Ankle Sprain Fueled Quest For Basketball Shoes In India

When it comes to running, I’m all for minimalist shoes. Those are basically glorified socks with a thin sole on the bottom. When it comes to basketball, I’ve come to realize after numerous ankle sprains, that something substantial is needed to keep the ankles safe. Overuse injuries are another factor, besides accidental injuries. For those who ball regularly, ill fitting and ill suited shoes can lead to pain in the knee and hip joints. Shin splints are also common for the runners.

I was set on getting a pair which kept the ankle rolls in check and would last me for a couple of years at least. High ankle top being a must. All the shoes with high tops started at 3 grand, regardless of the brand. Except for the Chuck Taylor Converse shoes, which came for a thousand and change. But the Chucks seemed like they were made out of a piece of cloth, they’d bend and crumple up easily around the ankles. That didn’t inspire confidence for ankle protection. Chuck Ts crossed off the list.

Being an avid fan of Allen Iverson, it was a magical moment for me when the clerk in the fifth Reebok store I visited dusted off an old pair of the Questions. AI’s first shoes. This was after one store proclaimed that they only stock Reeboks and not Answers. Another misheard Answer for Cancer. I was about the end of my tether by the time I made it to the fifth store.

As a rookie, the NBA cracked down on Allen Iverson as he wore ankle braces which didn’t permit enough of the white socks to show.

The Questions. Allen Iverson's first NBA shoes

“Iverson uses a medical brace, so we just built the shoe knowing we wanted good traction- that’s key,” Hewitt (Reebok) says. “Support means using a lot of leather and that’s what he prefers. Leather gives you more support than a synthetic or a mesh. It’s a high-quality upper, and that’s what he’s looking for.”

“Ankle support. Got to have it. That’s the most important thing,” Iverson says.

“I had a lot of input on it,” Iverson says. “They let me look at things on different shoes and whichever shoe I liked, nine times out of 10 they used it. And they let me add or take away different things on the shoes. I was always a shoe fanatic, and to work with them to design my own shoe was fun. I feel good when I see little kids wearing my shoe because I know how I felt when I had Mike’s shoes when I was younger.”

I only wore one kind of sneaker when I was a kid — Jordans. I always wanted to wear Jordans. Seemed like every time they came out, my mom did whatever she had to do to make sure I got ‘em. Sometimes rent didn’t get paid because of it, but she made sure I had ‘em. On the first day of school, or the first week, everybody’s showing off all the new stuff they got — you know, their school clothes. But I would have, like, a pair of Jordans, and a couple pair of pants and, like, three shirts. I’d rather have some Jordans than clothes any day.

I was always real hard on shoes, but not my Jordans. I always took care of those. It was hard to because you want to wear them to school and you want to play in them, but I would usually discipline myself, or my mom did. She’d make me take them off. She’d say, “Take your school shoes off and put on these old sneakers.”

But you’ve got to understand what sneakers meant to me, and what they still mean to me.

I want to take the baton from Michael when he’s gone. I want to be the heir. But I don’t want people to give me that title. I don’t want people to say, “Okay, this is Allen Iverson’s league. Mike’s gone, it’s him.” Give it to Kobe. You all give it to Kobe, or give it to Grant, or give it to Shaq. I want people to give it to them. If they want it to be given to them, then give it to them. But I don’t want that. I want all the odds against me. That’s the way I’ve been all my life. I want all the odds against me, and I want to take it.

I want to say, “You all didn’t give me this title, I took this. I took this.” They talk about handing over the torch, but I don’t want them to hand it to me. I want to take it. When the best player leaves this game, when No. 23 leaves this game, then I’ll make my bid myself.

Those are some big shoes to fill, but I’ll stick both of my feet in ‘em if I have to, just for them to fit. Yep. I’ll stick my feet in that dude’s sneakers. Like I said, I wore ‘em when I was a kid.

Ankle insurance.

The ankles are by far the most vulnerable body part in basketball. Jumping and landing sideways. Landing on someone’s foot. Falling victim to an ankle breaker. Although when you wear Iverson’s shoes, you ought to be the one doing the ankle breaking. Even with high top shoes one can suffer a sprained ankle. Wearing ankle braces over the socks can give some more support to the ligaments and prevent tears of both kinds. In the pic below, I’m wearing two ankle braces, the black one is for support and beneath it is a compression bandage. The black brace can be purchased from Bodyline stores for about Rs 350. Those who have been sidelined for months by ankle sprains will realize the importance of additional ankle support. I’m wearing the compression bandage to help reduce swelling from a previous sprain, one brace is enough in normal cases.

Two ankle braces, better than one. However, too many make for bondage rather than bandage.

Here are some advantages that come to mind when I lace up the Questions:

- High ankle. Helps guard against ankle rolls.- Comfy inside. Putting my feet in them makes it feel like they’re being caressed by velvety satin. It’s real soft.- In RPG games, certain items of clothing imbue the wearer with special attributes. These shoes do it for real. They add +2 inches to height with their thick soles.- The toe cap is really tough. Protection for when someone happens to stomp on you.- The bottom of the shoe has a wide surface. That helps to absorb impact.

Before every game, I wipe my shoes with a wet cloth, getting them shiny clean. And I think of the guy who wore and helped design them.

For placebo effect to be effective, one has to be convinced that there is an element of truth behind it. These are the shoes that Iverson rocked when he crossed up Michael Jordan. The Questions. The first pair that he had in the NBA. Just looking down at my feet during a game makes fatigue evaporate. Sort of. More importantly, the ankles are safe for another day.

Ankle braces/high ankle shoes will go a long way in keeping you on the court. Go get some.