Signature Shoes from Team USA Basketball Greats
We’re still in celebration mode after the men’s and women’s basketball teams took home the gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. We’re heading back 24 years to check out this set of Topps Team USA Basketball cards from 2000 for this latest edition of Kicks on Cards. The set features Team USA members from the men’s and women’s squads, who both won gold that year in Sydney, Australia. Let’s see what on-foot heat we can find on these patriotic cards!
2000 Topps Team USA Basketball #5 Grant Hill // FILA GH5
We’ll begin with Grant Hill, spotted here hovering over the states, stars, and stripes in his fifth signature shoe, the FILA GH 5. Released in 1998, the GH 5 was Hill’s final signature shoe with FILA, featuring a cool dot-gradient design stitched across the leather upper. This would be Hill’s final FILA shoe. You can find photos of a GH 6 prototype with a quick Google search, but the design was never released.
2000 Topps Team USA Basketball #7 Vince Carter // PUMA Vinsanity
If you want to talk about obscure, forgotten signature basketball shoes, you’re in the right place today, as we have a few more for you. Yeah, that’s correct. Vince Carter had a signature shoe with PUMA, called the Vinsanity. We see Vince in a pair on his gold parallel card from the set.
2000 Topps Team USA Basketball #41 Dawn Staley // Nike Zoom S5
A signature shoe that is mostly forgotten but shouldn’t be is Dawn Staley’s Nike Zoom S5. More than a few Nike Basketball aficionados and historians consider it one of the coolest designs from the brand in the late ‘90s. Dawn is seen here doing a between-the-legs pass in her S5 in a white and red colorway designed specifically for her as a Team USA member.
2000 Topps Team USA Basketball #30 Allan Houston // Nike Air Flightposite
The only non-signature sneaker spotted in this pack of Kicks on Cards is the Nike Air Flightposite, worn here by Allan Houston. Released in 1999, the Flightposite was the follow-up to Penny Hardaway’s Nike Air Foamposite One as the next sneaker to feature the Foamposite tech.
2000 Topps Team USA Basketball #6 Gary Payton // Nike Zoom GP
In 2000, the Seattle Supersonics (RIP) happened to have two players make the USA Olympic team who also both had signature shoes. First up is Gary Payton, who is seen here in his first official signature Nike shoe, the Zoom GP.
2000 Topps Team USA Basketball #78 Vin Baker // Jordan Jumpman Vindicate
Then there’s Vin Baker, one of the first NBA players to have a signature shoe with Jordan Brand after it became its own entity apart from Nike in 1997. Baker’s shoe was cleverly named the VINdicate and featured an awesome 50-50 color block split down the middle of the shoe. Unfortunately, Jordan has never blessed us with a retro of the Vindicate. Maybe someday we’ll get a bringback, but in the meantime, you can always get this awesome card with the late Vin Baker in a pair grinning in front of a giant eagle, which is a pretty great consolation prize, if you ask me.
