Let me introduce you to sneaker legend Mike Parker (photoed above). As Nike’s head of Limited Edition releases in the late ’90s, he was that dude who introduced the Air Force 1 Puerto Rico jump-offs, then followed it up with the Carribean joints, and the rest was history. Before that it was basically unheard of to find a logo (other than the actual brand’s) on a sneaker at retail. Today, it’s the norm as you see countless BRAND X FILL IN THE ARTIST NAME.
After Nike, he worked for Converse and took them from the brink of bankruptcy to such a turn around that Nike acquired them. He did that with brilliant spins on the Weapon, Dr. J Pro Leather, Chuck Taylor, etc. He’s since repped for Reebok and K-Swiss.
On my recent LA trip, we hooked up and started reminiscing about his days playing at Goat Park. We grew up in the same building on 97th St. and have known each other since 1975. Mike Parker was a stand-out point guard at McBurney H.S. and Lawrence Academy (MA), and finished his Cornell U. career as the school’s all-time steals leader. In the hood, we called him “Gumby” at times and later Mike “Butters.” I asked him how we made the squad at Riverside Church, which featured All-Americans Kenny Anderson and Malik Sealy:
“I was playing for Central Baptist in the Stone Gym Tournament. We beat Riverside Church which was unheard of back then. You can’t understand how good Kenny Anderson was when he was young. His court IQ was ridiculous! But I had 40 on him that day, and he scored 50! Anyway, afterwards their coach “Honeybun” asked me to try-out. I wound up going to Phoenix and all that, and we took every AAU tournament. It was Kenny A., another Kenny, me and Anton (who now runs the Conrad McCrae Tournament) in the backcourt. Honestly, I’d say Kenny Anderson was the greatest high school player in the history of the game. He was the Catholic HS Championship MVP . . . as a freshman!”
Mike is not playing favorites for his former teammate and long-time buddy. Here’s the math on Kenny Anderson’s Archbishop Molloy Class of ‘89 career:
-First four-time NYC All-City 1st Team (not even Lew Alcindor accomplished that).
-First three-time Parade All-American since Alcindor.
-Finished as NY State’s All-Time leading scorer and didn’t even play any first quarters as a freshman. The record stood for 18 years.
-NY State Mr. Basketball
-McDonald’s All-American
-Gatorade Nat’l Player of the Year
So if he was doing that in school, imagine the havoc he was creating in the playground!
Even Mike’s older brother Lincoln Parker said, “Kenny was a bad, bad man!”
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:59 am
g says:
firstly,RIP Malik(what is he retarded or something?! lol!!),damn we miss you!!!!
secondly,Chibs was crazy!!! first time i saw him,we were playing riverside in citywide uptown at brandeis in 87. dude was so small,skinny and frail! we just knew this dude could NOT play,we were gonna kill him,even scheming on running iso’s at him cause he just looked like the weakest link. nothing about him said ball player!! Coach Diaz (yes Ray Diaz that runs Nike Pro-Am @ Hunter) told us not to sleep,this is riverside and the kid was good. chalk it up to youthful exuberance cause we were just convinced that he wasnt going to kill us. jump ball,riverside gets the rock,and he pulls up for a three as soon as we cross half court,splash! coach switched us up to a box and 1. im like man this kid cant be this good,we never played a box and 1 for anyone! foolish mortal was i! man,Chibbs was getting get his WITHOUT screens!! straight pull ups,hesitations,crossovers,you name it,he had it,at 14!!!
he finished the 1st half with an easy 30. one of the kids on my team started talking ish to Chibbs on the way to the locker rooms @ halftime. Chibbs took his signature mouthpiece out of his mouth and said “man why are you talking to me? your father doesnt want to guard me so i know you dont!” game over,lol!
Chibbs finished with an easy 56. as much math as he put up it was a reasonably close game so they needed his math,but damn 56!? lol!!
shout out to Vinny Smith (Kenny “The Jet” Smith’s older brother and the Lost Battalion staff),you created a damn monster with him!!!! lol!
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
ali says:
the young boys don’t really understand the genius of kenny back in the day. sooo silky. he would drop the quietest 30 you ever saw, ’cause nothing was forced.
his understanding of the nuances, subtleties and inner rhythm of the game’s flow was crazy advanced. his older brother and uncle were mad nice, but got sidetracked. my favorite summer memory was the golden hoops up at columbia when he, malik sealy, adrian autrey, brian reese were running for riverside against the guachos crew w/arnold bernard, karlton ‘dunkin’ hines (r.i.p.)and the jersey crew w/ hurley, luther wright, etc.
and mike parker was nice. truth be told, he gave it to me on a number of occasions when me and some fellas from upenn would run w/ some of the cornell crew.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
g says:
woooooooow,Karlton Hines? man,if kids wouldve been able to see how ferocious that dude was on the court. theyve got a documentary out on him now,which i peeped. its decently done,but really doesnt show fully how tough that dude was. hell, he had Jim Boeheim come into the p’s to get him to come there!
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
ali says:
yes sir! karlton hines coming down the break, built like bo jackson at about 6′5″, slamming on cats with the ferociousness of a jerome lane or barkley. he was the truth and it’s a shame the world didn’t get to witness his aura on the court. i try to school people, but words and reminisces can’t fully do it justice.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:45 pm
T says:
Kenny Anderson aka chibbs is by far and away the finest point god that New York City has produced since Tiny Archibald. His handle was impeccable, he could get to any spot on the floor whenever he felt like it. His knowledge of the game was straight NYC, a point guard with a bball IQ that was off the charts. Simply put, Kenny was the greatest of them all!
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Jeremy Ripley says:
Yo, Mike Parker started a pseudo-revolution by himself. If you’re tying to create a custom AF1 for a benefit, charity, country, you always roll with that signature embroidered object where those flags were…He’s working at K-Swiss now?
And yeah, count me in for one who doesn’t know much about Anderson. I’ll need to check into dude more, but g, that “your pops doesn’t even want to guard me” line had me laughing! haha!
I vaguely recognize Karlton Hines…
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
chris says:
Jeremy,
Peep game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w0CHP5CHFc
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
chris says:
john starks should have been thrown out of the league for that flagrant BTW.. Kenny was never the same..
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:12 pm
ali says:
kenny, dc and drazen petrovic put it in w/ the nets. remember kenny’s first game against chicago, when mike paid him the ultimate respect by picking him up at the top of the key and they smiled at each other. mike knew how nice that young fella was. and a young dc was unstoppable, killin’ karl malone. drazen (r.i.p.) was bananas. played w/ a fire, soul and determination that endeared him to the hood.
jeremy, ask some cats that really know ball about the nets in the early 90’s w/ kenny, dc and drazen petrovic and watch the smile creep across their face before they start talkin’.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:21 am
illest says:
chibbs was so ill it was a shame. watching him at tech was like watching jordan. you had to see it. definitely the greatest.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
g says:
man ali youre killing me! right now youre making me want to go slap up my cousin for “borrowing” my nj nets tapes from the 90’s and not giving them back! lol! man i remember them playing utah real tough,stockton versus anderson,blue edwards and darrell griffith against drazen (rip) and dc against malone,with a sidenote of chris morris versus whomever utah felt could guard him,lol!
i remember being at the nets game when they saw detroit for the first time in 92,chibbs rookie year. vinnie johnson was yelling from the bench to joe dumars “send him right,send him right”. chibbs hit joey d with the yo-yo behind the back and dropped his body in the trunk!
or how about duke @ georgia tech in 91. chibbs hit hurley with the behind the back yo-yo,shook him off the screen then finger rolled it over the outstretched hand of thomas hill who was waiting for him at the rim….whew!! damn near made dick vitale choke! lol! lethal weapon 3 (chibbs,dennis scott and brian oliver) in 90 against unlv in the final 4,when chibbs was stretching out on anderson and greg anthony which was arguably the best defensive backcourt in the nation at that time. mind you,he was doing this as a freshman! crazy…. he was so ahead of us,and by us i mean those in his age group that played ball in nyc at that time.
jeremy,yeah chibbs killed that kid with that comeback! not only was it true,but if the kid (sorry gabe,lol!) and his pops doubled chibbs they probably still wouldnt be able to check him,lol!!!
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:59 am
illest says:
the move on hurley is definitely the dribble move that i got from him. young kids today should watch that move instead of some and1 carrying the ball stuff. vitale definitely never sounded like that. i copped the air flight 90s blue/white because of him.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:33 am
ali says:
damn! the georgia tech days. brings back great memories. how ’bout the 31 joints kenny laid on steve smith and michigan state in the sweet 16, not to mention the 20 footer at the buzzer to force overtime.
that run to the final 4 was incredible. tech basically was a 3 man crew w/ d scott, brian oliver and chibbs. and they hung w/ that unlv team, one of the grestest college teams of all time w/ the plastic man - stacey augmon, larry johnson,anderson hunt, greg anthony, david butler, moses scurry.
kenny had the yellow jackets buzzing, leading by 7 at the half and if he doesn’t get into foul trouble in the 2nd half, they take it. he had 13 joints and 5 assists in the first half. he was slithering through one of the best college defenses of all time like a bike messenger in midtown rush hour traffic!
unlv pressed everybody that year, but out of respect for kenny’s game, the normally aggressive runnin’ rebel d didn’t even try to press him. tarkanian declared him unpressable
unlv’s 30 point destruction of duke in the finals spoke volumes about what kenny did against them. he made brian oliver a first round pick in the draft. when he got to philly as a pro and washed out, i laughed at cats who wondered why he couldn’t cut it. “he ain’t playin’ w/ kenny anderson no more!” was my standard response.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:23 am
Chris says:
yo g,
check that video i posted.. the Hurley play is in there as well as some early Molly footage and of course Nets footage from the early 90’s
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
g says:
chris-
good looking on the link! awwww man between that link and this blog yall are inspiring me to get into shape!!
wait….. round is a shape,so im good!!!! lol!!
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Sean Couch says:
Mike -
i know you understand how it goes when numbers are dropped on the playground. ‘40′ is a special number kid and although
‘50′ is a bit better i have mad respect for anyone who can
say that.
The Benz looked real icy-smooth Mike, continued success.
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
g says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnCRSYD_wIY&feature=related
April 4th, 2008 at 10:58 am
g says:
yo ali…. damn youtube is gonna breakup my unhappy home,lol!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=u3EWYOVfDus
April 4th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
ali says:
good lookin’ g.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Mike Parker says:
Sean good looking out. I tell you it was a hard 40 I dropped but you are right 50 is better. And you know I had to do the Benzito in Cali. Peace