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Editors note: Starting next week, ESPN.com is counting down the best basketball sneakers of all time, #NBArank style. But first we asked a few writers to share about their favorite kicks.The Air Force 1 is, at the end of the day, in this entire sneakerhead epidemic, a shoe for the people. Forever reppin what the marriage between the game and the soul of the game is supposed to be.This to me was the most important shoe in basketball history, said Ray Butts, architect of Sole Provider: 30 Years of Nike Basketball, when?reflecting on the Air Force 1.The true story of the Air Force 1 is closer to the story of the black renaissance, and the reason gear, fit, and merch mean so much to lower-income minorities, especially many African-Americans, who throughout history have used sports, entertainment and hustle as a lifeline to survival and escape.But it has also lived the life of excess. Its been on Jay-Zs feet in concerts and commercials. Its been in songs by Nelly, then a classic by Kanye, KRS-One, Nas and Rakim. Its been on Seinfeld!?For true, it is a shoe for the people, but it still has a vainglorious history of the fab life.Put it best this way: If it were a city, itd be Brooklyn: Park Slope and Bed-Stuy.What began in 1982 as an innovating design and construct with the intent of revolutionizing the sole of the game, the Air Force 1 went from being the shoe that defined the games of Bobby Jones, Michael Cooper, Jamaal Wilkes and Moses Malone to the shoe that defined everything Rasheed Wallace was about as a player and a person.And somewhere in between, the streets took hold.Part of the reason the hood took ownership of the Air Force 1 is because of the affordability. Staying 100 (unless they were LEs, PEs, signatures, customized or bespokes) for less than $100 is an art. With the AF1 having a design so universally clean and simple, it adapted to damn near any trend of black fashion and style.The Air Force 1 is the only shoe that belongs to a particular culture, said Isaac Perry, former host of a Nike digital shoe documentary Laced, speaking on the shoes 25th anniversary in 2007.And because of that, the value of the shoe has not diminished.And it never will. Even as the landscape of both basketball shoes and lifestyle sneakers evolve into a Westworldish/Westbrookish future, the one that started it all still lives the life of champagne wishes and concrete dreams.Harlem to Hollywood. And back.A life, uninterrupted. Yeezy Shoes Discount . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors. Yeezy Boost 350 Moonrock For Sale . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. http://www.cheapyeezyswholesale.com/yeezy-boost-350-v2-for-sale/discount-yeezy-350-v2-triple-white.html . At a Manhattan federal court hearing, attorney Jordan Siev said his law office has gotten more evidence nearly every day to support its lawsuit accusing MLB and Selig of going on a "witch hunt" to ruin Rodriguezs reputation and career. He said the defendants went "way over the line. Yeezy Wave Runner 700 Cheap . JOHNS, N. Yeezy Wave Runner 700 For Sale Cheap . Louis Blues. Shane Hnidy joins Brian Munz for the broadcast on TSN 1290 Radio at 7pm ct. MOSCOW -- The International Olympic Committee is weighing up whether to ban Russia from next months games in Rio de Janeiro after revelations of a massive doping cover-up, but relations between the two were once much sunnier.When IOC president Thomas Bach was elected in 2013, he was called almost immediately by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country was then gearing up to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Bach, a former fencer from Germany, took the call as his IOC colleagues waited to continue the proceedings.What the two men spoke about isnt known, though they had more in common than a shared interest in the Sochi Olympics, which have since been overshadowed by allegations that Russian officials colluded to sabotage the drug testing laboratory at the games.Putin is a keen athlete, with judo and ice hockey his favorite sports, while Bach has longstanding sports and personal links to Russia.Those links will be tested after World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren alleged top Russian officials including Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, a close Putin ally, had personally intervened to cover up hundreds of failed drug tests.The IOCs executive board meets Sunday and is expected to provide final confirmation for a ban on the Russian track and field team. The board said earlier this week it will explore the legal options for banning all Russians from the games, across all sports, following what Bach called a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games.At an IOC event three days before the opening of the Sochi Olympics, with Putin in attendance, Bach thanked the Russian president in person for his great commitment to the games and for the way he set the pace in this great endeavor.Bach also addressed the subject of doping, praising what he said were tough IOC rules. The fight for the clean athletes, this should be our motto, Bach said. Fighting for the clean athletes means we have to protect them from doping, any kind of manipulation and related corruption.Bach has been a regular visitor to Russia in his three years as head of the IOC, both before and after the Sochi Olympics. Putin has also shown himself willing to travel to improve contacts wwith the IOC, giving a well received speech in 2007 in Guatemala -- delivered in English, which is rare for Putin -- ahead of the vote which gave Sochi the 2014 Olympics.ddddddddddddSince he won Olympic gold in 1976, Bachs chosen sport of fencing has been transformed, most recently by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, a Putin ally who has pumped large sums of his own money into the sport over eight years as president of the International Fencing Federation.That money has increased the profile of one of the more niche sports on the Olympic program, making for a bigger media presence and glitzier competitions.Bach also has business connections in Russia. After becoming president of the IOC, he kept his other role as chairman of the supervisory board of Weinig, a Germany company which produces woodworking machinery. Weinig, which did not respond to requests for comment, has a strong presence in Russia, with a headquarters near Moscow and offices across the country.Besides Bach, several other influential IOC members have long been sympathetic to Russia.Putin was presented with world swimmings highest honor last year by federation head Julio Maglione, who has yet to comment on McLarens allegations that Russian officials sabotaged the testing program at its world championships last year. Ice hockey federation president Rene Fasel is a friend of Mutko and regular visitor to Moscow.Patrick Hickey, an Irish member of the IOCs executive board, has been trying to persuade the Russian government to host the 2019 European Games in his other role as head of the European Olympic Committees.The European Games have run into trouble after a much-criticized debut edition in Azerbaijan last year and the decision of the Netherlands to pull out of hosting the next games in 2019. Tuesdays IOC statement on the McLaren report said the IOC would no longer organize or give patronage to the European Games if held in Russia.Other IOC board members, however, harbor less sympathy for Russia. WADA, which wants Russias entire team banned from Rio, also has its president Craig Reedie on the IOC board. ' ' '