And a brash backup point guard playing in Beantown, who puma fenty slides signed to the brand with a point-blank proclamation: " I ain't f in' with nobody else but Puma ."More players are wearing Pumas on the court than at any other time in NBA history. They've joined the Puma basketball family, which has a deeper and more tantalizing history than most would imagine. As Converse, Nike, Adidas and Reebok starred on court from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

The brand followed his vision like a blueprint and delivered a product that featured an unprecedented element: Frazier's nickname "Clyde" etched in cursive under the brand's puma work boots logo on the outside of each shoe  hence the term "signature sneaker."Left: Earvin "Magic" Johnson (left) drives past Wes Matthews (right) during a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls on puma safety shoes Feb. 20, 1985. Matthews endorsed Puma from 1984 to 1986.Right.

In high school, I wore No. 10 like him. I wanted a Rolls-Royce like him & wanted fur coats like him. I wanted to be a player like Clyde. He got me really into Puma."Soon after the Clyde's 1973 debut, Puma signed George McGinnis , a back-to-back American Basketball Association (ABA) champion with the Indiana Pacers and the fenty puma slides MVP of the league's 1973 playoffs. In the first game that McGinnis, a 2017 Hall of Fame inductee, wore Pumas, the sneakers couldn't handle the 6-foot-8-inch, 235-pound big man.

One ad from the mid-'80s promoted the release of " seven new Ralph Sampson signature shoes from Puma "  for real, seven at once. And, similar to Frazier, the Rockets center soon got a shoe named after him: the Puma Ralph Sampson .Sampson's contract with Puma paid him approximately $400,000 from 1984 to 1989. "Ralph received a megadeal," said Petrick. "It was the first time a player got a significant check for an endorsement." After Sampson, rihanna puma a 21-year-old named Michael Jordan.

The third overall pick in the 1984 NBA draft out of the University of North Carolina, signed a contract with Nike worth $500,000 annually for five years. During the '84-'85 season, Wes Matthews started 38 games at point guard for the Chicago Bulls as the backcourt mate of the young M.J., who debuted the iconic Air Jordan 1. On Matthews' feet: the Puma Sky LX.I had some of my best games when I played in my Pumas with Michael Jordan," Matthews said. "I took pride in my Pumas. I made sure they were clean every day.