Do The Mike Thing

Lorenz Magno

When the Air Jordan XI was first released in 1995, I didn't know much about sneakers but I knew right away when I first laid eyes on them, it was love at first sight. Was it the black patent leather contrasting the bright white mesh upper? The clear sole? The thick round laces? The checkered carbon shank? There was something or more like everything about that particular Air Jordan that just caught hold of my attention and it just never let go. Its pricey tag of $125 was too much for my parents to afford on a pair of sneakers. But they weren't just any sneakers, they were Air Jordans. And so began my obsession with Air Jordans.

There's always that mental connection that you feel when you put on a particular pair of sneakers which an athlete endorses. You wanted to feel and play like that particular athlete. If you bought some Anfernee'Penny'Hardaway's, you wanted to play like him. If you had some Ken Griffey Jr's, you wanted to go out and hit home-runs like him. But Air Jordans were somehow much more special than the rest.

I fell into the magic of Michael Jordan, much like the millions of fans world-wide, with his style of play. His offensive arsenal, his defensive killer instinct, and his will to win is something that every fan loved about him. Most people are fans of his acrobatic athleticism, being able to soar through the air, dunking on a particular number 33. But being a not-so-tall basketball player myself, the sky was the limit for me, literally. It wasn't his shoes or the way he dunked the ball, it was his fade-away jumper that turned me into one of his biggest fans. The beauty of his fake-juke-to-the-left-then-to-the-right-turn-around-fall-back-jumpshot is what really captured me.

Then it was the shoes.