It’s hard to believe that it was some 20 years ago when Michael Jordan was still tearing up the NBA and everyone in high school couldn’t wait for the latest Air Jordan basketball shoes to come out. Well, here’s the latest model, the Air Jordan 2010, and these things couldn’t be any uglier if they were made out of Seattle Seahawks.

The most obvious distinction is a massive transparent window through the middle of the shoe as a representation of Michael Jordan’s on-court prowess of “seeing through opponents”. The shoe’s collar is also cut disproportionately with the medial side being higher up. –Hypebeast

This is the 25th edition of Jordan’s custom kicks…and this seems like a pretty good place to stop. Well 2003–the last year Jordan ever wore an NBA uniform–would have worked, also, but seriously, this shoe looks like the brains at Nike created this shoe on a dare. Did you catch Jordan’s Hall of Fame speech? Didn’t he come off like a total asshole? Well get this…we put a big black asshole IN THE SHOE! And then they probably high-fived and whipped a few Indonesian children after that.

Nike was quick to refute a report from the camp of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. After Michael Principe from Vick’s agency, “BEST,” announced that Vick “actually just became a Nike client” and that he had “a new deal with Nike that we’re all very pleased about,” the Oregon-based shoe and apparel company responded.

A statement e-mailed to SportsBusiness Journal [yesterday] morning was short and to the point: “Nike does not have a contractual relationship with Michael Vick. We have agreed to supply product to Michael Vick as we do a number of athletes who are not under contract with Nike.” via.

While Principe’s statement wasn’t necessarily false, it was certainly misleading enough to warrant a response from Nike to distance itself from Principe’s client. And while many feel that Vick deserves a chance to rebuild his life through reviving his football career, his consideration as a product pitchman left a bitter taste in the mouths of some. Although I would love to see Nike make a dogfighting commercial, if only to send John Lennon spinning in his grave.

Here’s another look at the That Was It? dunk that disappointed everyone yesterday, but at least this one doesn’t have a watermark on it. I’d be hard-pressed to find a better example of something being overblown simply because of a party’s efforts to restrict information from everyone. I learned that when I was nine. I don’t know why Nike and ESPN haven’t figured that out yet.

ESPN offered the creator of this video $500, according to Dan Levy in a post for Sporting Blog. The monolith’s offer came well short of the $5,000 paid by eBaumnation for this clip, which is much better quality than that fogged up video on TMZ.

Levy asks if the future of journalism will come down to news agencies paying citizens for various bits of camera footage, and I’ll answer him under the assumption that journalism isn’t already dead: why wouldn’t they? News teams have no issue keeping camera operators on staff and paying them; this is just classic crowdsourcing. It keeps everyone honest and, as was proven here, keeps them in the know as well. The practice of journalism is enriched when we are all witnesses, and the pulling of some of that power out of the hands of the elite media couldn’t come at a better time.

Some shoe company–which I won’t name because I have an endorsement deal with adidas–sent this parkour video to Brian at Awful Announcing, who sent it to us. Ufford likes calling it parkour, but doesn’t that sound more like a meth addict that would give you a hand job underneath a swingset? Like making me show ID to buy a bottle of Robitussin is ever gonna stop that from happening. But another thing, what the hell is a robot gonna run from? Wouldn’t he just be all, “Hey, I’m a robot. I am rather well-equipped to deal with adversity. Instead of running, perhaps I could turn and confront whatever issues are ailing me.” I guess that’s why so many robots are in therapy these days. And I don’t really have an endorsement deal from adidas, unless you count this cease-and-desist letter.

Nike’s proud tradition of visually raping Oregon football fans continues for another season, as the Ducks athletic department has just rolled out another uniform set for the 2009 season. And these things have wings! Just like your little sister’s sanitary napkin. And lemme guess, these new unis are like 12.2 percent lighter or something and I’m supposed to care.

Laminate anti-abrasion shoulder reinforcement, in the form of wings, takes the place of “diamond plate” on the current jersey, a 200-percent savings in weight differential between materials. A lighter weight fabric has also been introduced for non-critical panels, trimming the weight from 7.46 ounces down to 5.5 as 75-percent of the panels from last year’s jersey have been replaced.

Just think of all the times that 2 ounces came between a team and the national championship. Oh, and the Ducks have two white sets of jerseys this year. And they have a new helmet style they’re calling “carbon,” which, I hate to say it, kicks all kinds of ass. Look at it. That’s a helmet I want to drive through somebody’s chest. Good job, Oregon. You, the proverbial blind squirrel, have found your polypropylene acorn.

|via Juiced Sports|

I don’t usually watch Jimmy Kimmel (sorry, I have a life), but Outside The Boxscore does, and they found this bit spoofing those Nike puppet commercials. Kimmel said that Dwight Howard’s and Orlando’s entry into the NBA Finals forced Nike to reshoot the commercials at the last minute. And yet Dwight’s puppet bears a better likeness to him than Kobe’s does. I tried to make a sock puppet of myself once, but it couldn’t get it to look depressed or perverted enough. That’s art imitating life, I guess.

|via Outside The Boxscore|