Ray Allen Reveals His Favorite Jordans

Basketball legend Ray Allen has earned the title of one of Jordan Brand‘s “longest-tenured athletes,” having donned enough pairs of special and exclusive Nike products to fill up the closets of an entire neighborhood. Now, in a new interview with Sports Illustrated, Allen is taking time to break down his storied history with Jordan Brand and the new ​”The Class of XXX1” campaign.

“The brand sells itself,” Allen says of Jordan. “In my time in the NBA every teammate that I had wanted to be a Jordan Brand athlete. They wanted the shoes I had, they wanted the gear I had, they wanted me to give them shoes. So I think the brand sells itself because there are so many iconic shoes that the kids want to be a part of and I don’t think there is anything like that that exists. There are shoe companies that may come out with one or two good shoes over the course of time but the Jordans? The depth is crazy.”

Speaking to Jarrel Harris at the Jordan Brand Classic, Ray Allen kept the conversation on focused on the sneaker brand he came up with and loves. Of course, like many sponsored athletes before him, Allen was questioned about his absolute favorite Jordan. Refusing to name one single item, Allen delivered the following statement:

The XI’s are obviously one of my favorites. I think so much I had in Boston was great because the green and white just set everything off because no one ever saw them before. They were just off the charts when everyone saw them.

Another was the sneaker with the thumb print on the side, I think it’s the 23’s, it looked like it was a real fancy shoe. I had a pair on St. Patty’s day and I had green and I had another pair that was this color (points to beige sweats) with a little bit of green on it and the crazy part was that I used to always slip on them because when I used to turn the corner I would catch the little plastic on the side. But they were one of my favorites from a look perspective, they just looked so good. They didn’t get enough credit.

You can check out Sports Illustrated‘s new Ray Allen feature here.