What They’re Wearing – Headbands
Credit: Sixers.com
What they’re wearing is headbands. Well, Ben Simmons and Jimmy Butler have been for the past two games anyway (Our man Drew is, too). Ben had been wearing one in practice for a few days. And Jimmy’s headband over hoodie for a quick post practice media session was trendsetting. Whatever the reason is they began wearing them, I’m here for it. Simmons has had two of his better games this season with his head band on, so let’s keep this going. The 76ers are 2-0 with them, so I expect to see them Wednesday in Toronto.
I wore a headband in my junior year of high school on the soccer team, so I’m going to consider myself part of the headband fam, too (Sorry – no photo evidence). On to the sneakers.
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Sixers’ Notes
Jimmy Butler
Jimmy’s sneakers were the focal point of last week’s column. Once again he brought out some heat from some more recent Air Jordan signature models. Let’s start with last week’s win against the Knicks. Butler broke out the Air Jordan XXXI Low “Triple Red”.
My personal favorite sneaker that he laced up this week was the Air Jordan XX9 “Photo Reel” which he wore versus the Wizards. These feature a full color photo of Michael Jordan in the famous pose that is used as the logo for the Air Jordan brand. The sneaker fades from light blue into orange as if the sun is setting. The medial side of the shoe features the skyline of Chicago. I love when brands do something unique, and these certainly are that.
On Sunday night against the Grizzlies, Butler stepped on court in the Air Jordan XXXI that was he wore while on Team USA in the 2016 Rio Olympics. These looked nice on court and complemented the white jersey’s well.
Amir Johnson
As I’ve noted in the past, Amir has been wearing the Nike Kyrie line for all games except when they play the Celtics. That all changed this week. In a surprising move, he opted for the Nike Air Zoom Generation “King’s Rook” while playing the Knicks. The Air Zoom Generation was LeBron’s signature morel from his rookie season. They were re-released in this black colorway in late 2017.
Johnson must have gone shopping recently, because he wore two sneakers from the recently released Air Jordan XXVIII Suede Pack. He wore the blue version on Friday and the yellow version on Sunday. The third sneaker in the pack is orange, so don’t be surprised if they make their way to Canada on Wednesday night.
Credit: Twitter.com/@Sixers
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Opponent’s Notes
New York Knicks
The Knicks have a lot of young players on the team, so they wore some good looking sneakers on court in Philly last week, but there is some other news I’d like to touch on. Adidas released their next set of non-signature basketball models last week. The biggest news from the drop is that the Adidas N3XT L3V3L features a laceless, sock-like upper. Oddly they were debuted on court a few weeks ago by Gerald Green of all players. Not sure what the thinking was from Adidas on that one.
The Knicks connection for this is that Kristaps Porzingis is an Adidas athlete. Although he probably won’t (and shouldn’t) see the court this season, Adidas created a player exclusive version of one of the other models released last week. Like Puma did with the Clyde Court Disrupt, the Adidas Marquee Boost pulls design aspects from the classic Adidas Top Ten Mid. These will look great on court, and lend themselves well to different patterns, colors, and materials.
Credit: Adidas.com
Washington Wizards
John Wall is the only player on the Wizards who has had a signature sneaker. He’s actually had one on two different brands – Adidas and Reebok (Zigs 4Life). Wall is in a weird place right now, because he’s still an Adidas athlete, but they stopped making his signature models, so he’s wearing his signatures that were originally released in 2014.
Memphis Grizzlies
Mike Conley has been wearing some really nice looking Air Jordan XXXIII in Grizzlies colors of late, but he opted for the classic Air Jordan XI “Concord” on Sunday in Philadelphia. Can’t go wrong with one of the most iconic sneakers ever.
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That’s all I have for this week. We head to Toronto this week, so I’ll give you my thoughts on the Kawhi Leonard to New Balance news that broke last week (spoiler alert: I like it).
Stay tuned.
