Aaron Hope 
There’s a story from the Toronto Raptors inaugural season back in 1995-96 that’s currently making the rounds in the basketball blogosphere where Anthony Mason is quoted having evinced that he could not only set fashion trends, but also had a direct line to Nostradamus for one of the most common online disses a decade and a half later. “Dinosaurs, brotha?” Mason asked of the OG Raps, “If I was you, I’d [REMOVED] kill myself.” Mason’s then Knicks teammate Charles Oakley was also noted as offering some disparaging comments regarding Toronto’s cartoonish uniforms, which he ironically ended up wearing a few short years later, along with some sweet mini-dreads to bring the whole thing full circle.
Now each year, Nike Basketball issues a ‘Draft Day’ colorup from the Zoom Kobe signature series that asks the hypothetical about the Mamba having stayed in Charlotte with the Hornets who drafted him, but we’ve never really stopped to ask what might have happened if the team with the number two pick in 1996 might have selected the eventual thirteenth choice instead of a nice player in his own right in Marcus Camby. It’s with this context in mind that we recognize that the Raptors and Lakers are separated by a single accent shade, and this new iridescent Nike Zoom Kobe VII proves that no matter what Oak and Mase had to say, black, purple and red can be downright impressive as a basketball aesthetic. Rumor has it these joints might be limited to an Asian release in the coming days, but be sure to check back with Sneaker News for word of a posssible US release date after you click through to get a better look. via US11
