Back at the Writer’s Desk

The 2011 Lineup

I have been off the blogosphere for a while, since Feb 7th, 2011. Just didn’t feel like writing.

In June my sports buddy (stepfather) passed away after a long illness.

After that, I was deep into preparation for Jordan’s Bar Mitzvah.

Now it is football season again. Time to get back to school and work. Time to start writing again.

Today I am pondering the evil empire (Nike) versus the good guys (Under Armour). This time it is about pickup basketball for old guys like me.

Any of you who know me, know that I am geeked up about UA. The fact that UA is the uniform supplier for Maryland and that the founder went to Maryland is the basis of the connection. It also does not help that even after the Terps won both the men’s and women’s basketball national championship, we were still well down the list on Nike’s list of fav’s.

A few months ago there was alot of talk that being the only UA basketball school was killing us with recruits. Recently, UA has made a huge push for the AAU crowd. I believe that we even converted local AAU coach Curtis Malone (head coach DC Assault) from Nike to UA.

Anyhow, back to the story. I have been pushing UA in my own household. About 5 years ago we stopped buying Nike. Then Jordan (now 13 yrs old) went rouge on us and wanted to be different. In my house, wearing anything Nike is going against the grain. I still have some old Nike stuff, just not planning to buy any more.

So I figured that if I made the commitment to play, I could cement the deal in my mind by getting new shoes.  If the shoes are there, you gotta go play.  I went shopping for new Under Armour shoes at the Under Armour store in Montgomery Mall.  To my surprise and disappointment, they did not fit well. 

It is hard for me to get shoes that fit well. Size 12+ and really bad knees don’t help. It has not mattered much recently as I have only played sparingly. But it is time to get back into shape.

I confess that I had looked at some Nikes, they looked very light weight and modern.  I told the boys that it was like a Kosher kid looking at bacon.  Only as a last resort, would I even try them on. 

Well now I had been shot down in my target hunting, the UA shoes did not fit and the Nikes were calling my name.  Off to Champs we went and I headed straight for the Nikes that I had been looking at for months.  Surprise, the Nikes were on sale! They did not fit too well either. On to the next target.

The salesman pointed out that Champs had the Jumpman line and a another three that had LeBron stiched onto the heel.  Not Tar Heels or Bron Bron for me.

Then I saw the all black HyperDunk Zoom.  I was all in for this one.  It is made of a new material called “flywire” with air soles.

I believe that Flywire is made of a strand of Kevlar, one of Spandex, one of Dacron and repeat.

I can’t justify the price, although this is probably the last “real” pair of basketball shoes and the last basketball season I will be playing.  I hope the next blog post does not come from the surgeon’s office.
Basketball starts the 2nd week in September