Kobe Bryant etched his name in NBA history with his unparalleled work ethic and hunger to be the best in his 20-year career. The Black Mamba might have left the realm of the living, but his legacy still shines to this day. However, not everyone remembers Kobe Bryant the same way Nick Young does.
Nick Young played alongside Kobe Bryant for 3 seasons in the Gold and Purple threads. Young was always the one Kobe loved to pick on, but that was a part of their loving relationship.
After his final game with the Lakers, Kobe was signing autographs for everyone, so Nick Young thought he’d get something signed too. But the problem was, he had a pair of Adidas shoes. At the first sight of the shoes, Kobe flung the pair into the bin, embarrassing the former USC guard.
Luckily, Young had a pair of Nike shoes, which Kobe signed without any hesitation. The story of Nick Young wasn’t something odd, given Kobe’s fiery nature. He expected nothing but greatness, which almost forced him to leave the Lakers. But why would someone throw a perfectly stitched Adidas shoe? That’s because Kobe hated the sports apparel company with passion.
Why Did Kobe Bryant Hate Adidas?
Since Michael Jordan signed his Nike deal in 1984, the game of basketball has been revolutionized with the influx of sneaker trends. Every up-and-coming talent in the game wanted to have a shoe deal which would help them create their own identity on the court.
Kobe Bryant was no different from the ones having that mindset and, a rookie Bryant signed a shoe deal with Adidas in 1996. The then-17-year-old was eager to create his identity through the unique designs of his shoes stemming from his creativity, but that never came to pass.
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Adidas’ Kobe signature shoes were deemed abominable to the Lakers star, and he soon ditched the company in 2002. Despite paying $8 million dollars to get himself out of the contract, it was a move that favored Kobe.
After wearing 65 pairs of Air Jordans, Kobe signed with rivals, Nike, in 2003 and since then, he had the shoe line he always desired. Sneakers that unleashed his creative freedom went on to have bumper success in the shoe market and still have demand even 4 years after his passing.
His hate for Adidas was so deep-seated he didn’t even spare the interviewers. ESPN reporter Marc J. Spears once revealed that Kobe told him to trash his Adidas gear after he goes home and send him a video of it and that was the only way Spears could get an interview of Bryant, according to the reporter.
Adidas, though, remodeled the shoes they had for Kobe and released a retro-line afterward, but they never matched the success of the 5-time NBA champions’ Nike counterparts.
