Draymond Green made a major adjustment just before he played his first NBA Finals game in 2015, by changing his shoes.
After spending most of the previous two seasons wearing various LeBron James models, Green eschewed superstition and switched to the Nike Hyperdunk 2014.
“It’s no mind games,” Green said of making the switch right before facing James in the Finals. “Nike sent me some white and gold shoes — Finals editions shoes — so I put ’em on.”
Green, who often found himself matched up with James during the Warriors’ first title run, had worn the LeBron X model through most of his second season, then switched to the LeBron Soldier 8 for most of his 79 regular-season games and 15 Western Conference playoff games in 2014-15.
That included a late February loss to the Cavaliers in which James torched the LeBron-wearing Green and the Warriors for 42 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists.
“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,'” James said in a GQ video later that fall.
This past season, signature sneakers took the league by storm like never before. Only 11 current players have a signature shoe with a U.S.-based basketball company like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and, yes, Big Baller Brand, while another eight have signature models with a Chinese brand. And yet, nearly 70 percent of the players who appeared in a game this season played in a signature shoe, 327 in all.
Of the players who at some point wore a signature model this season, 30 wore one of James’ current sneakers, whether it was the LeBron 15 or his Soldier 11 and Soldier 12 team shoes, ESpn reports.
As the age gap between James and players entering the league continues to widen, several younger players, such as Bulls All-Rookie forward Lauri Markkanen and Hawks guard Malcolm Delaney, began to wear vintage LeBrons from a decade ago as a show of appreciation, similar to how players adopted Kobe Bryant’s and Michael Jordan’s series during the final chapters of their careers.
Though only four teams remain in the postseason, several of the league’s biggest signature shoe stars are still in the hunt and have been flexing some heat lately.
While James has friends on the Cavaliers and around the league who constantly support his line’s newer models, like his fellow Klutch Sports clients Tristan Thompson, Eric Bledsoe and JR Smith, he has still gone on record to say in no uncertain terms that it’s an advantage on the floor, if you’re not among his crew.
“For me, now being in that MJ class, if I see a guy wearing my shoes … 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?” he said. “I’m gonna bust your ass.”
Wearing an opponent’s signature shoe, now a relatively common practice, was once taboo in certain locker rooms.
During the late 1990s, Pat Riley famously sought to ban his Heat players from wearing Air Jordans against the Chicago Bulls, unwilling to give Jordan even a glimmer of trash-talking ammo. Years later, Paul Pierce looked to dissuade his Washington Wizards teammates from wearing LeBron’s shoes against the Cavaliers.
“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 said.
Warriors forward Kevin Durant, whose signature line is in its 11th year, has a different mindset.
“It’s flattering to me,” he said of opponents wearing his sneaker. “I don’t look at it as an advantage at all. But it’s moreso just cool to see a KD on another guy’s shoe. I was growing up watching people wear Jordans and play in Jordans a lot. Now to have my own signature shoe and to have my peers wearing it, it’s pretty fun to see.”
Durant found himself looking down at his own sneaker during the second round of the playoffs this year, with New Orleans Pelicans big man Nikola Mirotic sticking with his trusty KDs.
“Man, I was thinking about that, trust me,” Mirotic said with a laugh. “I was like, should I wear those shoes? I was like maybe yes, maybe no. But KD’s KD, man. He’s one of the best players in the world and I have such a respect for him. I’ve been wearing those shoes since they came in … and they feel very comfortable, so I was just sticking with them. Just not thinking about wearing KD [shoes] playing against KD, which is a little bit weird, but it is what it is.”
As it turned out, the sneakers were the least of the Pelicans’ worries, with the Warriors finishing off New Orleans in just five games.
