THE 5

The 5: Worst basketball shoes, in honor of Lonzo Ball’s kicks

May 5, 2017, 8:00 AM | Updated: 11:33 am

Lonzo and LaVar Ball released their independent shoe company’s first signature shoe on Thursday.

They cost $495, and while they don’t look all that bad, they likely rank in most sneaker aficianado’s worst kicks when it comes to the value. Argue that how you may, but we’re taking a look back in history at the most questionable basketball shoes of the past few decades.

Here are my five:

Adidas Kobe 2

kobe_two2

Kobe Bryant has come a long way.

Where Adidas was going with these remains a mystery. It’s a bad sign when the shoes are the exact same shape as the shoe-box.

Dada Sprewell Spinners

“Success is just failure that hasn’t happened yet.”

Take it from the guy currently in Priceline commercials to have his name attached to some of the most questionable shoes ever made.

Why do they have spinners in them?

Thanks to shows like “Pimp My Ride,” those were all the rage back then — on cars. Cars are not shoes. Carry on.

Jordan XV

jordan_xv

Even His Airness erred on this one.

To put on Jordan’s 15th iteration of his sneakers would remind of that scene from Independence Day when the doctors at Area 51 are taking off the bio suit on the alien invader.

Under Armour Curry 2 low (white)

curry_2_lows

These shoes land here only because of this colorway.

It’s hard to explain why the white versions of Stephen Curry’s recent release were so bad other than to say they’re boring as all heck. Other colorways look, if less-than-bold, just a little bland. But there’s probably a reason the whites aren’t even available.

Adidas T-Mac 4

Tracy McGrady’s kicks were all the rage from the first through the third versions.

His fourth signature sneaker was clean looking and fine — it’s just that they were darn heavy. Why?

Because instead of laces, the shoes had a HUG compression system to tighten the shoe around the foot. That made it easy to make them perfectly comfy, but the issue was that to do so, one needed to open up the back of the heel and adjust an air valve. Very weird, very heavy.

The counterargument for these actually being great shoes:

All photos via Twitter.

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