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thats deep man. great insight!
Confessions of an Air-Jordan-oholic
- Thread in 'Jordan Brand' Thread starter Started by pat,
- Start date
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awesome article there homie "FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME"!!!
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damn i can relate to dat
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MJ was/is the best. The shoes embody that. I also played a lot of basketball in the gym at my university (pickup games, I was NOWHERE NEAR good enough to make a college team). I wore Air Jordans. They felt the best and performed the best. I liked them. But, it wasn't merely because MJ was the best... it was because of what MJ represented. I mean, sure, he has the genetic makeup perfect for a basketball player, with brains to match, and reflexes/speed way beyond average. He wouldn't be the best without that stuff... but... that stuff alone only goes so far. It's his drive, his will, his non-stop work ethic, his focus, his OVERachievement, that truly made him THE best. That fueled the fire, and then POOF, I was an addict very quickly.
I was/am an MJ fan. But, I never collected anything besides the shoes. I don't/didn't have any signed pairs (autographs don't mean much to me). I don't/didn't have any jerseys (not my thing). Just the shoes.
I had a couple of player-worn AJs, but none worn by MJ himself. They normally weren't my "thing" - but I got them at decent prices on eBay... I don't think the sellers knew what they really had, and they didn't quite advertise them correctly on the auctions or they would probably have gone for more money, and you might not find them unless you were obsessively looking at every Air Jordan for sale (umm, no comment)... so I grabbed them. But, MJ-worn items, or MJ-signed items... no, people don't accidentally list those items incorrectly on eBay.
Yes, I did/do have a few other sneakers besides AJs (it's difficult to call AJs a "sneaker" - but fine, I get the idea). Not too many, though. Probably less than 5 pairs since I started buying AJs.
There was ONE time... wow... I was sooooo tempted to get my hands on one of MJ's actual pairs. My step-father (mother's husband that she married when I was in high school) was a MAJOR Michael Jordan fan. But, he had no money. His business was almost bankrupt. My mother was supporting them both on her private-school (low pay) teacher's salary, which was around $24K per year or something crazy. He watched every Bulls game from his home in Louisiana. But, he never saw MJ play live. It was one of his goals/dreams. So, as a surprise, I got 1st row tickets right behind the Bulls' bench from a scalper/dealer, and flew him to Chicago. I didn't tell him what seats we got... I lied and told him that we were way up in the rafters. He was so excited anyway, he just didn't care. All he could talk about for the next 2 months was about how he was finally going to go see Michael Jordan play a game, IN PERSON. This was such a highlight for him... you have no idea. He brought BINOCULARS with him, expecting to be in the nose-bleed sections. We went to Michael Jordan's restaurant before the game, then headed down to the stadium. He still had no idea where we were sitting... until we walked through the gates, and I headed down toward the court. There's a security rope that blocks off the first several rows, but I went past the rope toward our seats. Meanwhile, my step-father was looking upward into the rafters, trying to figure out where the seats were. He was yelling for me to "Stop! Stop! You're going to get us kicked out of here!" (He really feared that I was putting his dream at risk by heading down into this secure area where I didn't belong, and he thought that security was going to come and toss us out of the stadium, and his dream of watching Michael Jordan play a live game would be lost.) But, then he saw the security guard checking my ticket, and escorting me to my front row seat. His jaw dropped, and he slowly walked down and handed his ticket to the security guard, who escorted him to the seat next to mine. He was a grown man of 60 years, jaw dropped, shocked, eyes weeping tears, as he stared at the empty seats directly 2 feet in front of us, knowing that soon they would be filled with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, Dennis Rodman, etc. He could say nothing. He was frozen.
Anyway, this was 1997 vs. the Bucks. We watched the game. The Bulls kicked butt. Etc. But, throughout a good portion of the game, there was this hamper/bin in front of us. It mainly had towels in it. But, inside, amongst the towels, there was a nice fresh pair of AJ12s white/black, which was MJ's "backup" pair. Oh my. You have no idea how badly I wanted to reach in and get them. But, I'm not a theif. Stealing is not part of my vocabulary, never has been, never will be. Yet, wow, I'm looking at them, drooling, thinking, "hmm, I could lean forward, and grab those shoes right now." My step father kept saying "DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!" (smiling, yet serious)... for he didn't want to be thrown out. He said things like "wait until AFTER the game to steal those shoes." (hahaha, of course, we both knew I wasn't really going to steal them... it's not part of his vocabulary to steal, any more than it's part of mine... it just became a joke). But, it WAS so very tempting. They wouldn't have been MJ-WORN (as far as I know... maybe in practice... or in a prior game??), but they would have been MJ's shoes nonetheless. Anyway, I didn't take them. But, it was the closest I came to "owning" MJ's actual shoes. (smile)
As a total side-note: so, the Bulls were destroying the Bucks. It's late in the game, normally the time that MJ would sit down and rest, because he wasn't really needed for the final stretch when they're way ahead. It's a time-out, and I figured, ok, it's over, MJ is going to sit down now, and that will be that. But, MJ only had 28 or 29 points. I'm sitting 2 feet behind MJ (as I was so many times during time-outs), and it appeared that MJ was settling back, getting ready to unwind and NOT go back on the floor again. I commented to my step father that I hadn't ever seen MJ score 30 in a live game. I'd seen it on TV, of course (I never missed watching a single MJ game since about 1990). But, in live games, somehow I had unluckily never gone to a game where he's even scored 30. Well, of course, MJ is RIGHT THERE within an arm's length of me. I'm SURE he could hear me (whether he was listening, I have no idea). Anyway, what happened? Well, contrary to the normal pattern that he'd be sitting out at this point, MJ goes out on the court after the time-out. And, the next thing I know, MJ has the ball, and he disappears like lightning behind a line of Buck players (it was the other end of the court, tough to see from my vantage point). Then, quicker than you can blink, man, I tell you, MJ's head (with the ball held high above) springs up out of the crowd of opponents, and POW, SLAM DUNK from the baseline. It was so impressive. This was MJ. This is what made him MJ. If he decided he was going to score, there was NOTHING you could do to stop him. He had his moments that his WILL could dominate the entire court. He was going to get those final 2 points, and he got them in dramatic style. No Milwaukee Buck was going to stop this from happening. Those 2 points were on the scoreboard in MJ's head before he went out on the court. Anyway, did he really do this because I "asked" him to? Well, he says in his books that he does so much of what he does for the fans. They're paying a premium price to go see him, and he wants to give them what they came to see. I'd lean toward thinking those 2 points were for me. I could be delusional. That's possible. But, I've never spoken to MJ to ever ask him.
Oh, and by the way, as another side-note to the side-note.... It's not like I worship MJ (or anyone). I worship nothing or nobody. I APPRECIATE Michael Jordan. I recognize the whole package, what he does for fans, what he did for himself, his drive, his talent, etc. But, to me, no man is a god (and, well, actually, I don't even believe in any gods, so I guess you could joke that I'd say that no god is a god either). But, worship MJ, no.
I was at a dinner last year... a RARE dinner. Seated in the seat directly to my right was my wife. Seated directly to my left (at my table) was Gene Cernan. Seated directly behind me was Neil Armstrong. Seated in the next row to my left was Buzz Aldrin. Seated in the next row to my right was Dave Scott. Seated in the next row in front of me was Charlie Duke. Seated diagonal a row to my left was Alan Bean. Talk about being surrounded by "heroes" or people close to being worshiped!! Do you know how rare it is to get THAT many moonwalkers into one room?? Crazy. Don't get me wrong... MJ is up there in the superstar category for sure, no doubt about it, number one... but, sitting at that dinner, it's tough to think about a basketball player.
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I love the read. But I especially love this last part.
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I love the read. But I especially love this last part.
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- Jul 5, 2010
great post jordans get me stressed and in a way even when im stressed i keep buying them u can say Im addicted i need to stop.
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jsallday
Banned
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nice
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I plan to be done buying shoes in general by the end of the year
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Thanks chitown4eva. i see u still here as well man. good to see you brother.
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- Aug 12, 2004
great read!
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- Apr 11, 2007
Great read. I can relate in so many ways my friend.
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someone find his page on the wayback machine!
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im not that OG of a NTer so WHO THE HELL IS STEVE????
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Great read.
Good to hear you enjoyed Australia but no mention of the best part, Melbourne. Hope you didn't come all the way out here and not visit the best city in the land.
I'm not having a crack but 1 thing confused me a little.
But, since I can't go to work, I decided to surf around in my old shoe hobby. I saw a post by someone in here that asked whether NikeTalk is a bad influece, and talking about how he tapered off on buying Air Jordans, but now he feels influenced to re-stimulate his Air Jordan addiction. I replied to that thread with a resounding "RUN LIKE HELL" (having kicked my addiction about 6-7 years ago, I think??).
knew every Air Jordan in my collection by heart. I had the pairs I'd wear lined up in 2 closets in perfect order from release date and colorway. I basically had to BUILD these two closets specially for my shoes, with perfect shelving height just for these shoes. The same went for the hundreds of pairs I kept new in the box. I kept them obsessively and perfectly stacked in my basement in order by release date and colorway. You could put a blindfold on me, and ask me for a certain year/color of Air Jordan, and I knew EXACTLY which slot it occupied in my closets (for the ones I wore) or which box it would be in (for my deadstock pairs). I had every model, every colorway, from the Air Jordan 2 through the current day. And, I had a bunch of the Air Jordan 1s (but not every colorway, because there were far too many ultra-rare ones that I couldn't get my hands on). I knew exactly how many pairs I had at any moment (now I couldn't even guess within an error range of 25 pairs). I could tell you exactly how the logos were oriented, how to tell fake from real, and most of the time could tell you most of the codes on the shoe tags... all by heart. Was I the foremost "expert" on Air Jordans in those days? Hmmm.
Current day meaning now or current day being 6-7 years ago when U kicked your addiction???
Good to hear you enjoyed Australia but no mention of the best part, Melbourne. Hope you didn't come all the way out here and not visit the best city in the land.
I'm not having a crack but 1 thing confused me a little.
But, since I can't go to work, I decided to surf around in my old shoe hobby. I saw a post by someone in here that asked whether NikeTalk is a bad influece, and talking about how he tapered off on buying Air Jordans, but now he feels influenced to re-stimulate his Air Jordan addiction. I replied to that thread with a resounding "RUN LIKE HELL" (having kicked my addiction about 6-7 years ago, I think??).
knew every Air Jordan in my collection by heart. I had the pairs I'd wear lined up in 2 closets in perfect order from release date and colorway. I basically had to BUILD these two closets specially for my shoes, with perfect shelving height just for these shoes. The same went for the hundreds of pairs I kept new in the box. I kept them obsessively and perfectly stacked in my basement in order by release date and colorway. You could put a blindfold on me, and ask me for a certain year/color of Air Jordan, and I knew EXACTLY which slot it occupied in my closets (for the ones I wore) or which box it would be in (for my deadstock pairs). I had every model, every colorway, from the Air Jordan 2 through the current day. And, I had a bunch of the Air Jordan 1s (but not every colorway, because there were far too many ultra-rare ones that I couldn't get my hands on). I knew exactly how many pairs I had at any moment (now I couldn't even guess within an error range of 25 pairs). I could tell you exactly how the logos were oriented, how to tell fake from real, and most of the time could tell you most of the codes on the shoe tags... all by heart. Was I the foremost "expert" on Air Jordans in those days? Hmmm.
Current day meaning now or current day being 6-7 years ago when U kicked your addiction???
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GREAT READ!
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best piece of writing ive read here in NT, kudos to your candidness, sincerity, and generosity: sharing to us your story so that we can make our own.
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Pat-You from Chicago?
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No, not the current day now... current day as of when I stopped the addictive collecting.
And, sad, but yes, we did miss out on Melbourne. Though we cannot wait to return and fill some of those holes.
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- Mar 21, 2010
very well written and articulated, good read and a good warning for those who are finding themselves going off of "the deep end".
VN
VN
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- Jan 8, 2008
Excellent read. Bravo
to a true OG
to a true OG
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I find myself in this predicament often. Paying for school has definitely taken the fun out of my recent spending.
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So, I guess this settles the argument some of the young'ns have with quality and how it used to be. They have no idea. This is coming from a true collector. I liked this post, it has what a lot of people lack on here; perspective.
