Actually, yes. I do want to talk about playoffs. Finishing off my 2011 countdown of my favorite Jordans, at #1 I have the Jordan XII "Playoffs:"
I lived in Indiana for a few years but instead of Indiana Pacers games, local TV always showed Chicago Bulls games so I grew up a Michael Jordan fan and a Chicago fan. Fast forward to 1997--it's game 1 of the NBA finals with the Bulls up against the Utah Jazz. This feels like a situation we'd seen tons of times. Close game, final seconds, Chicago with the ball. Who else is going to take the final shot? Word is coach Phil Jackson said to "Give the ball to Michael and get the *bleep* out of the way." Of course, MJ comes through in the clutch again with a buzzer beating jumpshot to give Chicago a 1-0 lead in the series.
Fast forward to about 6:00 min. in for the magic.
Besides that though, I remember noticing his shoes. There was nothing too fancy about them--just a black shoe with a white toe but for some reason, they stood out. *Sidenote--in case you're wondering, the design of the XII came from the Japanese flag:
When the best player has a unique tool, you want to somehow be a part of that. You want to experience some of that same magic. The XII and specifically the Playoff XII is the shoe that drew me in to the whole sneaker craze at a young age.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until about 10 years later that I was finally able to find a pair. A friend of a friend was moving and had to get rid of his whole collection pretty fast so he sold me his pair for a great price and even overnight shipped them for free! It was one of the best days of my life, right up there with riding Space Mountain at Disneyland for the first time and filing my taxes </sarcasm>. A few of my friends really like this shoe too and the good thing is, these are coming out again in April of 2012.
Hope you've enjoyed the countdown. See you all in 2012!
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