I remember watching bits and pieces of Team USA’s tight gold medal victory against Spain in the 2008 Olympics. Wait, scratch that. I vaguely remember watching bits and pieces of Team USA’s gold medal victory against Spain in the 2008 Olympics because it just so happened to coincide with the wedding of one of my best friends. In between the rehearsals and the flowing drinks and bonding moments between people I’ve known for most of my life, the game was a blur that was showing on multiple televisions was we moved from room to room in the middle of the night before the big day.
There were a few things that stood out from the few moments that I could actually pay attention to the game. The first was that Ricky Rubio could be a future NBA All-Star but I wasn’t sure if he was actually the team’s point guard or their ball boy. The second was how in their moment of greatest need, guys like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul were willing to cede the floor to Kobe Bryant and let him take the big shots. This was 2008 Kobe Bryant after all, the reigning NBA MVP who was last seen getting blown out by the rival Boston Celtics in the Finals. He still had two more championships, a few more epic signature shoes and an unbelievable curtain call to go, but for now, he was the alpha alpha dog on a team filled with them. The third was after the game and looking at pictures online, he wore these awesome red, white and blue Nike Hyperdunks that how looked slightly different from the ones everybody else wore. Turns out they were different and better than the rest.
Despite being a few signature shoes into his journey with Nike, Kobe Bryant had a stopgap a la Penny Hardaway with the Nike Air Foamposite One in the form of the Hyperdunk. Equipped with things that we take for granted today like Flywire and Lunarlon, the Hyperdunk had the perfect guy to introduce them to the world in Kobe. Prior to the Olympics, Kobe uh, hyped the Hyperdunk in ways that would blow up Twitter before “blowing up Twitter” was a thing. From starring in a viral video where he allegedly jumped over a speeding Aston Martin to rolling up to the launch of a Back To The Future-inspired colorway in a DeLorean, Kobe sold the Hyperdunk in unconventional ways. And when the time came to actually deliver on the court in the shoes, he helped bring home Olympic Gold for the first time since the year 2000.
Most of the members of Team USA wore the Nike Hyperdunk, but it was Kobe who had the pair that stood out the most because of course he did. Mamba’s PE featured a laser-cut snake graphic across the upper and the Kobe logo on the tongue. The differences were subtle, but it still managed to catch my attention despite the high drama of the game.
Later this month, the Nike Hyperdunk will return in the United We Rise style that was the slogan for the 2008 squad that was dubbed The Redeem Team. And while that might be an instant cop for many sneakerheads nostalgic for that memorable time (I know I’ll be trying to pick up a pair), the one that we all need another shot at is Kobe’s player exclusive. Like every other pair of Sneaker Grails we’ve featured on here, the odds are slim, but the hope is eternal. It’s nice to want things, as they say…
Photos courtesy of Jed Jacobsohn, Ned Laham, Streeter Lecka and Harry How of Getty Images and MarqueeSole.
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