Shaquille O'Neal's effort to lure newly-minted Nike signature athlete Devin Booker to Reebok continued on his recent Sneaker Shopping appearance. It's the NBA legend's second such pitch, following an offer earlier this year after Booker appeared to be unhappy with the rollout of his sneaker. And now, Booker has responded.
On Tuesday afternoon, Booker replied to an Instagram post from Nice Kicks that featured a video clip from the episode, where host Joe La Puma asked Shaq about his comments from January regarding his pitch to bring Booker to Reebok.
"No, we weren't recruiting," Shaq said. "It was just everybody was bashing about his shoe and we was like, 'If you want a good shoe, holla at me and A.I.' I wasn't trying to be funny, like we don't do crazy things ... but if you want to be happy and you want a good shoe, holla at me and A.I."
Shortly after, Booker responded to Nice Kicks' post on his Instagram Story, saying, "AI 'question' was cool but nobody wearing no damn Shaqs."
Booker then responded directly to fans in the comments section of Complex Sneakers' follow-up post, saying, "We was lookin for them mikes and pennys my guy." He also responded to someone taking a shot at the Book 1, pictured below. Booker's social media posts rekindling the back-and-forth over his shoes read more as lighthearted jabs than real sneaker beef.
Back in January, Complex Sneakers Show cohost Matt Welty talked about the rollout of the inaguaral Book 1 release, when a limited 500-pair run of an orange-based makeup launched during Art Basel Miami in December. Complex posted a clip from the conversation on Instagram, prompting Booker to respond, "A lot of people feel the same way."
Since the limited launch of the orange-colored Book 1, Booker's signature sneaker has become more widely available. This included the "Mirage" colorway that dropped as part of NBA All-Star Weekend last month, followed by the "Mirage V2" pair that launched last week.
