Nick Young played an NBA game in Yeezy 750s before anyone else

The Lakers lost by 29 in Houston on 12 Dec 2015, and the box score was the least of it. The story was Nick Young’s feet. Swaggy P had come out at the Toyota Center in the Yeezy 750 Boost, grey-brown suede with the strap across the forefoot. It’s a shoe adidas had built for the street, and he played in it.

Nobody had played an NBA game in the 750 before, Complex reported. Jeff Teague had been set to try, but an ankle injury meant he didn’t. Young had only just signed with adidas, after Nike declined to match the offer, Hypebeast reported that weekend, and he wanted everyone to know it. “I just signed with Adidas,” he told the Associated Press after the game. “Welcome to the three stripes, Swaggy P. And I had to come in with some style.”

The Yeezys got the assist

He scored 13, and his first assist of the night went to Kobe Bryant. Young wasn’t taking the credit for that one. “It was the Yeezys tonight that got the assist for him,” he said. Teammates were yelling “Tell ’em about the Yeezy’s, Nick Yeezy”, the AP reported, and courtside, Tracy McGrady had on the same shoe, Sneaker News noticed.

New Year’s Day, in black

Ye put him in a song three weeks later. “Facts”, Ye’s shot at Nike, name-checked Young, and the night before 2016 Young tweeted “Nike just die 5 hrs b4 2016”. On 1 Jan 2016, at home to the 76ers, he wore the black 750, which had only gone on sale on 19 Dec, Sole Collector and Sneaker News reported.

They lasted a half. He’d swapped them out by the third quarter, SI and Bleacher Report reported, and finished with eight points on 3-of-11 in a 93-84 win.

In Houston the Yeezys got the assist. At Staples they didn’t see the second half.