- Jul 13, 2005
- 35,404
- 27,021
This dude Cam turning into Jimmy Butler with the stories. First Anthony Edwards now Trae’s dad, you would think Cam is Jordan with these takes
The Official Off-Season NBA Thread
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by pmatic,
- Start date
- Status
- Jan 30, 2010
- 25,859
- 46,830
Still gotta mess with the bookies/sketchy sites from to time…The risk enhances the experience and adds to the payout
Last edited:
- Mar 24, 2001
- 44,833
- 66,536
Moms used to lock me out the house if she thought I was high. Years later come to find out she's getting silly off cbd oil or something Dr. Oz recommended. Turntables be turning
- Jan 30, 2010
- 25,859
- 46,830
Yea they turning up the campaign, they know cats out here trying get to the paper…I was putting a parlay in the other day when an ad bout the risks of gambling came on the tv and I was like this
- Jul 20, 2009
- 64,968
- 196,209
In 2005 I was Nextel chirping my homie to meet me in the parking lot of Boston Market so I can cop some struggle weed.
In 2022, I can place an order on my smartphone and a half-hour later some white kid with dreadlocks named Addison is dropping off my order
The world is ****** up, but sometimes I stop and think...
In 2022, I can place an order on my smartphone and a half-hour later some white kid with dreadlocks named Addison is dropping off my order
The world is ****** up, but sometimes I stop and think...
Last edited:
- Feb 23, 2010
- 23,404
- 26,484
Cali needs to hurry up and legalize online betting my homie out in IL asking me for rams and west coast ncaa teams advice and I’m sitting here like
not gonna make the trip to Vegas just to bet on sports and the tribal casinos right now trying to hate on DK and FD when they don’t even offer sports betting
not gonna make the trip to Vegas just to bet on sports and the tribal casinos right now trying to hate on DK and FD when they don’t even offer sports betting
- Nov 5, 2012
- 80,694
- 55,639
for reallllll I had just asked in here about the whole betting thing and then I see you can't gamble here in CACali needs to hurry up and legalize online betting my homie out in IL asking me for rams and west coast ncaa teams advice and I’m sitting here like
not gonna make the trip to Vegas just to bet on sports and the tribal casinos right now trying to hate on DK and FD when they don’t even offer sports betting
BSSSSSSSSSS
Let me make money sitting on my *** breh
- Feb 23, 2013
- 13,953
- 25,232
- Nov 5, 2012
- 80,694
- 55,639
How'd he hurt it again?
- Mar 24, 2001
- 44,833
- 66,536
Yall never heard of bovada? 
- Nov 5, 2012
- 80,694
- 55,639
You use that brah? lmk how you like itYall never heard of bovada?
lawdog1
Supporter
- Sep 14, 2000
- 60,203
- 72,741
Agreed. But I still want to know how these NBA players have been getting some of old Kobe models they've been wearing this season. They really out there buying them off eBay?
- Jan 30, 2010
- 25,859
- 46,830
I’m waiting on Maryland to get the apps poppin…It got voted for in the last election but they still don’t got em up and runningCali needs to hurry up and legalize online betting my homie out in IL asking me for rams and west coast ncaa teams advice and I’m sitting here like
not gonna make the trip to Vegas just to bet on sports and the tribal casinos right now trying to hate on DK and FD when they don’t even offer sports betting
…Gotta do the extra work of going to the casino or one of the stadiums to place a legal bet, they need to hurry tf up !! Good thing I live across the street from DC tho so I pick up their geo location for the app when I’m in the crib
- Mar 24, 2001
- 44,833
- 66,536
It's straight. Just need btc to fund your account and you can play in Cali as much as you want. Don't ask me about taxes and all that tho
- Jan 30, 2010
- 25,859
- 46,830
BetNow is legit as well
Vincent Van Goat
, gotta put the bitcoin in there tho like Lee saying
Vincent Van Goat
, gotta put the bitcoin in there tho like Lee saying
- Jul 20, 2009
- 64,968
- 196,209
Some dudes are buying them
Nike apprently made as much as they could before the deal expired to take care of some guys
- Feb 23, 2010
- 23,404
- 26,484
Yall never heard of bovada?
I tried looking into it before and it was too much of a hassle for me lol I just want to open an app and click on bets and not deal with legalities or conditions.
Let me click on a pixel so I can throw 10 bucks on Westbrook +5.5 turnovers without any issues please.
- Feb 23, 2010
- 23,404
- 26,484
There was an
One point the
Why NBA players are hoarding Kobe Bryant's Nike sneaker line
By Brian Windhorst
ON A QUIET evening a few weeks before the start of the regular season, Wilson Taylor was deep inside Paycom Center's laundry room, which doubles as the Oklahoma City Thunder equipment manager's deep storage facility. At a rack pushed up against the wall, he ran his hands over a layer of dust on a cluster of black and gold Nike shoe boxes. Kobe 8 System TB, size 13.5.
He smiled, knowing the score he'd just uncovered. He pulled out his phone, took a picture and texted it to Thunder rookie guard Josh Giddey.
"No way!" Giddey wrote back. "Can I come right now?"
Fifteen minutes later Giddey was in the building, cracking open the five pairs of orange-and-white Thunder-color Kobes that had originally been sent for Derek Fisher, who finished his playing career with the Thunder in the 2013-14 season and had previously been a longtime teammate of Kobe Bryant. Giddey, cradling the boxes like a child on Christmas, looked at Taylor and said: "Can I have them all?"
For years, this might've seemed like an unusual request. In the world of excess and fashion celebrity that is the NBA, shoes are usually ubiquitous. They're always fresh, always everywhere and typically gratis.
Until now.
Last spring, Nike and Vanessa Bryant announced they were parting ways after the shoe giant's deal with the late Kobe Bryant ended. The sides are still talking with the hope they can eventually come to terms, sources told ESPN, but currently the partnership is off. There had already been production delays that prevented players from getting their normal supply during the 2020-21 season, and for now, there are no more Kobes being produced.
Suddenly, the most popular sneaker among NBA players is also the hardest to get.
"If you don't already have them," says Portland Trail Blazers forward Larry Nance, "you're not getting them."
KOBE BRYANT'S SIGNATURE Nike sneaker had become unquestionably the most popular shoe for NBA players in recent years. During the 2019-20 season, more than 100 players were wearing the Kobe 4 Protro, a retro re-release of a sneaker Bryant originally wore in 2008. Today's players love the design, the feel and the statement of the Kobes.
"This generation looks at Kobe like our Jordan," says Chicago Bulls guard DeMar DeRozan, known in the league as the dean of the Kobe shoe devotees. "It's a great shoe to wear. Guys really fell in love with it."
In the Orlando bubble in 2020, just months after Bryant's tragic death, nearly one-third of the 330 or so players were wearing a version of Kobe's signature shoe, and that figure was growing. Over the past two years, a number of players who'd previously been with Under Armour and Adidas did not have their sneaker endorsement contracts renewed, a trend that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the new sneaker free agents went looking for Kobes. It all adds up to a large contingent of players who now have a source problem for their Kobe needs.
There are still supplies on sale at some retailers, but not in great numbers in the sizes NBA players typically need. The scarcity of larger sizes has driven a pricing boom on secondary shoe resale websites such as StockX, GOAT and eBay.
NBA players who wear size 14 or larger are looking at spending at least $800 for the most basic models of Kobes, and that's not what they typically wear. But the players are paying, with several telling ESPN they've spent more than five figures buying supplies of Kobes on the secondary market since last spring and summer.
"I'm not going into a store and finding a [size] 17 in a Kobe. No way," says Anthony Davis, who switched to the Kobes when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019. "I mean, it's guys' favorite shoes. ... A lot of people are inspired by him, and the shoe feels amazing. All of them feel amazing."
Players previously used to wearing whatever colors they wanted -- particularly after the league relaxed its rules around sneakers before the 2018-19 season -- are now scouring the web and trying to hunt forgotten stockpiles to get shoes to wear in games. And they're competing against each other for the available large sizes in the marketplace.
"If you weren't in on them for the last few years," says DeRozan, a longtime Kobe model enthusiast, "you're having a tough time."
Kobes are now considered "deadstock," taking them into a vintage market that ups the ante. NBA players have chased deadstock shoes for years, often to add to their collections to wear or display off the court. Miami Heat forward P.J. Tucker is known for wearing high-end vintage models in games, but he's an outlier.
It's also not unheard of for players to occasionally buy shoes for game usage. Taylor says he sometimes helped players such as former Thunder center Steven Adams, who wears size 19 and really liked the way Derrick Rose's older Adidas models fit him, spend a few hundred dollars to chase down extra pairs. More commonly around the league, players wear what they're paid to wear and there's almost never a thought about supply.
The current situation around Kobes is a whole new game, even for players paid to wear Nikes. Giddey, who signed a multiyear deal with Nike before the season, and players like him are spending more than $1,500 on pairs of Kobes right now as they try to stock up for this season and beyond. Their agents are sniffing around for them, calling in favors and hunting the secondary market for their clients, but without much success.
"I've had a few guys reach out to me for help," says Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker said. "I'll never run out of Kobes."
Booker and DeRozan have a supply of PEs, shorthand for Player Exclusives, that Nike has set them up with as brand ambassadors for years. But they're in an elite class. The shortage is particularly hitting young players who adore Bryant and his shoe line but haven't had the benefit of being in the league long enough to create a backlog.
"I'm working on it every day," says New Orleans Pelicans rookie Trey Murphy, who wore a pair of Kobes gifted to him by a teammate to start the season. "It's hard out there right now. I'm not DeMar DeRozan."
But even DeRozan can't be DeRozan.
"I used to play in a pair once or twice and then give my shoes away to fans," DeRozan says. "I may not be able to do that as much."
THE RUMORS OF the end of the Bryant family agreement with Nike started circulating last season before becoming official in April. Nike reps quietly told team equipment managers to prepare their Kobe guys for an end.
"Some of us got the word, and we started hoarding them," says Suns forward Jae Crowder. "By the time the news came out, I had banked up enough for about two years."
Stars with major shoe deals like LeBron James, who has given molds of his feet to Nike so custom shoes feel broken in on first wear, break out a new pair each game. Some players will wear them for a couple of games. Crowder says his two-year supply was 100 pairs, as he usually goes through about 50 in a year. Davis, on the other hand, uses fewer, as he says he will use around 20-25 pairs of his relatively shallow Kobe supply this season.
Some players without a similarly deep supply have already been forced to switch. Several equipment managers say players have switched this season to the plentiful Nike Kyrie Irving Low model, which has design similarities to the Kobe model. Others are using Nike's new more generic line, the GT. But many custom shoes have been delayed as Nike and other shoe retailers deal with factory shutdowns in Asia due to COVID-19.
In the meantime, the players who still have Kobes are trying to get the most out of each box.
"The guys I have wearing Kobes are wearing them until they damn near fall apart," one equipment manager says.
When discussing this situation with ESPN, players repeatedly expressed hope that Nike and the Bryant estate can come to a new agreement, a talking point that's been pervasive among sneakerheads this fall. But even if that comes to pass, it would be a long time before Kobes are available again -- to players or anyone else. Product lines typically take Nike 12-16 months to produce, sources say, and that was before the pandemic disrupted global supply chains.
Either way, as this season rolls on and the supplies of the remaining Kobes begin to dwindle with no replacements, the demand for the late Hall of Famer's beloved shoe design will only increase. In a time when some players are dabbling in cryptocurrency investments, there might be a new exchange developing as more players get desperate.
"I've always had so many pairs, but I'm looking at them differently now. Guys are asking me [for them], but I can't go through them like I did," DeRozan says. "If it gets bad, I may have to even go to my secret vault."
ESPN's Dave McMenamin contributed to this story.
By Brian Windhorst
ON A QUIET evening a few weeks before the start of the regular season, Wilson Taylor was deep inside Paycom Center's laundry room, which doubles as the Oklahoma City Thunder equipment manager's deep storage facility. At a rack pushed up against the wall, he ran his hands over a layer of dust on a cluster of black and gold Nike shoe boxes. Kobe 8 System TB, size 13.5.
He smiled, knowing the score he'd just uncovered. He pulled out his phone, took a picture and texted it to Thunder rookie guard Josh Giddey.
"No way!" Giddey wrote back. "Can I come right now?"
Fifteen minutes later Giddey was in the building, cracking open the five pairs of orange-and-white Thunder-color Kobes that had originally been sent for Derek Fisher, who finished his playing career with the Thunder in the 2013-14 season and had previously been a longtime teammate of Kobe Bryant. Giddey, cradling the boxes like a child on Christmas, looked at Taylor and said: "Can I have them all?"
For years, this might've seemed like an unusual request. In the world of excess and fashion celebrity that is the NBA, shoes are usually ubiquitous. They're always fresh, always everywhere and typically gratis.
Until now.
Last spring, Nike and Vanessa Bryant announced they were parting ways after the shoe giant's deal with the late Kobe Bryant ended. The sides are still talking with the hope they can eventually come to terms, sources told ESPN, but currently the partnership is off. There had already been production delays that prevented players from getting their normal supply during the 2020-21 season, and for now, there are no more Kobes being produced.
Suddenly, the most popular sneaker among NBA players is also the hardest to get.
"If you don't already have them," says Portland Trail Blazers forward Larry Nance, "you're not getting them."
KOBE BRYANT'S SIGNATURE Nike sneaker had become unquestionably the most popular shoe for NBA players in recent years. During the 2019-20 season, more than 100 players were wearing the Kobe 4 Protro, a retro re-release of a sneaker Bryant originally wore in 2008. Today's players love the design, the feel and the statement of the Kobes.
"This generation looks at Kobe like our Jordan," says Chicago Bulls guard DeMar DeRozan, known in the league as the dean of the Kobe shoe devotees. "It's a great shoe to wear. Guys really fell in love with it."
In the Orlando bubble in 2020, just months after Bryant's tragic death, nearly one-third of the 330 or so players were wearing a version of Kobe's signature shoe, and that figure was growing. Over the past two years, a number of players who'd previously been with Under Armour and Adidas did not have their sneaker endorsement contracts renewed, a trend that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the new sneaker free agents went looking for Kobes. It all adds up to a large contingent of players who now have a source problem for their Kobe needs.
There are still supplies on sale at some retailers, but not in great numbers in the sizes NBA players typically need. The scarcity of larger sizes has driven a pricing boom on secondary shoe resale websites such as StockX, GOAT and eBay.
NBA players who wear size 14 or larger are looking at spending at least $800 for the most basic models of Kobes, and that's not what they typically wear. But the players are paying, with several telling ESPN they've spent more than five figures buying supplies of Kobes on the secondary market since last spring and summer.
"I'm not going into a store and finding a [size] 17 in a Kobe. No way," says Anthony Davis, who switched to the Kobes when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019. "I mean, it's guys' favorite shoes. ... A lot of people are inspired by him, and the shoe feels amazing. All of them feel amazing."
Players previously used to wearing whatever colors they wanted -- particularly after the league relaxed its rules around sneakers before the 2018-19 season -- are now scouring the web and trying to hunt forgotten stockpiles to get shoes to wear in games. And they're competing against each other for the available large sizes in the marketplace.
"If you weren't in on them for the last few years," says DeRozan, a longtime Kobe model enthusiast, "you're having a tough time."
Kobes are now considered "deadstock," taking them into a vintage market that ups the ante. NBA players have chased deadstock shoes for years, often to add to their collections to wear or display off the court. Miami Heat forward P.J. Tucker is known for wearing high-end vintage models in games, but he's an outlier.
It's also not unheard of for players to occasionally buy shoes for game usage. Taylor says he sometimes helped players such as former Thunder center Steven Adams, who wears size 19 and really liked the way Derrick Rose's older Adidas models fit him, spend a few hundred dollars to chase down extra pairs. More commonly around the league, players wear what they're paid to wear and there's almost never a thought about supply.
The current situation around Kobes is a whole new game, even for players paid to wear Nikes. Giddey, who signed a multiyear deal with Nike before the season, and players like him are spending more than $1,500 on pairs of Kobes right now as they try to stock up for this season and beyond. Their agents are sniffing around for them, calling in favors and hunting the secondary market for their clients, but without much success.
"I've had a few guys reach out to me for help," says Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker said. "I'll never run out of Kobes."
Booker and DeRozan have a supply of PEs, shorthand for Player Exclusives, that Nike has set them up with as brand ambassadors for years. But they're in an elite class. The shortage is particularly hitting young players who adore Bryant and his shoe line but haven't had the benefit of being in the league long enough to create a backlog.
"I'm working on it every day," says New Orleans Pelicans rookie Trey Murphy, who wore a pair of Kobes gifted to him by a teammate to start the season. "It's hard out there right now. I'm not DeMar DeRozan."
But even DeRozan can't be DeRozan.
"I used to play in a pair once or twice and then give my shoes away to fans," DeRozan says. "I may not be able to do that as much."
THE RUMORS OF the end of the Bryant family agreement with Nike started circulating last season before becoming official in April. Nike reps quietly told team equipment managers to prepare their Kobe guys for an end.
"Some of us got the word, and we started hoarding them," says Suns forward Jae Crowder. "By the time the news came out, I had banked up enough for about two years."
Stars with major shoe deals like LeBron James, who has given molds of his feet to Nike so custom shoes feel broken in on first wear, break out a new pair each game. Some players will wear them for a couple of games. Crowder says his two-year supply was 100 pairs, as he usually goes through about 50 in a year. Davis, on the other hand, uses fewer, as he says he will use around 20-25 pairs of his relatively shallow Kobe supply this season.
Some players without a similarly deep supply have already been forced to switch. Several equipment managers say players have switched this season to the plentiful Nike Kyrie Irving Low model, which has design similarities to the Kobe model. Others are using Nike's new more generic line, the GT. But many custom shoes have been delayed as Nike and other shoe retailers deal with factory shutdowns in Asia due to COVID-19.
In the meantime, the players who still have Kobes are trying to get the most out of each box.
"The guys I have wearing Kobes are wearing them until they damn near fall apart," one equipment manager says.
When discussing this situation with ESPN, players repeatedly expressed hope that Nike and the Bryant estate can come to a new agreement, a talking point that's been pervasive among sneakerheads this fall. But even if that comes to pass, it would be a long time before Kobes are available again -- to players or anyone else. Product lines typically take Nike 12-16 months to produce, sources say, and that was before the pandemic disrupted global supply chains.
Either way, as this season rolls on and the supplies of the remaining Kobes begin to dwindle with no replacements, the demand for the late Hall of Famer's beloved shoe design will only increase. In a time when some players are dabbling in cryptocurrency investments, there might be a new exchange developing as more players get desperate.
"I've always had so many pairs, but I'm looking at them differently now. Guys are asking me [for them], but I can't go through them like I did," DeRozan says. "If it gets bad, I may have to even go to my secret vault."
ESPN's Dave McMenamin contributed to this story.
Last edited:
- Jul 18, 2013
- 32,887
- 81,711
They all remember when he was a beast before college
He just hasn't maintained the same comparative level of excellence since then
But if Cam ever does start putting it together...
- Jan 5, 2011
- 67,837
- 79,007
Game time. We out herrrrre
- Feb 23, 2010
- 23,404
- 26,484
I'm not on the bitcoin/crypto wave yet. Straight cash homie only for now.
- Mar 17, 2014
- 12,961
- 10,430
I’d find a way to lock my mom out her house
- May 25, 2001
- 22,152
- 16,404
Josh Giddey got his from the equipment room. Were leftovers from Derek Fisher during that 3 yr period when he kept signing with OKC in March
- Sep 5, 2010
- 92,998
- 129,411
Leftovers from last season and buying from resellers.
- Jun 24, 2013
- 32,376
- 34,871
It’s solid. I just couldn’t use my debit card tho
- Status
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