Every Wednesday on the NBA Today podcast, former Bullet Tim Legler shares a story from his NBA career. This week, he talked about a bizarre incident involving his Converse "React Juice" shoes.
The React Juice shoes were a short lived shoe design from the mid-90's that featured a bubble under the heel of the shoe that contained the juice. You can check out some pictures here. The reason the design was so short-lived is because the bubble would crack and let the React Juice leak all over the basketball court. As you would expect, this led to some problems.
Before the shoes were finally pulled from the shelves for good, Tim Legler was still using them during a Bullets practice when his shoes began to leak. Here's how he described the scene:
It's like a skating rink, guys are going down and Chris Webber does a split. He's down and he yells out and the trainer comes out on the court, and you can't see it on the court. No one knows what's going on. They're out there, the ballboys are out on the floor wiping the practice court and it continued. Three or four guys slippin', slidin' and wipin' out.
Finally, I look down at the bottom of my shoes and there's react juice dripping out of the shoe. So it was my shoes. And I go to right away to Jimmy Lynam and I'm like "Coach, look, my shoes are leaking." And of course Jimmy Lynam's old school, and he's like "What are you talking about Timmy? Shoes leaking? What's that? What is it with the shoes leaking nowadays. These players, these shoes..." [Note: You really have to hear Legler's impression of Lynam. The quotes don't do it justice.]
Thankfully Webber avoided a major groin injury when he did that split. This franchise has had its share of bizarre injuries, but a groin pull due to a leaking shoe would be right up there. It would also be up there in the running for the most 90's thing ever.
Tim didn't specify when exactly this incident happened, but it makes me wonder if his react juice had anything to do with Jim McIlvane's spill here.