Sneakers culture in Kings’ locker room
Justin James doesn’t have that many basketball shoes, he’ll tell you. The rookie Sacramento Kings guard is not that into shoes. He only has about 25 pairs.
What sounds like a little to an NBA player sounds like a lot to people who don’t run and jump all day for millions of dollars a year.
The NBA has been tied tightly to the shoe industry since at least the first pair of Nike Air Jordans were a phenomenon in 1984. Fans of a certain age probably remember Spike Lee yelling, “It’s gotta be the shoes,” in the Nike commercials.
The message stuck with the basketball world. While none of the Kings are like the Chicago Bulls’ P.J. Tucker, who famously has a huge collection, shoe culture permeates the locker room.
After getting drafted by the Kings,
James bought a pair of Kobe 8s in Sacramento Kings purple. They weren’t free. He paid full price, using an app on his phone to place the order. Sure, he could wear shoes provided by the Kings, but he wanted something custom.
“We definitely have a great supply of shoes, but whenever we want something specific, we have to pay out of pocket,” James said. “I don’t mind, obviously.”
As he talked shoes in the Kings’ home locker room, James asked teammate Harry Giles III how many pairs of shoes he had.
“I ain’t into it. I used to be,” Giles said. “I’ve got too many of them.”
James started interviewing Giles about shoes.
“You have 200 pairs of shoes or something?” “At least,” Giles said. They take up the better part of a room in his house, Giles said.
Across the locker room, the only Kings player with a shoe deal can’t even talk about them without getting teased. Marvin Bagley III has an endorsement contract with Puma.
As he talked about his deal, Buddy Hield said loudly, “He ain’t got shoes. He’s got Pumas.”
Bagley pressed on, ignoring Hield’s barbs. Sure, he gets money from Puma. But how does he get the shoes? If he sees something he wants, he lets the company know and they just send it to him. With that kind of access, it’s easy for boxes to pile up.
“I haven’t even tried to wear all of them yet,” Bagley said. “I just have a select few, my favorites. I try to get into an outfit that matches. But I can’t get to all of them, though.”
He’s far from the only player bitten by the shoe bug. Fans have noticed, too. Websites track what shoes and endorsements players have. Twitter explodes if a player has a particularly unique shoe.
You can almost hear Kings coach Luke Walton rolling his eyes at shoe culture. He played with and coached guys with their own shoes, the ultimate honor for NBA sneakerheads. Walton’s just happy if his shoes fit comfortably.
“I have about 25 pairs of shoes, but that’s because I like to wear them out. I’ll wear a shoe for a couple of weeks around the house to break them in,” he said. “I never understood why guys wear a different shoe every week or switch them out at halftime.
“But whatever gets guys comfortable and ready to play, we want to provide that.”
So who’s the sneakerhead of the Kings’ locker room? Holmes points his thumb over at De’Aaron Fox, the Kings’ star point guard.
Fox wore a pair of fluorescent high-tops after the Kings’ recent loss to the Toronto Raptors that shined so brightly it looked like they ran on 9-volt batteries.