Durant Defends Detroit's Booted Shoe

Filed under: Pistons, Sports Business and Media, Sneakers

Reports came out last week that Detroit Pistons' strength and conditioning coach Arnie Kander banned the Nike Hyperize sneaker, claiming the shoe's lightweight technology provides insufficient ankle support and was to blame for a series of ankle and leg injuries.

Kevin Durant -- who is sponsored by Nike and no stranger to ankle injuries -- disagrees. Though the league's No. 2 scorer rocks his own signature Nike, the Zoom KD II, he came to the defense of his sponsor to divert the blame from the Hyperize.

"Ankle injuries can come from stepping on a guy's foot or coming down on somebody. Rarely does it happen when you're just running around on the court," said Durant. "And sometimes it doesn't matter what shoe you have on, so I don't think that's the issue. It just happens when you're playing."

The Pistons have suffered an unusually high number of ankle injuries this season, including Ben Gordon, Will Bynum and Richard Hamilton.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/03/02/durant-defends-detroits-booted-shoe/