Growing up in suburban Illinois during the 90’s your basketball dreams were easy. You wanted to be Michael Jordan and that’s it. Yea we all that that one friend who wanted to be Shawn Kemp or Charles Barkley just because they thought you’d think they were “cool”, but let’s be honest here…they weren’t.

All those potential dreams of being Jordan started with the dreaded basketball tryouts. You remember those two or three nerve racking days of going up against your friends all trying to make the team. That first day of tryouts was the best though, and not because of anything that had to do with the actual playing of basketball but because you got your first look at who was wearing what shoes. It was easy to tell who the true ball players were dependent on what new kicks they were sporting, the kid with the low-top ADIDAS Samba soccer shoes might as well have been committing tryout suicide. That poor kid would always be sliding across the floor like he had two mops attached to the bottoms of his feet, and you know to this day, it’s still really funny.

The 90’s were a special time for basketball shoes, they were when the Jordan’s really started to come into their own, but there were so many other shoes over the years that will stay with me forever. This list could go on forever but we have pared our list down to the Top 10 Basketball Shoes from the 90’s.

10. ‘96 Air Zoom Flight

A good friend of mine rocked these for three straight years and each year I always loved that blue rubber bottom and the supposed new fancy “Zoom Air” cushioning technology.

9. ‘98 Nike Zoom Flight GP

If you considered yourself a good defender in 7th grade, these were your shoes.

8. ‘91 Reebok Pump Omni Lite

Dee Brown anyone?

7. ‘95 Nike Air More Uptempo

Still to this day the only pair of shoes I’ve ever cried over not getting…yes I am a crier.

6. ‘97 Nike Air Pippen

Not as good as any Jordan shoe but still a fine sidekick.

5. ‘93 Air Jordan VIII

Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian promoting the same shoe…DONE!

4. ‘95 Nike Air Penny

Remember when Penny was a “Can’t Miss Hall of Famer”?  It’s sad that the best thing that ever came of this shoe was Lil Penny.

3. ‘96 Iverson Answer I

Putting this shoe on suddenly made you fast, out of control and a horrible shooter.

2. ‘93-94 Charles Barkley’s Air Force 180

This was the first ever $150 basketball shoe, MJ would soon change all that.

1. ‘95-96 Jordan XI

The King! If you had these kicks people were legitimately afraid to guard you.

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