Who had a more decorated Jordan Brand PE arsenal than Ray Allen? No one, it’s not even close. Over the course of Ray’s eighteen year career big shots were hit, championships were won and absolutely bonkers Air Jordan PEs were laced up. The U-Conn product signed with Jordan Brand in 1997 as one of the original five members of Team Jordan (alongside Bucks teammate Vin Baker) and rocked with JB until he retired in 2014. Ray never received his own signature shoe as a member of Team Jordan like Eddie Jones, but with player exclusives as dope as his it didn’t really matter.
Many of us are familiar with some of his greatest hits like the Bucks Air Jordan 7s, Sonics Air Jordan 5s, Celtics 13s and Heat 11s but there are some under the radar heaters that have barely seen the light of day.
One of these rarer PEs come from Ray’s Celtics days. On MLK Day 2012 the C’s faced off against the OKC Thunder lead by KD, Russ and James Harden in a very special Air Jordan 12 PE…
Ray broke out a black/gold MLK edition Air Jordan 12! These bad boys are so hard to find that pictures of them are almost non-existent. We found two great pics via Phase2 for this week’s edition of Sample Sunday; check them out below!
As you can see the shoes are quite simple, but sometimes simplicity is key. Black and gold historically is a very popular color scheme for MLK/ BHM themed kicks. Ray’s nickname, Sugar Ray is branded on the heel like many of Ray’s other Jordan PEs too.
Funny how JB still made a ‘home’ version of these MLK 12s for Ray even though he’d be playing ball on the road that day regardless… Either way, these white and golds are dope and follow a reverse color scheme to the black pair. The only real difference is the amount of gold on the heel – the white’s have more than the blacks.
Have you ever seen these before? would you cop some black/gold or white/gold 12s if they released? Tell us in the comments section below!
Sneaker History
Aaron Nojima
