Since not every player in the NBA can get a signature shoe deal, players will often lace up the sneakers of an opposing player. This is just a funny but necessary part of the league as players wear shoes based on comfort and feel as opposed to who actually endorses it.
However for the recently retired Paul Pierce, if you were his teammate, you were strictly forbidden from wearing an opponent’s shoe. More specifically, Pierce wouldn’t allow his teammates to wear LeBron James’ signature Nike sneakers.
Gortat on what he learned from Paul Pierce: “Not to wear LeBron James’s shoes to practice.” He mentioned some other things, too.
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) September 28, 2015
When Pierce played for the Boston Celtics, he had several heated battles with James, so this may have contributed to his disdain for teammates wearing the superstar’s shoes. But according to Pierce, it wasn’t just James’ shoes he wouldn’t allow his teammates to wear.
“Well it wasn’t just LeBrons,” Pierce told Nice Kicks. “[Gortat] had the LeBron’s on and I was like ‘Ain’t no way you’re going to wear them. They are our Eastern Rivals.’ The only shoes I would probably allow were Kobe’s, because he was in the Western Conference and that was after I left Boston. I wasn’t a fan of players wearing other players shoes, especially if we had to face them. Because if you ever heard interviews with LeBron, he would say if I see a player on the court that got my shoes on, I know I got ’em.”
Pierce is referring to a 2015 interview James did with GQ, where he said he used opponents wearing his shoes to his advantage:
“I used to see guys wear MJ’s shoes when they played against MJ and I was like “MJ got a little mental edge over those guys.”
So for me, now being in that MJ class, I’m like, if I see a guy wearing my shoes, if he’s not like a real good brother of mine – because you know I’ve got some guys that are Team LeBron and that’s what we do – but if you’re just a guy and you go to Foot Locker or somewhere and you just get a pair of LeBrons and you want to wear them on a Tuesday night against me? I’m gonna bust your a**.”
Leave it to Pierce to take a rivalry with opponents to such an extreme that it involves his teammates’ choice of sneakers.
(Pierce spoke with Nice Kicks as part of his partnership with Barilla pasta)
