words // Darren Griffin:
Saturday before completing a sweep of the Boston Celtics, a video surfaced of LeBron James pulling off an amazing full court shot. Tossing the ball overhand like a football, Bron hit up his teammates for a few bucks with a bet he almost assuredly knew he’d win. Cool, right? Well, being that we live in a one upsmanship society, not even an hour later the Houston Rockets Twitter uploaded a video of Dwight Howard doing almost exactly the same thing. However, Howard’s shot may have been even more impressive considering he did so underhanded. But, for those who looked closely, the shot wasn’t even the most interesting part of the clip.
Dwight was wearing a pair of Air Jordan 1s, which brings about a barrage of questions. First off, why is Dwight wearing Jordans and not his signature line of adidas? And maybe even more important, why was he wearing Jordan’s in a video that he undoubtedly wanted everyone to see as he upstaged James? With his signature deal with adidas coming to a close this fall, this entire ordeal is very telling. Is Dwight preparing to sign with Jordan Brand? Did he jump the gun and preview his new deal?
It’s also worth mentioning that New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday – a recently departed adidas athlete – has also been spotted rocking Jordans on court in the NBA Playoffs. Even though Jrue isn’t the biggest Three Stripes athlete, and Dwight’s signature line with adidas has been underwhelming at times, this is still a major threat for adidas. Nike/Jordan Brand bolstering their roster from past adidas personnel should be a alarming concern. Need we mention Kobe Bryant? Needless to say, the NBA Playoffs have been uniquely interesting far before just wins and losses. Stay woke.
