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Illustrations via Khammy Vilaysing.
Boogie Cousins. DeAndre Ayton. Marvin Bagley. Skylar Diggins-Smith. PUMA basketball is in the midst of a historic comeback, which by now isn’t news to anyone. People do tend to forget, however, the long list of players on the brand’s roster; superstars that a yuccie, diehard hoop head, and 13-year-old Instagram influencer might all revere.
Despite appealing to such an array of NBA fans, PUMA basketball offers a subversion to the sneaker game that behemoths like Nike and Adidas can’t match: namely, through a legit retro relevancy dating back to the first signature line in NBA history, its underdog status stemming from years away from the Association, and a rebrand spearheaded by a certain hip-hop hall of famer (JAY-Z).
It’s fitting that PUMA named the first basketball sneaker they dropped in 20 years the Disrupt, after blitzing the 2018 Draft and signing five of the first 16 picks, including the top two. The brand truly is disrupting the status quo.
With so much history, past and present, we’ve assembled the ultimate PUMA basketball roster. A "Dream Team" if you will, which is low-key loaded.
Walt “Clyde” Frazier
Year Signed: 1973
Signature Silhouette: PUMA Clyde
Bragging Rights: Hall of Famer, 2-time NBA champion ('70, '73), 7-time NBA All-Star, 5-time All-NBA First Team, master rhymer, style icon
The Godfather of the PUMA brand, and perhaps the most decorated player on this list, is Clyde Frazier. The Knicks great served as the inspiration for the “signature” sneaker line when PUMA inked his nickname, “Clyde,” in cursive on the upper of the shoe. A historic moment to say the least, the deal represented the first time a brand not only paid an athlete to wear its sneakers, but enlisted him to design it, too.
On the court, Frazier was an electrifying force for the Knickerbockers, quick-handed and wiry and able to punish teams on both sides of the ball. He notched 20 PPG and 5 APG for six consecutive seasons, and averaged well over two steals per game to boot.
Off the court, he was (and is) the personification of cool, donning the most colorfully lavish and outlandish suits you could imagine. Many younger fans recognize him as the thesaurus-heavy, wheeling and dealing (rhyming) color commentator for the Knicks. Now if only the organization could field a team deserving of Clyde’s verbal dexterity...
Isiah Thomas
Year Signed: 1989
Signature Silhouette: PUMA Palace Guard
Bragging Rights: Hall of Famer, 2-time NBA champion ('89, '90), Finals MVP ('90), 12-time NBA All-Star, 2-time All-Star Game MVP ('84, '86), 3-time All-NBA First Team, NCAA champion, NCAA Most Outstanding Player ('81)
The unmistakable anchor of the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons, Thomas led the squad to back-to-back titles to cap off the ’80s and kick off the ’90s, while wearing PUMA Palace Guards. The Guards represent an homage to the arena he once called home—the Palace at Auburn Hills.
“I won a lot of games in my PUMAs,” Zeke recently said. “My fondest memories are winning a championship in them...I was killing ’em in those shoes.”
Perhaps no moment personifies Thomas’ grit and determination more than Game 6 of the 1988 Finals against the favored Los Angeles Lakers. The 6’1’’ point guard sprained his ankle before the fourth quarter—wearing a pair of Converses, he would switch to PUMAs the next season—and went on to score a Finals-record 25 points in the effort. Detroit eventually lost Game 7 with Thomas hobbled, but the performance has helped shape his legend.
Ralph Sampson
Year Signed: 1983
Signature Silhouette: PUMA Ralph Sampson
Bragging Rights: Hall of Famer, NBA Rookie of the Year ('84), 4-time NBA All Star, All-Star Game MVP ('85), a very tall man
Sampson has a unique place in NBA history. The 7’4’’ behemoth burst onto the professional scene in 1983, averaging a whopping 20 PPG and 10 RPG in his first four campaigns with the Rockets, which earned him trips to the all-star game each season. All of this early success coming after his legendary four-year college career (wait, that’s a thing?!) at Virginia.
Sampson was an early prototype for today’s long and lean position-less big men who make a living on the perimeter. Still, he was a mountain at the rim, with length that altered any shot in his vicinity. He formed a terrifying Twin Tower combo with a young Hakeem Olajuwon that would prove instrumental in upsetting the 1986 Lakers in the Western Conference Finals—at the peak of the Magic-Kareem Showtime-era. Unfortunately, injuries robbed Sampson of his mobility and cut his career short, but his legacy as a dominant center lives on.
How did the former Virginia Cavalier wind up with PUMA? When PRO-Keds stopped making sneakers midway through Sampson’s rookie season, he signed with PUMA, becoming the brand’s highest-profile hooper since Clyde.
There was just one problem: PUMA didn’t manufacture a sneaker in Sampson’s gigantic size 17. So, Sampson wore PUMA prototypes for a brief period, which included his appearance in the 1984 Dunk Contest. Eventually, the brand named a shoe after him, and came up with an unreal tag line in their print ads: “Because if you’re not the predator, you’re the prey.”
Alex English
Year Signed: 1983
Signature Silhouette: PUMA Sky II
Bragging Rights: Hall of Famer, 8-time NBA All-Star, 3-time All-NBA Second Team, NBA Scoring Champion ('83), maybe the most underrated NBA star of all time
English flies under the radar among most contemporary NBA heads, but OG fans know how prolific a scorer he was for the Nuggets throughout the 1980s. From ’80 to ’89, he dropped better than 21 PPG and shot over 50 percent for his career. It would be easy to call the 6’7’’ forward a byproduct of coach Doug Moe’s run-and-gun offense, but those teams weren’t just a gimmick. They made the Conference Finals in 1985, and were a tough out in the playoffs each year with English serving as the offensive focal point.
A high-efficiency scorer, English is another one of those dudes who, like Sampson, was way ahead of his time. In today’s NBA, he would have extended his silky smooth jumper to behind the three-point line. Also like Sampson, English took his talents to the PUMA family, leaving Pony behind.
“The Nuggets back then, we were...very fleet-footed,” he recalled. “We pushed the ball up the floor. We ran. So I envisioned my PUMAs being the animal that they were—getting me up and down the floor.”
Nate “Tiny” Archibald
Year Signed: 1982
Signature Silhouette: PUMA SKY
Bragging Rights: Hall of Famer, NBA Champion ('81), 6-time NBA All-Star, All-Star Game MVP ('81), 3-time All-NBA First Team, a Rucker Park legend
The diminutive point guard became the first player in NBA history to lead the league in both scoring and assists during the 1973 season. His quickness in the open floor would rival that of De’Aaron Fox, John Wall, and Russell Westbrook—a crucial attribute for Tiny, given his slender 6’1’’, 150-pound frame. His speed, combined with a terrific mid-range jumper and pinpoint passing ability, made the former King a nightmare defensive matchup for anyone.
When Clyde Frazier hung up his PUMA’s following the 1980 season, Tiny unofficially took the torch, as a key (guard) ambassador for the brand. He went onto capture his first and only NBA title as a member of the ’81 Celtics, nabbing All-NBA Second Team honors in the process. That was a big deal for Archibald who had missed the entire 1978 campaign due to an Achilles’ injury, and subsequently faced questions about whether he could still get it done on the court. Spoiler: He could.
Vince Carter
Year Signed: 1998
Signature Silhouettes: PUMA Cell VI, PUMA Vinsanity
Bragging Rights: Rookie of the Year ('99), 8-time NBA All-Star, All-NBA Second Team ('01), G.O.A.T. dunker
Half Man, Half Amazing’s career in the NBA has been as distinct and vast as his iconic aerial displays. The last major baller to sign with PUMA as a rookie in 1998, Vince represents a huge inflection point for the brand—a connector between the OGs and YGs on PUMA’s roster.
There was truly nothing like Vinsanity when he took the floor at the Air Canada Centre. Selected fifth overall in the ’98 draft by Golden State and traded for former Tar Heel teammate Antawn Jamison shortly thereafter, Carter’s unparalleled dunking abilities and high-flying escapades sent shock waves through the Association. He was the definition of a rookie sensation. And of course, there's the 2000 slam dunk contest, which Carter absolutely owned, setting the standard to which all dunk contests (past and future) are compared.
PUMA’s signing of Vince proved nothing short of clairvoyant, with his bounce serving as plenty of inspiration for young fans to go out and purchase the PUMA Vinsanitys (which dropped in ’99). The incredible visual of VC taking flight during practice in a pair of PUMA Cell VI’s and legendary ad spots helped heighten (no pun intended) no. 15’s mystique. In case you're wondering what the 42-year-old is up to today, take a look.
DeMarcus Cousins
Year Signed: 2018
Signature Silhouettes: PUMA Clyde Court PE, PUMA Uproar
Bragging Rights: 4-time NBA All-Star, 2-time All-NBA Second Team, top-15 all-time nickname (Boogie)
The first true NBA star to officially endorse the brand since, well, the next guy on this list, Cousins is the new leader of PUMA pack.
Boogie has found plenty of individual success over the course of his nine-year career—beginning with Sacramento and New Orleans—but chose to sign with the Warriors (for a cup of coffee) following an Achilles’ tear to try to leverage his talents into a championship. His 2018 off-season decision sent NBA Twitter into a frenzy, despite the fact no one else was ready to offer him the bag that his loaded resume called for. Golden State, always one step ahead, “took a chance” and inked Boogie, making him a focal point of their star-studded operation—not unike PUMA’s own decision to sign DMC.
Skylar Diggins-Smith
Year Signed: 2017
Signature Silhouette: PUMA Clyde Court Disrupt
Bragging Rights: 4-time WNBA All-Star, 2-time All-WNBA First Team, WNBA Most Improved Player ('14), flamed Nick Cannon on Wild 'N Out
By the time PUMA locked up DeAndre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III, and several other members of the 2018 rookie class—effectively putting the sneaker world on tilt—many people forgot that the brand already had a basketball superstar on its roster. WNBA point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith is the consummate sports-pop culture icon that hoop fans quickly developed an affection for. In 2015, the Dallas Wings star won the ESPY award for top baller, and shortly after, Azealia Banks dropped a banger dedicated to her called “Skylar Diggins”
As the first pro basket-baller to sign with PUMA prior to their recent resurgence, the 29-year-old’s place with the brand speaks volumes about her popularity and talents on the court. She’s a cultural mainstay, just like the shoes she wears on a nightly basis.
Deandre Ayton
Year Signed: 2018
Signature Silhouette: PUMA Clyde Court Disrupt
Bragging Rights: No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, Pac-12 Player of the Year, Unanimous First Team All-American at Arizona
The Suns might have the first European-born coach in NBA history, but they didn’t select Slovenian sensation, Luka Doncic, with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 Draft. That distinct honor belonged to DeAndre Ayton, since his upside was just too hard to pass up.
The manchild out of Arizona is averaging a double-double—16 points and 10 boards—during his first pro season, and would be the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year if it weren’t for the aforementioned Doncic and a certain individual tearing it up in the ATL. Ayton’s touch around the rim, athleticism, and strides on the defensive side of the ball point towards a career that could very well revive a Phoenix franchise fallen on hard times.
Playing for the Suns has truly been a homecoming for Ayton, not just because he donned a Wildcats uniform in college, but because he attended high school at Hillcrest Prep in Phoenix. There, coincidentally, he played alongside the man selected in the NBA Draft immediately after him—a fellow PUMA signee.
Marvin Bagley III
Year Signed: 2018
Signature Silhouette: PUMA Clyde Court Disrupt
Bragging Rights: No. 2 pick in the 2018 Draft, ACC Player of the Year, Consensus All-American at Duke, a legitimately good rapper
At 14 years old, MB3 received scholarship offers from Northern Arizona and Arizona State. 14! As we know, Bagley eventually chose to take his talents to Durham and play for the Duke Blue Devils. However, the southpaw believes—if NBA rules were different—he could have forgone college altogether to continue his basketball career.
“When I was done with high school, I felt like I was ready to play in the NBA, absolutely,” he told Complex last year.
He may be right. Bagley set a host of rebounding records at Duke, dropping 30-point, 10-rebound lines on a consistent basis, and earned ACC Player of the Year honors.
Selected second overall in the 2018 Draft, Bagley started off slowly in Sac-Town thanks to nagging injuries. Since the new year, however, he’s come into his own, averaging 17.5 points and close to 10 rebounds per game in the month of February, helping propel the once futile Kings to playoff contention.
Bagley and Ayton, two of the game’s most talented young big men, are primed to lead PUMA's “frontcourt” into its bright future.
Terry Rozier
Year Signed: 2018
Signature Silhouette: PUMA Clyde Court Disrupt
Bragging Rights: A whole lot of bravado
“I ain't f--kin' with nobody else but PUMA,” the Celtics’ point guard proclaimed when he signed with the brand last July. This coming after a breakout 2017-18 season, which saw “Scary Terry” pick up the slack (and then some) during the C's remarkable playoff run with two of the team’s stars injured. His torrid play against the Bucks, Sixers, and Cavs nearly led Boston back to the finals, a place they haven’t been since the turn of the decade.
With rumors flying about the Celtics overhauling their roster this off-season to trade for the Brow, Rozier may very well be heading to New Orleans (or elsewhere) soon. No matter where he winds up, no. 12 brings intensity, attitude, and disruption—making him an ideal athlete to don the PUMA Clyde Court Disrupt.