Hailing from Benton Harbor, Michigan, a small city with a population of just under 11,000, Denver Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler’s love of basketball came from watching local ballers in the area. It also opened his eyes to another part of the sport’s culture.
Chandler was obsessed as a youngster with the different and vibrant sneakers that these ballers were wearing, a mix of Jordans and Nikes. He knew he had to wait to get his first proper pair of kicks, and was willing to wait as a youngster.
Now at age 30, Chandler, a nine-year NBA veteran, with a stop in China sandwiched in-between is 600 pairs deep and enjoys being one of the NBA’s most notorious “sneakerheads”.
“It was, you know, the same story. It was a matter of having the money or not having the money,” Chandler told SLAM Online.
“I wasn’t able to get shoes. The thought was always there, the love and the passion was always there. But I had to wait until I got a little older before I could afford the shoes. Until then, it was the basics—Forces, all white, all black.”
This very love and passion led him to build up the collection that Chandler holds today, all stored in his basement. “It was like you got a basement full of gold,” Chandler says. “You just wanna go there and just lay in them.”
Chandler averaged 15.7 points last season after missing the entire 2015-16 campaign with a hip injury. He averages 14 points and 5.5 rebounds in his NBA career.
