Anyone see something missing from this SI photo (p.59 of the last issue)?

[underpants]

That is Jordan in high school about 1980 or 1981.

[Scuba]

1. No tongue?

[underpants]

6. No Swoosh

there is no logo on the shoes. As I posted below I have actually seen this photo in an actual Laney yearbook. It was Converse - the early Bird/Magic model.

[taterguy]

2. He's not wearing Air Jordans?

[underpants]

4. Exactly

I happened to have seen this photo in a yearbook from Laney High. I don't remember why or who I happened to know that had one but at the time (mid 90's) I joked about how he was wearing Converse - everyone wore the Bird/Magic shoes because they were far advanced at the time , 1980- and said "boy that would be embarassing for Nike". Well apparently SI did a favor for their friends at Nike by airbrushing out the logo.

I emailed SI about out this. We'll see if it gets in the magazine or if I get an answer.

[Auggie]

3. Craig Ehlo?

[underpants]

5. That's Ehlo's brother from another mother

I wonder who that is. He must be laughing his tail off at that photo now.

[Scurrilous]

7. 6 inches of shorts?

And yes, his shoes are suspiciously blank.

[underpants]

8. My underwear is longer than those shorts

The long shorts BTW came in with the Fab Five and the Arkansas teams of the early 90's

knee high socks!!! How about the belt on the shorts of the kid from the other team?

[Scurrilous]

9. Put some tights, a cape, & a mask on him and he could be Batman's sidekick Robin.

[caraher]

10. Interesting...

I've found a version of this photo with the Nike swoosh on the shoes:



But other pictures from the same site show him in what I think are Adidas shoes:

[caraher]

13. Yup, same pic

underpants suggested it was airbrushed by SI, but it looks like the shoes were Nikes in the first place.

Clearly there's been some kind of digital processing; either the original photo was overexposed and the one I found had someone put details back in (I doubt it), or the original photo was not overexposed and the SI version was just manipulated in a way that washed out the logo. I wonder whether they were trying to bring out something else in the image, or did it in order to remove the logo.

[wilt the stilt]

14. Adidas

These are the original Adidas superstars. I bought a pair and they were great but lasted about 2 weeks. They cost $23.99 a fortune in those days of Chuck taylor's which were about $12.00. To this day I swear the first Nike's caused broken feet. If you remember all the players back then all the players including Jordan were breaking their feet(top). I remember playing back then and my feet were killing me and I certainly didn't jump like them.

[jmowreader]

12. Ceiling height in the gym?

The way that's shot, it looks like Mike is about to bash his head on the rafters.