Money, it's GOT to be the shoes

Oh, the Nike people are going to be working overtime on this one.

Today's Daily News reports that Stephon Marbury is suffering from a minor case of bursitis in his heel and was held out of a preseason game as a result. So of course, one of the first questions from the press corps was "Does it have anything to do with the shoes?"

"The shoes" are Stephon's low-cost basketball kicks, which he's marketing via Steve & Barry's University Sportswear for $14.98 a pair -- and wearing in games this season.


So before this becomes a big to-do about how Steph is putting his image rehabilitation before team goals or some such nonsense, I want you all to embrace a couple of minor points:

• Basketball players will occasionally fight aches and pains during training camp and beyond. As of yet, no one that I'm aware of has questioned Jerome James' shoes.
• There is no early reason that basketball sneakers need to cost over $100 a pair. The unit cost of a pair of top-line kicks has been estimated at around $20. (Approximately $.02 of that is for labor.)

As Chuck D once said, "I like Nike, but wait a minute..."

I love the fact that Marbury has lent his name to this effort. I hope his sneaker line, and similar lines from other NBA stars (Shaq's shoe sells for around $40) bring a little sanity to the industry.

And I reserve the right to re-think this entire post of Stephon misses 20 games due to insufficient arch support.