Youth Mexican Basketball Team Wins Big Playing Barefoot

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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You’ve heard of barefoot running before, but barefoot basketball? Now that’s on a whole another level.

Much like the centuries-old barefoot running techniques of Mexico’s Tarahumara tribe (see Christopher McDougall’s best-selling book Born To Run), playing basketball sans sneakers has become a bit of a trend in Mexico.

Recently, a team of indigenous Triqui boys returned home to Mexico to a hero’s welcome after the young studs won a youth basketball tournament in Argentina, in which may of the players hit the court barefoot—yeah, that ‘ish cray, we know.

Known as “the barefoot giants of the mountain,” the team of eight, ranging in age from nine to 12, not only won the fourth annual Mini-Basketball World Festival, but did so in convincing fashion. The team put up some serious 2K-type numbers, beating their opponents thoroughly with scores like 40-16, and 86-3.

What’s even more amazing is, despite hailing from an impoverished region of the country, going barefoot seems to have been a choice rather than a necessity.

As one player, Fernando, explained, he chose to play without shoes "because I move better on the floor that way."

Wonder what footwear brands have to say about all this.

[Yahoo]

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