Remember When Michael Jordan Shattered a Backboard?

Jordan Brand is celebrating this story with two sneakers this year, and the brand's VP remembers the moment in Italy.

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Complex Original

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Michael Jordan was pretty good at dunking basketballs, and it's become the symbol that represents him long since his playing have ended. He once dunked so forcefully that he shattered a backboard during a Nike exhibition game in 1985 in Trieste, Italy. Jordan Brand told this story last year through the release of an Air Jordan 1, but the company is back to further examine one of the most obscure yet mythological moments of Jordan's career.

This time around, Jordan Brand is putting out an Air Jordan 1 and Air Jordan XXX1 to represent this moment nearly forgotten in time. “Glass was everywhere. The backboard exploded. I’m looking at his eyes, his ears…looking for little bits of glass,” Jordan Brand VP Howard White says in a Nike press release. “In the moment, it was wild. It was a little scary, because we didn’t know where the glass was going. They were playing and then there was that moment. I don’t know of any moment where one can detect something otherworldly has happened, but that one has become something grand. For MJ, though, it was just a moment in the game.”  

Little has been revealed on Jordan breaking the backboard (he scored 30 points that night) but the instance will live on, especially through these sneakers.

Expect both shoes to release next Saturday, October 8.

Air Jordan Shattered Backboard 2016 1
Air Jordan Shattered Backboard 2016 2