No, Shaq isn’t dropping a hip-hop album anytime soon. But don’t worry — we’ll keep begging him to.
Shaquille O’Neal is a man of many talents, but you already knew that. The dude is always busy.
For decades, we saw Shaq dunking on people at historic rates throughout his Hall of Fame NBA career. Now we mostly see him in segments on TNT’s Inside the NBA show, widely regarded as the best sports show on television.
And of course, if you wait long enough you’ll see him in a commercial for one of the many brands he’s working with — and, trust me, there are a lot.
When he’s not doing that, he’s extending helping hands out into the community like he’s currently doing with Icy Hot.
Shaq partnered with Icy Hot — another one of the brands he works with — to build a new “Comebaq Court” at the Challengers Boys & Girls Club in Los Angeles. The latest court is part of a nationwide effort between Shaq and Icy Hot to refurbish basketball courts in underserved communities across the country.
Along with LA so far, the partnership has rebuilt courts in Miami, Newark, Atlanta and Las Vegas. Shaq took a bit of time to chat with For The Win about the Comebaq Court initiative amongst other questions including his upcoming work as the president of Reebok basketball as well as his latest hip-hop feature on a track with Rick Ross, Meek Mill and Damian Lillard. Yes, it gets a little spicy.
Growing up, I remember every kid in the gym wanting to be like Allen Iverson. From his cornrows to his crossover to the shooting sleeve he wore to games, everybody wanted to copy that.
I also remember every kid beating the lunch room table into the ground while trying to recreate some of Pharrell’s genius beats. To this day, I still cannot properly hit that Grindin’ beat.
These are two pillars of my childhood. The same can be said for a lot of other folks out there who grew up in those same eras. We went from hooping on the court during school hours to being punk skater kids after. It was incredible.
That essence is caught perfectly in today’s SPECIAL DELIVERY subject. We unboxed Reebok and BBC Ice Cream’s ‘Running Dog’ Question Lows — an OG Iverson basketball silhouette with Pharrell’s Ice Cream colors all over it.
It was an absolute blast from the past for me. You can see how Reebok so effortlessly combined these eras in the video above.
If you’re as big a fan of Pharrell and Iverson as I am? You certainly don’t want to miss it.
SportsPulse: Lester Speight, known for playing Terry Tate in Reebok’s early 2000’s ad campaign, stops by to talk with USA TODAY Sports about filming the commercials and why his costars were so tough.
SportsPulse: Lester Speight, known for playing Terry Tate in Reebok’s early 2000’s ad campaign, stops by to talk with USA TODAY Sports about filming the commercials and why his costars were so tough.
At its core, being a sneakerhead is all about finding shoes that you love and wearing the heck out of them. Simple, right?
That used to be what the game was all about. Now, it’s changed. There are always challenges that come with all that.
Of course, there’s shortened stock that always gets in the way. Of course, there are the bots. And then, last but certainly not least, the pricing. Sometimes, you’re just not willing to pay that much for a shoe.
Reebok is giving sneakerheads everywhere a unique way around those very problems and they’re doing it in the most simple way.
Instead of creating a shoe, limiting its stock and then shipping it out to the masses for it to sell out in 0.5 seconds, they’re handing over the reigns of control to the people who actually want the shoes they create through their new First Pitch platform.
Reebok announces new "First Pitch" digital platform that allows consumers to choose if certain shoes will be produced. Launching 8/10
Through it, sneakerheads have more say than ever in the shoes Reebok drops and even how much they want to pay for it.
Wait, First Pitch? What’s that?
First Pitch is a digital platform Reebok is launching on August 10. They’ll produce a bunch of new concepts and sketches, post them on the platform and allow people to tell them if they want to buy them or not.
So what makes this different?
Instead of actually just producing the shoe and throwing it on a site, they’re including the people in their process.
They produce these concepts and allow users to commit to buying the actual shoe. Each sneaker’s price starts at $1 and each commitment they get from different users increases the price of the shoe by $1. They keep going until they get a commitment from enough users to sell 500 pairs of the shoe.
Wait, wouldn’t that mean they’d be selling $500 shoes? That’s a lot of money, Sykes
It would be a lot of money and that’s why they’re absolutely not doing that.
Instead, they have a set retail price goal for each shoe they produce. And once that goal is hit, the price of the shoe stops going up.
Here’s an example. Let’s say they have a shoe with a retail goal of $90. It’ll start at $1. With each commitment from a person to buy the shoe, that price goes up by $1. Once it hits $90, it won’t go over that retail goal anymore. And once they hit 500 pairs, they sell the shoes to each person who committed to buying a pair for $90.
Whoa, that’s pretty cool
Yup! It is. Guaranteed pairs. No abnormally outrageous prices. And lots of choice. It’s a great situation.
And the best part is that it restricts them from creating shoes that’ll just sit on shelves. Instead of creating something people don’t like and having it sit, they’ll just make a shoe people have already committed to buying.
That means less wasted material and a more efficient development process.
So when can I try this out?
It all drops on August 10, so in just over a week you’ll be able to give it a shot.
What is the first shoe dropping?
It’s the Classic Leather “Bee Keeper” and it looks pretty sick.
“I feel like everything I’m going through right now is what you went through, just a newer version,” James Harden told Allen Iverson.
As a promotional tool for their upcoming sneaker collaboration, Reebok released a video Monday of Basketball Hall of Famer Allen Iverson chatting with Houston Rockets superstar James Harden.
The new sneaker is a crossover involving Adidas, which has an endorsement deal with Harden, and Reebok, long represented by Iverson.
Harden, who leads the NBA in scoring for a third straight season, thanked Iverson for helping him play through criticism of his unique style.
Among Harden’s comments to Iverson:
I feel like everything I’m going through right now is what you went through, just a newer version. Criticism, negative energy, negativity. ‘Why does he do this? ‘Why does he do that?’ Like, nobody understands. And I’m cool with that.
“Those are my flowers, why I’m still here,” replied Iverson, who played the most of his storied career with the Philadelphia 76ers. “When I get them from killers like you, those are my flowers, right there.”
In the call, Harden also said this to his fellow MVP guard:
I’m not here to explain myself or try to get people to understand where I come from, or what I do, or why I do it. I’m a killer, I work my ass off. Y’all are going to figure it out. Maybe when I’m retired, maybe when I’m done and gone, it’ll catch up to you.
“Right now, I don’t have time to explain myself,” Harden concluded in his comments to Iverson. “I feel like you, it’s like a carbon copy. I wanted to say I appreciate you, bro, for paving the way and leading that example, and getting [people] like me to follow it and to try and be even better, at being themselves. Because that’s all I can be. So, I appreciate you.”
This January, in an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, Iverson went out of his way to defend Harden and his unique style of play.
Iverson, an 11-time All-Star and four-time NBA scoring champion, was asked if he thought criticisms of Harden’s style were warranted.
No way. No way. That man has so much talent. He’s so great. He deserves all the praise that he gets. There’s always going to be a critic out here. There’s always going to be somebody out there saying he could do something else better than what he’s doing. I think he just keeps his foot to the pedal. … Because I know his teammates love having him in that foxhole and rocking with him night in and night out. So, James, keep doing your thing, man.
Harden currently leads the Rockets and the NBA with a 34.3 points per game scoring average, which represents just the third time in over 30 years that a player has averaged at least 34 points in a season. (The other two were Harden’s 36.1 last season and Kobe Bryant’s 35.4 in 2005-06.)
Known best as “The Beard,” Harden is an eight-time NBA All-Star and the league’s 2018 MVP. Now 30 years old, he’s already a virtual lock to join Iverson in the Hall of Fame whenever his career concludes.
In a brand crossover involving Reebok and Adidas, the upcoming Question Mid “OG Meets OG” sneaker honors both legendary NBA guards.
Basketball Hall of Famer Allen Iverson and Houston Rockets superstar James Harden are joining forces on a new sneaker.
In a historic crossover involving Reebok and Adidas, the soon-to-be-released sneaker is named the Question Mid “OG Meets OG.”
The shoe includes elements from the first signature sneaker of each player, and it comes packaged in a co-branded box. It is set to be released on August 7, according to Sneaker News, at a price of $150.
Via Sneaker News, here’s more on the release:
In a brand crossover of epic proportions, Reebok and adidas join forces to honor two of the most influential basketball superstars in the history of the sport with the Question Mid. Dubbed the “OG Meets OG”, this upcoming August drop honors Allen Iverson by relying on his iconic first signature shoe while adding key iconography of the bearded James Harden.
Most notably, the “3” medallion on the heel is replaced with Harden’s official adidas logo, while the Rockets’ All-Star’s name is featured on the interior lace eyelets. Furthermore, the colorway on the full grain leather upper is an homage to the launch edition of Harden’s first-ever signature shoe release, which occurred in late 2016.
This January, in an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, Iverson went out of his way to defend Harden and his unique style of play.
Iverson, an 11-time All-Star and four-time NBA scoring champion, was asked if he thought criticism of Harden’s playing style was warranted.
The 2001 MVP responded:
No way. No way. That man has so much talent. He’s so great. He deserves all the praise that he gets. There’s always going to be a critic out here. There’s always going to be somebody out there saying he could do something else better than what he’s doing. I think he just keeps his foot to the pedal. … Because I know his teammates love having him in that foxhole and rocking with him night in and night out. So, James, keep doing your thing, man.
On Tuesday, Iverson excitedly posted news of the shoe collaboration with Harden to his personal Twitter account.
Harden currently leads the Rockets and the NBA with a 34.3 points per game scoring average, which represents just the third time in over 30 years that a player has averaged at least 34 points in a season. (The other two were Harden’s 36.1 last season and Kobe Bryant’s 35.4 in 2005-06.)
Known best as “The Beard,” Harden is an eight-time NBA All-Star and the league’s 2018 MVP. Now 30 years old, he’s already a virtual lock to join Iverson in the Hall of Fame whenever his career concludes.
Hamler’s stunt isn’t quite as good as the originals but it’s worth noting that many of the original “Fantasy Files” were doctored. Here is the original from Chambers — it’s possible that it’s real but not certain.
Chambers spent 10 years in the NFL, playing for the Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs. He caught 540 passes for 7,648 yards and 58 touchdowns.
Hamler was selected by the Broncos in the second round of this year’s NFL draft after catching 98 passes for 1,658 yards and 13 touchdowns in two seasons at Penn State. Hamler also rushed for 87 yards and a touchdown and totaled 1,258 return yards for the Nittany Lions.
