0 0 0 0 2 3 2 2 2 0 1 1 2 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 Ranking the top 10 NBA players with signature sneakers (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) (Photo by Jesse Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images) (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) Dwyane Wade, Li Ning (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) Stephen Curry, Under Armour (Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images) Basketball and fashion have long been linked, and never more than the present day.Not only do several NBA players have the luxury of signing expensive sponsorship deals with sports apparel companies, but the best of the best get to sport a shoe with their name on it. Players like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have been part of this for years. Other younger stars are just getting their feet wet.Above, we picked the 10 players with their own signature shoes and ranked them in order of their performance in the most recent sneaker with their namesake.
Unfortunately for Kobe Bryant, his games in Kobe 10s haven't been so memorable.Click through the photos above, check out the links to the sneakers themselves, and tweet us at @AOLSports with the answer to this question: Which player has the best signature shoe in the NBA?See which sneakers players wore on the hardwood last Christmas Day:For more holiday gift ideas, check out our new shop! Sign up for Breaking News by AOL to get the latest breaking news alerts and updates delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our other newsletters Emails may offer personalized content or ads. You may unsubscribe any time. Transfer your debt to a card with 0% APR for up to 21 months Veterans could receive up to $42,000 with these VA benefits An astonishing 21-month 0% APR credit card Pay no interest until May 2018 with this card 2 cards charging 0% interest for 21 months The highest paying cash back card is here If you owe less than $300k, use Obama's once-in-a-lifetime mortgage relief program Pay off your house at a furious pace if you owe less than $625k Congress gives American homeowners who owe less than $300-625k a once in a lifetime mortgage bailout Start 2017 with a new high yield savings account Personal loans: Too good to be true?
CD Accounts can earn you up to 2% APY This Machine Uses 2,000 Marbles To Play The Best Song You've Ever Heard The Only Thing Creepier Than This Disturbing Mask Is The Story Of The Man Behind It Students Agree To Play A Strange Game With Their Teacher — And Seriously Regret It Pornhub offering free snow plow service in Boston and New Jersey Americans feel unsafe sharing the road with driverless cars High school kids build killer S-10 drag truck With the 2016-2017 NBA preseason currently underway and the regular season starting in just two weeks, the phrase “ball is life” couldn’t be more true right now for basketball fans. This season will surely be interesting; LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers look to carry their momentum from last season, while the Golden State Warriors take in fellow 3-1 lead blower Kevin Durant to form a powerhouse team in the West. Aside from the exciting games of basketball to be played, sneakers are also an important element of the NBA. What athletes wear on the court is often regarded as the best of the best in performance basketball sneakers and in a market full of competition, it plays a huge part in fans’ reception when it comes to retail sales.
With options from Nike Basketball, Air Jordan, Adidas, and Under Armour picking the right pair can be daunting. Whether you’re trying to channel your favorite player through yourself on the court or simply buying a new pair of kicks for some pickup games, we’ve got you covered. To make it easier, here are The 10 Best Basketball Sneakers Out Right Now listed from lowest to highest in price.Michael Jordan has had some epic advertisements when it comes to promoting the latest shoe in his Air Jordan line. J.A. Adande breaks down why MJ's commercial for the Air Jordan XXI, titled "Let Your Game Speak," will go down as his top NBA shoe ad of all (1:23)Michael Jordan has had some epic advertisements when it comes to promoting the latest shoe in his Air Jordan line. J.A. Adande breaks down why MJ's commercial for the Air Jordan XXI, titled "Let Your Game Speak," will go down as his top NBA shoe ad of all (1:23)How much of a basketball shoe's popularity is because of the athletes who wear it and how much is due to the image of the athletes who wear it?
That might be the toughest fact and fiction to separate, this delineation between the person and the perception created by advertising agencies. Just know that every time you buy a pair of sneakers it means you're buying into the story that surrounds it.We're here to celebrate those tales and pay tribute to the best of the basketball shoe commercials. These are the ads that captured moments and even movements, ads that excelled in storytelling.They revealed personalities -- or even created entirely new ones. Some of the best ads make minimal reference to either the person or the product but still manage to convey ideas and themes.That's why these selections tend toward the cultural breakthroughs rather than the product advancements. These are the ads that stuck with us long after the soles of the shoes wore away.This captures a moment in time, because the music is sooo '80s. So is the fashion ... and that's actually the point. This sneaker commercial was the first to recognize that basketball shoes were becoming fashionable attire.
Converse made the staid canvas Chuck Taylors hip by producing them in a variety of bright colors, and sneaker couture was on its way, with Dr. J's, Magic Johnson's and Larry Bird's approval.The next time you see the outspoken modern version of LeBron James endorse a presidential candidate or clap back at Phil Jackson, think back to his early Nike ads in which he had no speaking lines. What a wasted opportunity. With "The LeBrons" ad campaign, James put his personality -- or personalities -- on full display. A basketball shoe commercial in which the endorser doesn't wear basketball shoes. That's the mark of an athlete becoming a brand. This one's the best of the bunch because of Wise LeBron's mocking of the old heads, Business LeBron's smooth dive and the Kool & The Gang "Summer Madness" soundtrack.If you're going to appropriate, might as well do it right. This ad owes a tremendous debt to the And1 Mixtape campaign that made streetball so cool, with the common-object percussion from "Stomp" mixed in.
Pulling from Nike's stable of NBA stars helped legitimize the movement.This Nike series captured the black barbershop vibe long before the "Barbershop" movies. We also need to celebrate George Gervin, who never had his own shoe line but kept providing key assists in other shoe campaigns (rather ironically, for a player known more for his scoring than passing). In this ad the Iceman delivers his signature line: "One thing I could do was finger roll."Chris Rock was brilliant as Penny Hardaway's puppet alter-ego in this series, bringing sizzle to the soft-spoken real Penny's shoe commercials. While there's never been a better closing line than "That was Tyra Banks, fool!" (in response to Penny ruining Lil Penny's stoplight mack to the supermodel by driving off), the apex of these ads was the star-studded spot that ran during the Super Bowl and was immortalized in a Jay Z lyric.No other shoe commercial launched national debates like this in-your-face manifesto from Charles Barkley. Society freaked out about his proclamation that he was not a role model, conveniently overlooking the part where he said "Parents should be role models."
To disagree with his premise is to disagree with the notion that parents should play the most important roles in a child's life. Love the starkness of the black-and-white photography and the aggressiveness. He's throwing elbows at the camera, and thus the viewers. How many commercials played a central role in the relationship of two central figures in NBA history? The story goes that after years as rivals, Magic and Bird finally got a chance to spend quality time together while shooting this commercial and realized they made better friends than enemies. But what's the story behind Magic wearing his jersey and the limousine having California plates? Did Magic wake up, put on his uniform and tell the chauffeur to drive from L.A. to Indiana so he could challenge Bird to a game? A final question: how many other sneaker ads inspired a music video set to Loverboy's "Working for the Weekend"?My favorite of the Mars Blackmon ads because it's the most subversive. At the time NCAA rules prohibited the use of names and images of professional athletes in commercials that ran during the NCAA tournament (wary of acknowledging the fact that it's OK for players to have endorsements, I guess).
So Nike got around this hater-based regulation by having Mars shout out his man "Money" -- and everyone knew he was talking about Michael Jordan due to the previous Mike and Mars ad campaigns. This also might be the first documented example of sneakerheadness: look at all of the kicks in the room in the opening shot.In retrospect it should've been called "Crossroads." This ad marks both the emergence of hip-hop into mainstream culture (even Minnesota-born Kevin McHale had a nice flow in his ad) and the beginning of the fall of Converse. With Dr. J, Bird and Magic, Converse players won seven of 10 Most Valuable Player awards 1981 to 1990, and most of the league's top players still wore the shoe when this ad ran in the 1986-87 season. Erving (who regrettably didn't appear here) retired after the season and within a few years Jordan and Nike dominated the NBA.This was the culmination of two decades of Michael Jordan and Air Jordan, a testament to their iconic status and to every prior commercial that embedded them in our minds.