Jordan, "The Shoe"

I found this documentary on Webcastr. This gives great insight on Nike's emergence into the basketball market and how the Jordan shoes snowballed into the phenomenon it is today. MJ'S, J's, Jordans, Air Mike's, 23's, Air Steps, whatever you call them, this is the skinny on the fattest shoe of all time.
This is a must watch if you have ten minutes..."You don't wear "Air Jordans" in the winter."

I think Mars Blackmon was right. It's gotta be the shoes.
Check the video out HERE

Back to Where it All Began...

According to Buster Olney "The Lonely," The Mariners have expressed interest in bringing Jr. back to the emerald city. This would be great for baseball and great for the true star of the steroid area to return to his baseball home to retire as the legend he truly is. Many forget Griffey's dominance of the 90's he was better than any of the roid heads (Canseco, Bonds, McGwire, Sosa.) He was the Michael Jordan of baseball, I mean he would have been if Michael wasn't the Michael Jordan of baseball.
An injury plagued, latter half of his career skewed the public's prespective of Griff and hopefully classic games of KGJ will surface so all the youngins can learn to respect the man. Ken, thanks for the best sports game for Super Nintendo and the smooth stroke, you are the man for you place and time. Hopefully the Mariners pull off a trade for him, not only would he be back on his original team but the lineup would be deep and would give the Evil Orange County Angels a run for their money.
The new lineup could be very potent Ichiro who usually gets on base could be followed by the much improved Raul Ibanez, then potential all-stars Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson, Griffey could DH at the fifth spot followed by young talent like Yuniesky Betancourt and Jose Lopez. In addition to a strong lineup, the Mariners have one of the best one-two starting pitching combos in the league with "King" Felix Hernandez and Eric Bedard. This team could make a run and is always dangerous in terms of pulling off deals at the deadline, watch for them to quietly sneak into the playoff chase after they add pitching at the deadline.

We made a couple key trades and we got the Funk

I was thinking back on some Nike commercials after seeing the new ones for Nike Sparq where every one's faster is faster than my fastest. I like this a lot and it's great to see Saul William's get much overdue exposure with his song in the commercial, "List of Demands." I love huge Nike campaigns like this and it got me thinking about the best ever. There's been a bunch but one stood out in my mind.




Anyone remember the Roswell Rayguns? They were the fictitious ABA team comprised of "Dr. Funk" Vince Carter, Jerry Stackhouse, Jermaine O'neil and Baron Davis.It was 1975 and they just wanted to keep the funk alive. The commercials were made to promote Vinsanity's new shoe by Nike. The Nike campaign was based on an ABA team that was struggling and invested in a new brand of basketball that could be the future. They were right and it was also the birth of pro sport's widespread historical appreciation of past uniforms, especially basketball. Now you started seeing 10-15 throwback games a year and killer uniforms for fans to galk at and desire to buy. Soon enough Mitchell & Ness, the leader in throwback reproductions over saturated the market with uniforms that at one point in time were nearly impossible to find. Rappers started sporting them in nearly every video you saw and the widespread demand was crazy. It was more common so see a "Throwback uniform on the street than a regular jersey. The craze was everywhere and thank God it died down, any and all nostalgic value the jerseys had was killed. I don't think the commercial was completely to blame, Andre & Big Boi played a huge part in the madness as well. A Nike campaign that fresh deserves a shout out, it was the best thing since Spike Lee and Jordan's "It's gotta be the shoes."
Nike last great campaign was the Lebrons. That was funny. I hate Lebron, but the guy can sure sell a product. Especially when he jumps off the high dive while Kool and the Gang is playing, that's smooth. Not sure if it's better than Chris Rock and Penny Hardaway's "Little Penny," but it is damn funny.
Still all of those are no match for the genius of the Roswell Rayguns. Nike + Vince + Diddy + Stack + JO + Snoop + tha P + Tha Funk Ship=The best Nike ad ever!