Wake Basketball Team Wearing New CP3's

If you're looking for one easy way to get the Wake Forest basketball team excited, ask them about their shoes.

Although I'm a regular reader of Paul Lukas's Uni Watch Blog, basketball shoes are not a uniform element I tend to follow closely. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but notice on Saturday when everyone on the team was wearing a pair of shoes I had never seen before.

When Ishmael Smith and Harvey Hale walked into the interview room after the game they both happened to be holding the shoes so I asked about them. Immediately their eyes lit up and they began showing us all the cool things about the shoes.They are the new Jordan CP3's, a 2008 model from the Jordan line created for former Wake standout Chris Paul. They feature the new CP logo on the tounge as well as Paul's signature on the sole.

Although those things are pretty cool in and of themselves, two other aspects of the shoe stand out above the rest, and they're both subtle memorials to other people.

The first is the "Sixty1" down the back of the shoe, which is a memorial to Paul's grandfather who died at 61 as well as a reference to the game several day's after his grandfather's death in which Paul scored his 61st point and took himself out of the game when the state scoring record was well within reach.

Finally, here's the element that will get Wake fans excited. On the underside of the tongue, right above the sizing tag, are the scripted initials, "SP." Although the team already wears the "coach" ribbon on the front of the jersey, I love this subtle memorial to Skip Prosser on the shoe as well. Very classy.

Chris Paul deserves credit for his original memorial for Skip, as well as for providing the shoes to the team. Well done, Chris.