It all started fenty puma slippers in 1973, when Frazier became not only Puma's first signature athlete but also the first player in basketball history to get his own sneaker. At the time, Frazier had a championship ring and was after another, averaging 21.1 points, 5.9 assists and a career-high 7.9 rebounds a game during the '72-'73 season as the All-Star point guard for the New York Knicks.Before Air Jordans, there were Puma Clydes. Frazier wanted a shoe that was wide, light and designed with sufficient interior padding.

The Clyde ultimately emerged as one of the most influential sneakers of all time  a shoe that, after being embraced by hip-hop culture, transcended the sport of basketball. It was the epitome of style and embodiment of cool. Everyone, from ballplayers to fenty puma sneakers break dancers, wanted to wear Puma  and Frazier was a huge reason why.I'd been a Frazier fan since I was a little kid," said retired two-time NBA champion Wes Matthews, 59, who endorsed Puma from 1984 to 1986.

On his second fenty slides puma touch of the night, he ripped right through the top of one. "I'm very hard on shoes," McGinnis later told the Indianapolis News . "When I cut, they rip." He finished the game with Puma on one foot and Converse on the other.In 1980, Frazier retired. Coming off All-Star MVP honors and an NBA title with the Boston Celtics in 1981, Nate "Tiny" Archibald became Puma's next big endorsee. Like Jones, however, Archibald lasted only one season with the brand.

Spoiler: Supershort deals with players would new puma shoes continuously haunt Puma's journey through basketball for decades. But it's a trend that briefly changed in the mid-1980s, when the brand began courting star players such as Nuggets small forward Alex English. During the 1982-83 NBA season, no one could put the ball in the basket quite like the slender 6-foot-7 English, who made all 82 regular-season starts while posting an average of 28.4 points a game to win the league's scoring title.

The third overall pick in the 1984 NBA draft out of the University of North Carolina, signed a contract with Nike worth $500,000 annually for five years. During the '84-'85 season, Wes Matthews started 38 games at point guard for the Chicago Bulls as the backcourt mate of the young M.J., who debuted the iconic Air Jordan 1. On Matthews' feet: the Puma Sky LX.I had some of my best games when I played in my Pumas with Michael Jordan," Matthews said. "I took pride puma basket heart in my Pumas. I made sure they were clean every day.

With a strong product and perfect placement, Puma began to experience a basketball renaissance. "I'm playing alongside Jordan, who's getting fined every game for wearing his shoes & ," Matthews said. "He's getting a lot of publicity & so I figured Puma would get a lot of publicity and the brand would take off."Matthews was right  English, Sampson and Milwaukee Bucks power forward Terry Cummings appeared in the 1985 All-Star Game, all wearing Pumas. Sampson was named the MVP with a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds.