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Have you broken out any of your older shoes and had them fall apart over the years recently?
Some of them do, but that’s just comes with time. I’ve had them for over 20-something years. They’re in good condition. So it isn’t like you see these other shoes on people and they just crushed up and just break apart. They’re still in condition. You’ve got to be tender in them. You can’t really go out and play in the old shoes.

When I give them away, I give shoes away to other people, the kids and stuff like that. And I’ll just be like, “Hey, be tender with the shoes. They’re 25 years old. Just be careful in them.” Some of the shoes I played in and I’ll go wear to the gym sometimes, the heel will come off sometimes, but that just comes with time.

Do your kids pester you at all to get hooked up on certain Jordans?
Oh, yes, they kill me with that. There’s a few times, Sam Druffel hooked me up one Christmas for some shoes for my kids and stuff. But my son is a half size bigger than mine, but he still could wear 12 and a half. I mean he’s in my closet every day. He looks like, “Dad, you don’t wear these. Let me have them. Let me have some Michael.” “No, I’m going to wear them.” He’s like, “No, you’re not.” But he’s on my case all the time about the shoes.

What’s the collection situation like at your house? Are the shoes just everywhere? Do you just have one room where they’re all at?
I have two rooms now. When I built my house, they were supposed to make a closet big enough for 5,000 pairs of shoes. And my closet wasn’t built big enough, so I had to turn a garage into a closet. But yeah, there is a lot of shoes. There is a lot of shoes everywhere hanging around and all that stuff too. I don’t mind it. It’s a good problem to have and I don’t mind that problem at all.

You never feel like it takes over your life a little bit?
I mean, I am fine with that. Like I said, that’s a problem that I wouldn’t mind. I think it’s a problem a lot of people wouldn’t mind either. You could never have too many shoes.

What’s a favorite sneaker of yours to wear these days not playing basketball? Just a Jordan that you’re going to throw on if you’re going out on a Friday night or something like that.
I like the Cap and Gown. I like the all-black blacks. I like it all blacked out, the Black Cats, Black Cat 4, Cap and Gown 11s. I mean, as long as they’re like that. The Travis Scott 1 Lows with all black and white, you never go wrong with all black, with it all blacked out. 

You have your collection on display now. Do you ever have any intentions of just selling at all one day and cashing in?
No. I mean, it’s something that you could never get back. I’m happy with these shoes. They’re collectors’ items and like you said, there’ll always be value in them. And I just, growing up, I never was able to get shoes like that. Now that I have them, I definitely don’t want to give them up.

Are you surprised that your sneaker legacy has lasted this long, did you ever expect that to happen?
Yeah, I mean, but I mean it is good to have just that people, I mean, it’s just the colors. I’m the same way when different colors come out. They always bring out the OG pairs, but I get real excited when they’re an OG pair. The retros are in different colors that haven’t been out yet. My shoes, a lot of my shoes haven’t came out yet, even in the color, even in regular sale points. But I think it’s just that the fact that it is purple and black is a good color and just you don’t see it a lot. And so that’s why I think people really go crazy for them.

I think they did a couple pairs that were some of your PE colorways, but they released them to the public, but not with your name on it. Were you excited about that?
I didn’t like that they didn’t have my name on it, but what can you do? It’s just that just seeing some of the statements that were read like, “Hey, those are Mike Bibby’s PEs.” It made me feel good that I could at least say some of the fans and acknowledge it and knew that that was my shoe and my shoe color.

You see a lot of the other Jordan Brand legacy athletes, and they’ll post the shipments they get to their house and they get 30 pairs of shoes at one of every SKU.

Do you still get those sort of shipments in the mail?
Yeah, they still give me shipments. It’s not the same as when I was playing, but it’s a good amount. They take care of me over there, so I’m still blessed to be taken care of. The Jordan Brand’s great. These guys still take care of their athletes. I’ve been retired for 11, 12, 13 years, and they’re still taking care of me. I mean, it’s a great company. It’s a great brand to be a part of.