together. The best part of the NBA action of course has to be Craig Sager with his sweet Frosty tie, all the ridiculous outfits of inactive players & new basketball shoes!!! Shout out to BC and his awesome Christmas day NBA post & all of his web links.
Gilbert Arenas for one was wearing an ascot, which is just awesome. Sam Cassel looked ugly as always & looks like he should remain a coach. And some dude on the Cleveland bench was wearing a red velvet suit!
The end of the Spurs & Suns game was sick with Roger Mason burying a three with time expiring when the Spurs were down two. I have watched a few Spurs games this break & find them much more likeable & easier to watch. They are playing players everyone hates – Bowen, Udoka & Oberto – less, giving way to Mason, Matt Bonner & George Hill. Pop’s beard helps a lot because it is awesome, he is awesome & he is my favorite NBA coach because every time they do a Mic’d Up segment with him, he is funny. Manu is also so good. With that said, they are still pretty boring, Tim Duncan still has Dungeons & Dragons tattoos & shoots bank shots. I was still rooting for Phoenix because they have Sun Tzu!! Speaking of Amare his sneaks were amazing:


So were Sugar Ray Allen’s & all of the Celtics with their red laces. Pau’s were gross & purple, but Lamar, Trevor & Bynum all had the kind of ugly kind of cool yellow & orange hyperdunks. Kobe broke out the low-tops, which looked better on George Lopez when they showed him on TV. Rajon was rocking some Blue Chip low-tops, not that great, but Big Baby’s hyperdunks made up for them. Nick Young has some great hyperdunks, too. But Brandon Roy & LaMarcus Aldridge, as I watch the game right now, may have the coolest sneaks all day. New sneaks like these are usually revealed during the All-Star game, but the NBA provided a nice surprising present on a for the most part great Christmas day of basketball.

Evaluating The Kicks

All the hype surrounding the new Kobe IV low-top sneakers has got me thinking about sneakers even more thna I usually do. First, they aren’t true low-top’s like a Chuck T shoe; second, he isn’t going to get hurt in them; third, Steve Nash already wears “low-top’s” when he plays! When I watch a basketball game, I look out for dunks & no look passes like everyone else, but also I make sure I know how each player wears their socks and what kicks they are rocking. Ever since the Jordan era lots of basketball fans have become obsessed with sneakers. It is unbelievable to me how many of Jordan’s shoes were fire when you look at modern stars today like LeBron and Dwyane Wade wearing some pretty ugly shoes. Kobe’s, for the most part, rocks cool and unique looking sneakers, although I am not the biggest fan of him or his newest sneaker. So, what I plan to do is review the current sneakers that are circulating through college basketball & the NBA. They will be all Nike shoes, because other brands are boo boo, and they are all available at Eastbay.com, yo.Lebron IV: Just pure ugliness. For $140 I don’t think anyone really is going to purchase this sneaker. LeBron James is the best player on the planet, and maybe someday ever, and Nike cant design a decent sneaker for him? They have all been ugly except maybe for the LeBron IV, but these!, no one is wearing them in any rank of basketball except LeBron himself, and for good reason.
The Hyperdunk: A very popular shoe this summer and still throughout the NBA, with many players rocking them such as the great Rudy Fernandez & Nene, but most importantly Amare. Kobe of course sported them and jumped over a moving car in them. A way better alternative than any LeBron shoe, as they come in an assortment of colors although my favorite is the one pictured. They are light, Kael Kristof wears them, and they appeal to the vegetarian basketball players!
The Powermax: Again way too ugly. Carlos Boozer when he plays and Tyson Chandler rock the Powermax’s, but they have had injury problems all year so maybe they should switch shoes. They look good here on the Nike website, but no one should really be buying the ones available on the Eastbay website because they are terrible. They are a big man’s shoe as Varejao and Big Z are wearing them in the Cavs-Nuggets game right now, and you don’t see any cool quick guards wearing these massive kicks.
Blue Chip: Probably the best sneaker out there right now because of who wears it, the look, the price, and the coolness. You have seen the ads if you watch basketball with the young studs in the NBA, All-Cool Team Starting SG Brandon Roy who dropped 52 the other night, Deron Williams & cool dude Rudy Gay all having their own pairs. I might pick me up a pair, I only wish they were customizable on Nike ID. The picture doesn't do the Blue Chip justice.
The Huarache: Not available on Eastbay anymore for some reason but you should definitely cop these or create your own on NikeID. They have been out for a little while now, but are definitely one of the cooler shoes out there, worn by players such as LaMarcus Aldridge (I’ve been watching a lot of Blazers games lately). They may be the best looking of the basketball shoes listed here and definitely can be worn when you are heading to the club with Cheddar Bob Plaxico.