I completely forgot about shoes.

Are you an anti-zionist

Morpheus in shambles.

I don’t think they’re all poorly designed. But I agree on the marketing though… terrible. The Luka line has especially been tragic, for somebody who had so much early success in the league. He should be at the very least neck and neck with Anthony Edwards, but Jordan haven’t even bothered to make his shoes look interesting or to market them.

The shoe game is in bad shape right now. Releases that would have killed before are slow or sitting on shelves still.

To me though Jordan has been over priced for more than 20 years, even the clothing.

Yeah they’re really just basketball performance shoes with better options available.

I wonder when the last time Jordan signatures were selling well. I know in general people are buying fewer performance basketball shoes than before but feels like even then, I had seen some Chris Paul models in person but not really many since then. Maybe some of the first Westbrook models. I almost wonder if it’s a bit of a conundrum between a Jordan athlete but also having a signature with your own shoe and Jordan the brand representing Jordan the person also on it? At least years ago there were a bunch of stars on Jordan but it was more like ok these people are the ones on the official Jordan shoe and are representing it vs everyone having a signature. Like Kawhi was one of the Jordan guys and it felt like it made sense, of course this 2 way guy who plays like Jordan is rocking the main Jordan shoes

I’ve gotten into Pumas, adidas, and Reebok. Nikes too expensive in an era when shoes are starting to look alike.

It’s because he has had no meaningful impact on the game. If he played 40% but had a WCF run or was in the MVP running for half a year before getting injured it might be different but as is he is just a guy

This just reminds me of the same thing with AD, from online chatter you would think that Anthony Davis plays like 8% of his games

Yeah. That was insane.

MJ seems like the type to realize how much Zion doesn’t play and isn’t meeting expectations and shake his head in disappointment.

That’s normally a deal with a club rather than an individual player.

But enough about DeAndre Ayton

Very true.

The fact that Steph, KD, LeBron are multi millionaires, still competing at a high level isn’t normal.

The Ben Simmons/Zion is the typical trajectory.
Get good, get famous, get lazy.

That’s not true. Most gifted athletes don’t do this. Most number 1 picks aren’t lazy like that. I’m not sure why this keep being said 

This was lowkey me I kinda peaked in high school. My dad got a full ride to play football and baseball at Stanford and he passed some good genes on to me. I was on varsity for football, baseball, and basketball as a sophomore, which no one else did during my four years there. But at the same time I never had any motivation outside of practice or games to actually put any effort in. I had D3 interest in all three sports but I never really even considered playing in college because it seemed like it would become a job at that point and stop being fun.

Looking back I definitely regret not having more drive as a kid. Didn’t learn to get that until I got older. So idk maybe if there’s any young little sports stars reading this… it’s actually really fun to try your hardest and see what you’re capable of. It’s also fun to not have to try very hard and yet still succeed. But as time goes on one of those things is a lot more rewarding and beneficial to your development than the other.

He is not even as naturally gifted as LeBron was. You can’t teach work ethic.

You either have it or you don’t.

It’s the Shaq approach: why work your ass off when you can still be ultra wealthy/famous/successful half assing it. Now, Shaq was obviously much more motivated than Zion to reach All Time status, and being 7’1 vs 6’6, playing in LA vs NOLA and winning 4 championships vs never making the playoffs are huge differences between the 2. But the idea remains the same. Not everyone is built like LeBron or Jordan to get 110% out of their already significant potential.

Yeah 99%+ of people are complaining about work ethic while casually scrolling reddit while at work or laying on their couch.

Not everyone but maybe ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. In a way you already “won” life so if you dont have that competitive fire, winning after securing a huge paycheck probably doesnt mean shit.

Some people have that fire and some dont. I personally dont. 75 million deal before playing a game? It sure would be hard to motivate me to strive for more tbh

And it seems like he has the work ethic for the “fun” stuff, by all accounts he likes playing the game, he’s developed plenty as a player since he entered the league.

He mostly can’t stand doing the boring things that aren’t basketball that he needs to do to be a great pro athlete, taking care of his body, dieting, rehab, fitness.

In that order?

But he got to witness the tornado trick first hand and lived to tell the tale, that’s gotta be worth something…

And hella soda

After what New Orleans food did to him they want to bring him to Chicago.

He has decent to good natural ball IQ imo, he just can’t get into a rhythm due to injuries to improve any further

Was always funny how he’d get in shape for a short period, people start saying he’s finally taking it seriously and then he’d get hurt and fat again

Oh he was all about his vices. But his biggest vice was being competitive and winning. Zion doesn’t have an ounce of that.

He was still winning though. If Zion was winning while being a porn addict it wouldn’t be a problem

His vice was winning to be fair. That’s why he went to gambling in the first place.

Jordan, the guy who’s vices obviously impacted and derailed his career. Couldn’t have used a worst example if u tried.

You’re equating gambling to prostitutes lol

Also nobody would bet an eye if he was taking care of himself. See Ant

I’m sure he takes extreme pride in having vices and still achieving at an extremely high level. Like a functional alcoholic watching a freshmen that can’t hold his liquor

It actually would have made it easier to move on from him if he were an actual bust. Hes done just enough over the years to keep the hope that he will still get over the hump. No pun intended

I think you gotta take the hype and draft position into context. The biggest pre draft hype since LeBron, easy consensus #1. Brand deals lined up etc etc.

Zion is absolutely a bust for what everyone expected.

You can call him a straight bust considering he’s not made the playoffs in 7 years, and has missed over half the games he was eligible to play

He played so well in that Play In game against LA a few years ago.. then he pulled his hamstring with like 3 minutes left in the game

But why is he unable to focus and prepare for more than that?

I bought some but get injured 50% of the time I wear them

Those are hideous! 400? Lmao couldn’t design an uglier shoe if I tried

Crazy he’s only 25 and has been declining since his second year in the league

Oh OK, thanks. I Judy recall Melo talking about it on his podcast one time, the whole process is interesting. And yeah, Cade is probably a great choice to represent a brand.

He spits in every 500th pint like it was an OF model’s mouth

People are acting like he’s Darko Milicic

He’s not a bust. He’s a massive disappointment relative to potential and expectations but he’s a multi time all star who averaged 27 ppg on 65 TS% in his sophomore year

Even now he’s still averaging 20+ on good efficiency

Ant’s the only one on your list with charisma