The shoes take inspiration from when Minnesota had a basketball team in the Lakers. They take on the home and away themes from the uniforms they had and takes additional pieces of what “MLPS” basketball was and will be. The two “X”’s in the shoes also mark the twenty years the Cal Surf shop has been in business. The shoes will go on sale in a couple of weeks at the store and online at Cal-Surf.com and only 100 will be available. Take a look at what Evilone has designed after the jump.

Reebok Basketball has been on a bit of a skid lately in the basketball arena with fewer and fewer All-Stars wearing their products. Li-Ning has stepped up it’s marketing muscle by signing Davis who will now play in a huge market in Los Angeles and will have his own signature sneaker with Li-Ning something Reebok never got done.

Complex has just posted a wrap up of MAGIC’s finest worst ripoff kicks. Check out all the suspects and victims here.

This is a bit of a surprise for me seeing that Nike and Kidd have long had a relationship. Recently Nike has released the Zoom Flight 95 (the shoes Kidd wore in his rookie year), Zoom Flight Five (his first signature shoe), as well as a ton of Jason Kidd color themed sneakers at the House of Hoops. Possibly Nike had a feeling that Kidd wasn’t looking to renew his contract with them and wanted to get the last dose of Jason Kidd shoes out while they could.

With not many seasons left for Jason Kidd, let’s hope that an ankle injury from K-Mart quality footwear doesn’t force him to hang up his kicks. More shots after the jump. Info from Kenlu.

A group of filmmakers from Australia have set out to conquer this age old question. The filmmakers will be calling on the global public to help them solve this mystery and make the film. To chime in and tell them what you know, go to their site, flying-kicks.com, and there you can use Skype to leave a voice mail of what you know about hanging sneakers. Info from Sneaker Freaker.

The spirit of the Olympic Games is like none other. Countries torn with civil-conflict unite, wars are held for suspended treaty, and sportsmanship is the official language. Only a few days ago, Georgian and Russian medalists posed together for what will be remembered as a timeless photograph as their two nations were currently at war. Even war isn’t enough for the two to congratulate each other’s athletic excellence.

Today however, a photo has spread across the world that is anything but spectacular. The Spanish basketball team, including NBA stars Pau Gasol, his brother Marc Gasol, and Jose Calderon, posed for an advertisement for a Spanish courier company pulling the skin around their eyes back giving a “slit-eye” appearance while standing center-court with a Chinese Dragon beneath their feet. According to reports, the sponsor of the team requested that the team pose making a “wink and giving a smile” in one of the four photographs taken. Making matters even worse, the jerseys that the team is wearing in the photo and during the Olympic Games are made by the Li Ning - a Chinese athletic goods company.

Though the team defends that this photo was not intended to be offensive, the nation may face serious consequences. In addition to likely turning the host nation crowd against the team for the rest of the Games, the bad feelings will likely carry through this fall when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) selects the host of the 2016 Olympic Games. Of the final four cities including the Spanish capitol of Madrid.

This is not the first time that controversy has surrounded Spanish sports. In 2004, the world governing body of soccer, FIFA, fined the Spanish Football Federation after fans were heard directing “monkey chants” to a British player of African decent during a “friendly” in Madrid.

All in all, I am astonished and appalled by this. I really could not sum this up better than “That Ain’t Right.”