The Paper's reporter Hu Jie
DeRozan said that Kobe Bryant is the Jordan in the hearts of our generation of players.
The NBA this season has been going on for more than a month, and on this day, the Thunder's equipment manager Wilson Taylor is counting the inventory in the team's equipment depot, and when he cleans up the shoe rack on the wall, the corner of his mouth reveals a smile of "finding good things".
On the shoe rack are several dusty black and gold colored shoe boxes, which are Kobe Bryant's 8th-generation System TB sneakers. So Taylor took a picture of josh Gidy, the No. 6 show of the year.
"No, no, no! Can I pass now? Gidy replied almost every second, and 15 minutes later he arrived at the scene and asked urgently, "Can I take it all?" ”
This feeling of treasure in Gidy is the attitude of players to Kobe's signature shoes today - six months after Kobe and Nike stopped working together, Kobe's signature shoes have become a scarce item in the NBA league.
As a Kobe fan, Booker (left) has been wearing Kobe series sneakers.
Kobe Bryant's signature shoes became a player favorite
A big reason why Gidy is so excited is that he has had a hard time finding his kobe sneakers.
These 5 pairs of orange and white thunder color Kobe boots, the original owner is Derek Fisher. In the 2013-2014 season, The old Kobe Bryant played for the Thunder, and Nike provided him with an abundant stock of sneakers, which Fisher did not take with him when he left the team.
After all, for NBA players, sneakers are probably the easiest item to get, and the Thunder color scheme is just a very ordinary color, so Fisher did not take the shoes with him when he left.
But just 8 years later, the two sentences before Gidey's exclamation point " no " are enough to show that the world is undergoing earth-shaking changes.
NBA stars are all Kobe's fans.
"If you don't have them now, you won't be able to get them again in the future." The words of Blazers forward Larry Nance Jr. explained the reason for Gidy's excitement very well.
Since Nike and Vanessa Bryant jointly announced in April that Kobe and Nike would no longer continue to cooperate, Kobe's signature shoes have become "rare materials".
Of course, due to the previous inventory, the mall can still buy the kobe series of sneakers of ordinary yards, but for the NBA players who are tall and tall, the kobe signed shoes that have been discontinued are really a pair less than a pair.
"I couldn't have found a pair of plus-size Kobe sneakers in a shoe store on the street." Anthony Davis, a Kobe believer, also said how tight the signature shoes are, "This is everyone's favorite sneaker series, many people are inspired by his spirit, plus his sneakers really feel great, and the foot feels great in each generation of shoes." ”
Although this statement is a bit of an over-hyped, the players have completed the vote with their feet - according to statistics, during the 2020 NBA rematch at Disney, more than 100 players wore Kobe BRY's fourth-generation replica products.
You know, there are only more than 330 players participating in the rematch, and the players who wear Kobe shoes account for one-third of the league.
Howard has revealed that he has turned down a six-figure-dollar sneaker contract just to continue wearing Kobe boots. And Horton Tucker even said publicly: "I'll put my words here now, as long as you can help me get Kobe's sneakers, as much as I want." ”
Little Nance said that if you don't stock Kobe's sneakers now, there will be no future.
Big-name stars are also missing shoes?
Kobe bryant sneakers are so popular in the league, in addition to performance is also about faith. DeRozan described Kobe's sneakers as what they mean to today's players, "In the eyes of this generation of players, Kobe is like our Jordan. ”
According to ESPN, on the day of Kobe's retirement, 80% of the league's players wore Kobe's shoes to commemorate his retirement.
And the players who have just entered the league regard Kobe Bryant as an idol. The Raptors' fourth-pick rookie Scotty Barnes said enthusiastically at the draft: "The one I admire most is Kobe. He became the driving force behind me to play, and when I was a kid, my grandmother held me to watch Kobe Play, which led to me hoarding Kobe's shoes and jerseys, sometimes wearing Kobe's jersey for three or four days in a row. ”
As more and more players "cannibalize" the few Kobe Bryant signature shoes, it has also made many big names have a sense of crisis.
Booker, Davis, and DeRozan are die-hard fans of Kobe's signature shoes, and they already have a lot of privileges compared to those who are not famous - Nike will design PE (player-only) versions of shoes according to the shape of their feet.
Booker once posted a pair of Kobe Bryant co-branded sneakers on social media very "Versailles", and took the initiative to provoke the "shoe king" Tucker, "I have never seen PJ Tucker wear this pair of shoes." ”
But now, the stock of Kobe Bryant sneakers in the hands of stars is not abundant.
Davis has said that he originally had to prepare a few pairs of shoes for a game, and now he is only ready to use 20-25 pairs of Kobe Signed Shoes to cope with the long season.
As he said, in recent games against the Bulls and Bucks, he wore the same pair of Kobe Bryant boots in the same silver and white color.
The same goes for DeRozan, "In the past, I used to wear a pair of shoes once or twice, and then I gave them to the fans. But now, I may not be able to continue to 'squander' like this, and I don't have much inventory. If the situation continues to deteriorate, I will have to activate my secret vault. ”
One of the most interesting details is a pair of sneakers that DeRozan recently got on his feet, with a number 10 written on the upper, which was his number during his time with the Raptors and Spurs. But this season when he came to the Bulls, he had already changed the number to 11.
It seems that DeRozan has also lived a "frugal" life.
DeRozan's sneakers.
Sneakers to buy, players into shoe sellers?
When "the landlord's family has no surplus food", it is conceivable that ordinary players will have more difficulties. In order to be able to wear Kobe's signature shoes, many players have begun to scaveng for a small inventory in the secondary market.
According to ESPN, players now want to buy a pair of Kobe Bryant basic sneakers of about 14 sizes in U.S. dollars, and they have to spend at least $800.
Even if you're a signed Nike player, you won't get Kobe's signature shoes. For example, Thunder rookie Gidey, every pair of Kobe signed shoes that accompany him to the game is currently priced at about $1500. And this is the internal price that his agent contacted the big guys in the second-hand market to get.
Pelicans rookie Trey Murphy once complained: "I do this every day [buying Bryant shoes], but it's too difficult because I'm not DeRozan." ”
But if he looked at DeRozan's current situation, he probably had nothing to say.
Claude said I'd stocked enough shoes I'd worn for two years.
In order to cope with the shortage of sneakers, many well-informed players have long been transformed into "shoe sellers".
"Some of us heard the wind, so we all started hoarding shoes," said Jay Crowder of the Suns, "and by the time the news was announced, I had stockpiled enough shoes for me to play for two years." ”
Don't look at Claude's appearance of five big and three thick, but he is extremely careful in this regard - the two-year inventory he talks about is more than 100 pairs of Kobe signed shoes.
But not so many people have such good luck, those who start late have to "cut back", a team equipment manager described: "There are a few guys in our team, they have been wearing Kobe's shoes, until the shoes are almost rotten, disintegrated before stopping." 」 ”
And Booker's words spoke to all NBA players: "When I see someone doing a back-up jumper, or wearing Kobe's shoes, it reminds me of Kobe Bryant." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang