Stuff I got in NY Part 3 (or stuff I tried to get but couldn't find so ordered when I got home)

Anyone who's been reading my blog recently will be well aware of my obsession with Russell Westbrook, which was only reinforced as Russ tore his way through teams in March & April while trying to drag the injury plagued Thunder into the playoffs.

As I mentioned in my All Star shorts post I don't really need anymore basketball jereseys, so a player tee was a much more wearable alternative. Unfortunately Westbrook tees were in short supply in New York. I found a couple in the Modell's opposite the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn but they only had xl's and double xl's. So I hit up every sports store we came across, but nowhere else had Russ shirts, just a whole bunch of Kevin Durant tees. I'm pretty sure we visited every sports store in Manhattan, but without any luck.

So I tried to find one online, but every online store was sold out in my size. I often find that stores that stock NBA gear only have a good size run at the beginning of the season, and if you try and get anything later in the season or during the playoffs they only have XXL's left, which has never made any sense to me, but they just never get re-stocks.

Fortunately once I was back in the UK I was able to do some more searching and finally found my size on ebay so ended up getting it shipped from the US to the UK. The Adidas NBA player tees are great quality, with a really nice three dimensional print effect that replicates the layers of sewn material that would make up the names & numbers. So while it wasn't easy to get, it was worth the effort to rep for Russ this summer.

Stuff I got in NY Part 1

While I was in New York last month there were a few bits and pieces that I couldn't get in the UK that I thought I might be able to find. One of those was a pair of NBA All Star shorts.

As soon as I saw the uniforms for this years All Star game I was really impressed. They had a really smart vintage simplicity that I loved, and the monochrome black/white with hits of red & blue are just really classic. It was a refreshing change from some of the over designed jerseys we've seen over the last couple of years, and its best not to mention the horrendous sleeved jerseys from last year.

Photo from NBA.com

One thing I don't need though is another basketball jersey as I have a whole bunch that I rarely have occasion to wear. So I was on the look out for a pair of the West Team shorts. I'd almost ordered a pair from the NBA EU online store back in February, but the £42 price tag was a little steep and they sold out pretty quick. So I was on the look out in NYC and after a little hunting I found them in the Footlocker at Times Square. And because All Star was a month and a half before I was there, they'd been put into sale and I was able to get them for half off.

I've worn them a couple of times now and they're great to play in. The patches and badges are really nice details, I particularly like the significance of the five stars down the side, as explained by Adidas Director of NBA partnerships David Cho in XXL magazine...

"Running alongside of the jerseys we have the five stars and each star represents a borough from New York. Starting from the top star is Queens and it is represented by the metal grid from the universe structure that was built for the Worlds Fair in 1964. The second one down is Staten Island and the waves signify Staten Island. The third one is for Manhattan and its classic taxi checkered cab look. The fourth one is the Bronx as the birthplace of hip-hop so you have the vinyl record etching, and the last one is bricks or brownstones which represent Brooklyn."

Plus the NYC 15 patch is a great reminder of my trip!

Basketball Diaries

Adidas T-Mac 3.

LeBron, Snow, and a New York Miracle.

Note: I actually started writing this piece a few weeks back, way before LeBron returning to Cleveland seemed like a real possibility. I got distracted with other stuff, but with LeBron officially a Cav again, now it seems all the more appropriate (I'm just waiting for Bron to decide which number he's going to wear now and then I can order a current Cavs jeresy).

In February 2009 my girlfriend and I visit New York, mostly so I could make a pilgrimage to Madison Square Garden and see LeBron and the Cavs play. The journey out was about as bad as possible, and we arrived in New York at 4:00am, a whole 12 hours late after battling snow storms in the UK and cancelled flights. So after some much needed sleep we started our first day in NY, and of course a visit to the NBA store was one of the first things on the schedule.

I already knew what I was looking for. In the fist week of January the Cavs had debuted a new jersey against the Boston Celtics as part of Cavfanatic night, a promotional night with the Cavfanatic social media site. Since then its become an annual event, with a new jersey each year. You can read a great write up and interview about them on Uni-Watch here. The reaction to the 2009 jerseys were pretty mixed, but LeBron seemed to give them the nod, saying "I like 'em, they're colourful... like a bag of Skittles". I loved them, and definitely had to get one.

So with great excitement I tore around the NBA store searching for the jerseys, eventually finding them tucked away on a bar with some of the yellow Cavs throwbacks they'ed also been wearing that season. But there was only one blue jersey... and it was an XL. Now I'm not the biggest guy so an XL would have just swamped me, plus I wanted to actually play in it, not star in a 90's rap video. I checked with a sales associate if they had any others, but no luck. So I left without it, and over the course of our time in New York I checked every sports store we saw (I picked up some Soldier 2's and Zoom Flight 95's along the way), but didn't find the jersey anywhere else.

The jerseys are a re-colouring of the original 1970's Cavs design but in royal blue with the traditional Cavs wine and gold moved to the trim. I love the bold contrast of the blue, the red, and then the pop of gold. I particularly like the plain style numbers and name without any piping or edging, it really captures the vintage feel. It also has some nice detailing. The NBA logo on the chest is in a darker red & blue than a regular jersey, with off white used on the Jerry West silhouette further emphasising the vintage look. Plus it has the Cav Fanatic tag which is a really nice touch.

After going to the Cavs vs Knicks game and watching LeBron drop 52 points and a triple double, I decided to make do with one of the yellow Cavs throwbacks instead. Heading back to the NBA store I found the yellow jerseys exactly where they had been before, with the one blue jersey still tucked at the back of the rack. I found my size in the yellow, but grasping at some vain hope, and just to be make double sure, I checked the sizing on the one blue jersey.

To my complete shock and disbelief it had magically become a medium! I don't know if it was a return, or if they'ed found an odd jersey in a box out the back, but I had it in my size. Suffice to say I snatched it up and paid for it as quickly as possible before there was a chance that this was some kind of mistake. Five years later and its still one of my favourite jerseys, I played basketball in it this weekend, and it always reminds me of a great trip to NY and my little New York miracle.