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“LeBron James PE’s from Adidas? Those are crazy rare!” – Tracy McGrady PEs with the King’s high school inspired colorways to release soon

Arun Sharma
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"LeBron James PE's from Adidas? Those are crazy rare!" - Tracy McGrady PEs with the King's high school inspired colorways to release soon

LeBron James has been with Nike ever since he entered the NBA – but he wore Adidas sneakers in high school.

The Nike Air Zoom generation may be the one that was popular with the collectors, but there is an even earlier model coming out soon. LeBron James played no college basketball, but his shoes in high school were highly popular. He idolized Tracy McGrady when he was younger, hence the choice.

St. Vincent St. Marys iconic colors of white green and gold were emblazoned proudly on his uniform and his shoes too. The T-Mac 1 and 2 were crazy mashups that had superstar toes and performance basketball bits. The way a 17-year-old King James played had some resemblance to the Orlando Magic man, hence he chose those models.

Kids nowadays may know LeBron shoes to be futuristic big heavy stompers, but the early models were sleeker, and more geared towards explosive  moves. The older sneakerheads would know the value of these shoes, and will treasure these for a long time.

Also Read: “Adidas is bringing them toaster shoes back? Those belong in the Jetsons!”: The German sports apparel giant announces the relaunch of Kobe Bryant’s signature shoe that splits opinions to this day

Adidas have been running wild with their sneaker releases lately

With Kanye West rumored to leave Adidas, the sneaker brand needs some traction to stay relevant in the market. They have Jerry Lorenzo signed on, but that is not enough. Losing a behemoth like Ye would be catastrophic for them, and releases like these would make the fans gravitate towards their offerings.

Nike have the majority share in terms of star power, but there has been a general shift in power. Adidas have garnered the likes of Trae Young, James Harden and Damian Lillard to name a few. Their technology is frankly one of the best in terms of basketball performance, and the players are starting to take notice.

Getting a rare piece of history like a Nike athlete on an Adidas exclusive makes it a collectors item. Something akin to having Stan Lee sign a batman comic. Getting St. Vincent’s colors on a T-Mac model is legendary, and sneakerheads should be buying up all the bots to acquire these.

Also Read: “Man I need one of these posters!” Allen Iverson gets emotional looking at a poster of him and Kobe Bryant from Game 4 of the 2001 NBA finals

About the author

Arun Sharma

Arun Sharma

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Arun Sharma is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. A double degree holder and a digital marketer by trade, Arun has always been a sports buff. He fell in love with the sport of basketball at a young age and has been a Lakers fan since 2006. What started as a Kobe Bryant obsession slowly turned into a lifelong connection with the purple and gold. Arun has been an ardent subscriber to the Mamba mentality and has shed tears for a celebrity death only once in his life. He believes January 26, 2020, was the turning point in the passage of time because Kobe was the glue holding things together. From just a Lakers bandwagoner to a basketball fanatic, Arun has spent 16 long years growing up along with the league. He thinks Stephen Curry has ruined basketball forever, and the mid-range game is a sight to behold. Sharma also has many opinions about football (not the American kind), F1, MotoGP, tennis, and cricket.

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