NBA Star's Sneaker Blow-Out Won't Be a Nike Ad Anytime Soon

What's This?

San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili reacts to an official's call during an NBA game on Dec. 7, 2013.

Image: Eric Gay/Associated Press

By Sam Laird2014-02-28 01:47:58 UTC

Here's a clip you won't be seeing in Nike ads anytime soon: San Antonio Spurs star Manu Ginobili's shoe spectacularly disintegrating in the middle of an NBA game.

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Ginobili's mishap came while trying to guard Rodney Stuckey of the Detroit Pistons during their Wednesday night tilt. While moving left, Ginobili's left foot tears completely through the left side of his left shoe. In more than 20 years of watching basketball, I've never seen a player lose his shoe quite like this:

Ginobili typically wears Nike shoes, and sleuthing by sneaker fans determined he was wearing either the Air Max Closer IV or Zoom Hyperfuse models Thursday morning. By Thursday afternoon, sneaker blog Nice Kicks reported that it was a pair of Air Max Closers Gibobili had been playing in since 2009 — which would make the blow-out more explicable than it looked.

Nike did not respond to Mashable's request for comment.

The incident was a freak accident for Ginobili and an embarrassment for Nike, but there's a happy ending to the whole affair. Ginobili laced up a new shoe, finished the game with 16 points and nine assists, and the Spurs won by 20 points.

The play would be a career YouTube moment for most NBA players—but most NBA players have never decimated a rogue bat with their bare hands in the middle of an NBA game. Ginobili? He did that in 2009:

Topics: Entertainment, NBA, Sports