I'm a sucker for rare old pictures of Michael Jordan. I found these pictures on a really dope ebay listing for some autographed game worn sneakers by some of the Championship Chicago Bulls players including Mike, Scottie, Horace Grant and others.
Enjoy-
( Love the vintage Air Jordan gear Mike's rockin' in this picture )
( Peep the personalized "Fear 33" Illinois plate )
( Horce with the drop top BMW sitting on MOMO's! )
Less than a week ago, the world was introduced to the next chapter of the Jordan Brand legacy, the Air Jordan 2009. Controversy over the sneaker’s unique design and innovative concept is still being debated. However, it seems Jordan Brand has much more in store for us than just the Air Jordan 2009.
It appears there’s a Jordan Brand promotional film in the works. The film is still in it’s developmental stages, so only a little information has been released. The film is said be titled as “Extraordinary Abilities” and a set of teaser clips, like the one below, will release throughout the year to build anticipation for upcoming Jordan products. Each teaser will tie in with new Jordan releases & the film as a form of viral media marketing.
As you can already tell, the first video features the Air Jordan 2009 and includes some epic special effects. I remember when I thought Air Jordan's actually could make you jump like that!
It's rare that a Jordan themed collaboration slips by me, but I recently stumbled upon an old collaboration UNDEFEATED did with an artist by the name of Eric Elms back in 2007. I had to post it.
Enjoy-
Undefeated took Eric's drawings and printed some limited editon serigraph's.
I will be looking for these shirts on ebay tonight!
For more of Eric's art check his site at EricAdorn.com.
It was today, 10 years ago, on January 13, 1999 that the game of basketball forever changed.
The man that was the face of a sport and a league for more than a decade left the game. Michael Jordan’s second retirement wasn’t his last, but the game was never the same after his exit as a Chicago Bull.
Nike put together a touching video that was played at commercial break following Michael Jordan’s announcement that he would never suit up again for the Bulls. Thank you again Mike for all the memories, and thank NiceKicks for the story.
I'd like to add my personal story to the Nice Kicks story...
For alot of people Michael Jordan was just a basketball player, a superstar you saw on tv selling products and on your local news sports highlights etc etc...
But for me Mike was part of my life. Before I started playing basketball I was just a young dorky kid with no kinda style and no real intrests besides little kid shit.
Once I tryed basketball I fell in love with it. I started playing everyday. I was watching every game I could on tv. And for some reason our cable got Chicago's local WGN and televised they televised all the Chicago Bulls games.
My hometown of Miami had just recently got a basketball team, the Heat, and my mom started taking me to the games. I got my first pair of Air Jordans. The Black Infrared VI's! From there I was hooked.
I started collecting basketball cards and the only shit I would wear was NIKE, I got all the cool ass basketball videos from back in the day like Come Fly With Me and Michael Jordan's Playground, NBA Super Stars etc etc. I joined the basketball leauges and went to the park EVERYDAY!!! I would play until the lights went off. My first time watching the NBA Finals was Mike's first title against the Lakers.
From that moment on I followed Mike's career like I worked for ESPN. I was in the Michael Jordan fan club, my room looked like a shrine to the god of basketball Michael Jordan. Anything with Mike on it, I stashed it or hung it up on my wall.
I'm sure that many of you share the same story with me. So today really is an important day in basketball history. This was the end of an amazing career that I really enjoyed being a part of.
I was there for the best part of the ride. Yea yea I know Mike came back, again, I was there for that too... but come on, that shit didnt count. Besides I was already into my mid 20's, I had alot of other things I was into by then. But i'll never forget the game that gave me style, and the man that defined that style.
Thank you Michael. You were my hero. No one will ever do it like you did-
In 1992-93 the Bulls did what no team had done since the legendary Celtics of the 60s by chalking up the three-peat over regular season MVP Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns, with John Paxsons shot that gave them a 99-98 victory in Game six at Phoenix.
Jordan was once again the Finals MVP after setting a Finals record for points per game (41.0 ppg). He also tied Wilt Chamberlain by winning his seventh straight scoring title.
Enjoy the Chicago Bulls Historic Third Championship Season video broken down here into 5 youtube clips.
Thank youtube member "AlanFlowersHoopsBlog" for the video.
The eighth Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational (MJCI) will be held this year at the luxurious Ocean Club Golf Course from Wednesday, January 21, to Sunday, January 25, on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
MJCI consistently brings in an incredible array of talent from the worlds of sports and entertainment to compete on the course and participate in various events – all in the name of charity.
“I love golf and I love the Bahamas, I can’t think of a better location than the Ocean Club Golf Course and Atlantis, Paradise Island for my eighth annual golf tournament," said Michael Jordan. "January is the best time of the year to be in the Bahamas. The weather is fantastic and the competition is always fierce. I hope to see you there!”
Over $500,000 will be dispersed to the following:
Butch Kerzner Summit Foundation
Make-A-Wish Foundation
The James R. Jordan Foundation
Forty additional charities will be designated by celebrity participants.
In its first six years, over $3 million has been donated to various charities.
In 2008 the golfers competed for a purse of $200,000 that was donated to the charity of their choice.
One of the highlights last year was a concert at Atlantis featuring Ashanti, Fat Joe, The Pussycat Dolls, and the O.J.s. Some of the other stars in attendance were Spike Lee, Kid Rock, Boris Kodjoe, Alan Thicke, Stephen Baldwin, John McEnroe, Stone Phillips, Mario Lemieux, Dave Annable, Flex Alexander, Angie Everhart, Dan Jensen, Brandie Chastain, Dennis Haysbert, Connie Chung and Maury Povich.
LeBron James has a big announcement to make on January 18th, 2008 and these leaked pictures might have something to do with it.
Could his future announcement be that he’s so awesome, he needs a new challenge and playing for the Cleveland Browns is that challenge?
Or could it mean that the LBJ Nike apparel line will now also make football stuff like the Jordan line? I doubt, due to the fact Lebron's rocking a Reebok Jersey. Either way, if LeBron James decided to lace them up in the NFL, it would still be scary for defenders because LBJ is one of the 5 NBA Players Who Could Play In The NFL easily! Hang tight Braylon Edwards, help could be on the way.
In my never ending pursuit of content for the blog I landed on the website of Siggi Eggertsson, an artist from Akureyri, Iceland.
Sounds really cold there... Anyways, I just wanted to share some of Siggi's art work with all of the Like Mike readers.
Enjoy-
This was his graduation project in The Iceland Academy of the Arts back in 2006.
It's a patchwork quilt, based on his childhood memories. It measures 2x2.5 meters, and it's made out of 10,000 pieces. Looks like Mike had fans all the way out in Iceland. Good job Siggi, i'll be looking for it on later on ebay.
Now this is what caught my eye on google while searching for images on the previous blog post...
His 2007 “Athletes” exhibition in Vallery, a gallery in Barcelona.
It featured 13 portraits of his favorite athletes all done in an 8-bit video game style. These are my favorite 3 from the series. I have a feeling some of these will end up as your avatars on nike talk and iss...
In addition to Mike, Scottie and Dennis, Siggi also showed love to a few other of my favorite athletes.
My white brother from another mother, Larry Bird lookin' tuff with the black eye.
And the man that promised and delivered a championship to my beloved Miami Heat, Shaq Diesel.
This is my favorite quote from Siggi's site:
"...to be honest, today I'm no longer really into sports. I don’t work out and I almost never play basketball. I just sit in front of the computer, draw, drink and smoke. But for some weird reason I love to read about sports, to see how the games went, who scored the most and so on. Occasionally I go to a bar to watch big and important games, while smoking and drinking..."
This guy sounds alot like me.
Check out more of Siggi Eggertsson's work at Vanillusaft.com
Slam City is a full motion video basketball game -the only one of its kind to my knowledge, that uses actual people for street basketball. The entire game is played from third person -over your shoulder, and since its street basketball it's only half court with no rules, and I actually mean no rules other than traveling, just as it should be in a video game.
Right from the opening intro -which Scottie Pippen himself sings, it is clear that this game is something special.
From the thug-in and buggin street dancing to Mad Dog nearly getting curb stomped on a basketball court, I haven't even played the game yet and I feel as if Slam City was money well spent. Packed onto a massive 4 discs, my only big criticism of Slam City is the constant disc changing. Each of the 4 basketball opponents has their own disc, except the first disc which has 2 for the final 5th battle against Scottie Pippen, so be prepared to switch back and forth between discs quite frequently while playing the game, thank god games now days allow you to install onto hard drives.
As far as I know you are playing as "Ace", although I always imagine myself as the main character, after all, the best games allow you to immerse yourself into the role, and the 4 selectable opponents from the start are Fingers, Juice, Smash, and my personal favorite, Mad Dog. Mad Dog is the buffed out steroid user who has meltdowns on the basketball court if he starts losing, probably the steroids kicking in.
The gameplay of Slam City is nothing special, in fact it's rather confusing. The game also has a respect meter that you're trying to build up, since basketball is all about earning mad cred. Making a shot, getting a rebound, and successfully defending your opponent all add hundreds of thousands of street cred points, but missing a shot, getting blocked, or giving up a shot makes you an Urkel and takes away your cred.
Slam City is by no means an easy game. In fact, it's one of the hardest Sega CD games I own, and trust me, the Sega CD is full of brutally difficult games. Maybe I lack the cred necessary to be able to hang with Fingers on the court, but I can barely manage to make the games competitive, much less actually win one. Scores are often 7-3 or 7-4 in favor of the opponents, so I've never actually gotten to play against Scotty himself, and lord knows he's got to be invincible, it's his game after all.
But what keeps me coming back over and over again to Slam City is the absolutely hysterical dialogue. Now I've ranted about funny lines in games like NBA Jam, "is it the shoes?" but Slam City blows them all away. Pretty much every time you start a game, make a basket, give up a basket, get rejected, lose a game, or win a game there's a cut scene that follows. For example every time you miss a shot there's a cut scene where your opponent smacks the ball right out of your hands and either looks at you disappointed or trash talks you with lines like "what did you think was going to happen?" Or in Mad Dog's case he flexes his muscles and smiles at you, probably foreshadowing what's going to happen in the shower after the game.
Now the best lines come from when you lose, as something hysterical always happens. I searched high and low for YouTube videos of Slam City to no luck, other than the intro which I already posted, so you're going to have to take my word for it. I'm not going to sit here explaining every Oscar-caliber losing cut scene to you but I will describe my favorite.
So you just lost to Fingers in an embarrassing defeat. Looking for sympathy, Mad Dog let's you know that you suck and have no game. So being the loser you are, you just want to get out of the spotlight and return to your girlfriend who probably thinks you're a loser as well. But not only do you get cut off and shoved away by Juice as she walks by, but Fingers than pulls the ultimate playa move and rips a giant weed out of the ground and hands it to your girlfriend as she looks on with "f*ck me" eyes. That's right, not only did you lose in basketball to Fingers, but he takes your girlfriend as well. But it's ok, she's obviously a whore if she's won over by a guy named Finger ripping a weed out of the ground and handing it to her.
Other quick but notable insults from Slam City: "He polished you like China", "You fell like an angel out of the sky", "Boy I'm going to drink you like milk", "I'll stuff it so far down your throat you'll look pregnant with twins", and "there's a pen and paper in my jock strap, start taking notes".
While I will admit Slam City doesn't offer much in terms of gameplay, the dialogue and cut scenes in Slam City are more than enough to warrant the $15 bucks I spent on E-bay for it. It's a shame there aren't more games like this.
Thank Mark Salmela at 411mania.com for the breakdown.
The Jordan “numbered” signature series came to a fitting end with the Air Jordan XX3's last year.
Recently, news of a Jordan 2009, brought rejoice and dismay to Jordan fans alike, with some happy that the Jordan legacy would continue, however, left others vexed at the thought of JB ruining a “perfect ending”.
It seems that JB will continue to produce a signature Jordan annually, ending with the numbered series, but continuing with the corresponding year as the suffix.
Enjoy this interview with JB Senior Footwear Designer, Jason Mayden, describing the design details and inspiration for the next legacy of Jordan Brand.
Bulls vs. Sixers, 1996. This was one of the few statement games by an older and wiser Jordan. With rookie Jerry Stackhouse mouthing off to the press about how he held his own against Mike during his summer-UNC warmup sessions, Jordan was quietly enraged. To add to that, Vernon 'Mad' Maxwell was upset that the Bulls were getting so much press with MJ's return after retirement that he spewed nonsense to the press as well. It awoke the sleeping giant.
This video is a perfect example of what Mike did when you ran your mouth before a game.
Enjoy-
With cool and calm efficiency, Mike destroyed the two in this game. Toying with Stack the whole game, Mike frustrated him into shooting 4-11 for 13 pts. Smothering Mad Max the other half of the time, Mike ruined him into shooting 1-8 for 4 pts. On the other end, Mike chose to hit 64% with a butter-like J to go 18-28 in 3 quarters for 48 pts and 10 rebounds. With his exploits responsible for a 30 point lead, Mike rested the 4th, iced his knees and asserted his physical and mental mastery of the game while marching his way to a record 72 win season that year.
Jordan Brand has just dropped the shirts to go with the upcoming Tribe Called Quest x Air Jordan 1.
Taking inspiration for the graphics on Tribe’s 3rd album, Midnight Marauders, which is their highest selling album, and features faces of the crew behind a graphic that screams early 90’s.
Jordan Brand drops a black and white tee featuring the same graphics as the album cover but using MJ’s silhouette, on top of the many faces of Michael in the background.
Not exactly an original idea for Jordan Brand but I still love it.
Now I feel like might be over doing the Tribe video posts on here but i'm going to do it one more time...
First I did this post when UNDRCRWN droped Tribe inspired shirts and then again when Rock Smith linked up with UNDRCRWN for Tribe inspired shirts... So this may be the final time I post Tribe inspired shirts along with all my favorite Tribe videos.
