Hoop Dreams and Sneaker Realities

The National Basketball Association turned 50 at the beginning of the 1996-97 season amid much fanfare. To commemorate the event, TNT broadcast a two-hour television special and I--diligent sports fan that I am--was forced to watch.

One segment stood out for me, and surprisingly enough, it dealt with advertising.

In the middle of the engrossing Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson portion of the show, an old advertisement for Converse basketball shoes came on. If memory has failed you, this was really one of the first star-specific basketball shoe ads to hit the airwaves.

It starts off with Magic pulling up to a basketball court in a limousine as Larry Bird is shooting hoops. There is some jawing and some challenges exchanged, but this really wasn't what struck me. It was the shoes.

The Larry Bird shoes were very emblematic of him style of play--simple and workmanlike. The shoes were almost completely dark-green--almost black--with white trim. That was about it. Larry's picture didn't appear anywhere. Neither did his number. It looked exactly like the shoes of everybody else on the Celtics during those days--very dark, very simple.

Magic's kicks were a little more flashy, as was his style of play, and more importantly, his team. The basic black of the Larry shoes were replaced with the bright yellow and purple of the Los Angeles Lakers. This was Showtime, and these shoes exemplified that. They were unmistakably the shoes of the Lakers, but not unmistakably the shoes of Magic Johnson. Again, the colors were the predominant feature, not an artistic rendering of Magic's huge grin.

The bottom line was that these shoes were as much about the teams as they were about the players, which exemplified the NBA during its glory years of the 1980s. Players were identified prominently with their teams--Larry and the Celtics, Magic and the Lakers, Dr. J with the 76ers--and fan bases were built up through the success of a consistent group of players. From year to year, a fan knew that the same core group of players was going to make up their team.

Then Michael Jordan happened.

Michael was and is a great player. In my eyes, however, his success has signaled the downfall of the NBA. The path of this can be seen by looking at the metamorphosis of the Air Jordan basketball shoe.

When the Nike Air Jordan--or the Sky Jordan as it was first called--was introduced, it was more identifiable with the Bulls than with Michael himself. The color concept was red and black, like the Bulls' colors and maybe a simple "23" adorned the shoe, I can't recall. Again, the shoes represented the team more than the player. But Michael was a spectacular player on a decidedly unspectacular team. This forced Nike to be more creative in its marketing.

And so the Air Jordan developed. Soon there was an artistic rendering of Mike dunking on the sole of the shoe. The colors soon moved from that simple, team-oriented black and red to purple and green to some strange rainbow-flavored peace ensemble. The shoe--and the player--distanced itself from the team, leaving them behind to flounder in the wake of marketing run amok.

And so has the NBA moved away from the team concept and into the world of individuals seeking to maximize their marketability. We really need not look beyond Shaquille O'Neal. Here is a larger-than-life figure that has moved beyond the basketball court into acting and rapping and without being able to shoot free-throws or win a championship or MVP. I mean, when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was starring in "Airplane!", he had some success under his belt.

Moreover, Shaq told his team, and the city that had made him who he was, to piss off as he went to L.A. for a $120 million contract via free agency. The decision wasn't because of the tradition of Lakers' big men or the past glory of Showtime, it was to make some extra cash and be closer to the studios so that Shaq can record a couple of rap tracks during halftime.

Maybe I was spoiled growing up in Massachusetts during the 1980's. Maybe my thinking is flawed. But I remember the days when players felt allegiance to their team. Larry, Kevin, D.J., Danny and the Chief were in the Celts starting lineup forever, or so it seemed. The same with Magic, Byron, Coop, Worthy and Kareem. Other teams like the Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers had consistency in their lineups as well. It wasn't about the money, it was about winning. It may be a myth, but I remember a story of Larry Bird walking into contract negotiations with Red Auerbach and before Red said a word Larry supposedly signed a blank contract telling Red to fill in the salary. It is inconceivable to imagine anyone doing that today.

So I look at the NBA today and I see Dennis Rodman, J.R. Rider, Larry Johnson, Shaq O'Neal and other talent for hire and I pine for the old days, as a 19-year-old. Watching those old highlights of the 1980's during the TNT special literally gave me chills while the current clips simply depressed me.

It's gotta be the shoes, man.