The MLK Day Sneaker Moment We Almost Forgot
Kemba Walker, MLK Day, and the Black History Month Jordans that disappeared from sneaker history
I'm breaking from my regular publishing schedule for this one. Important moments deserve our attention when they happen, not when the calendar says it's time to send an email. Today is MLK Day. And there's a story from this day ten years ago that I need to tell.
I’ve been watching Kemba Walker since his UConn days. Not just watching... invested.
March 12, 2009. UConn versus Syracuse in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. I was in Austin, Texas, at a gym, on a treadmill that controlled the TV in front of me. You know those setups... if you stop moving, the screen goes dark.
The game went to overtime. Then another. Then another.
Six overtimes. Four hours and 46 minutes of basketball. I couldn’t stop running or I’d miss it. Longest workout of my life. My legs were screaming. Kemba kept playing.
Syracuse won 127-117, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was watching Kemba leave everything on that court.
That’s when I knew. This kid was different.
And the shoes... I remember the shoes. Kemba’s sneaker journey at UConn was all over the place, which was typical for college players at the time. He wore Nike Hyperdunks, Air Max Fly Bys, even some adidas Rose 1s. By his junior year, when he led UConn to the 2011 national championship, he was primarily in the Jordan Fly Wade and Jordan Melo M7.
But the moment everyone remembers? March 21, 2011. Sports Illustrated cover. Kemba in his UConn uniform, wearing Air Jordan 11 Cool Greys, with the headline celebrating his march through the tournament. That cover captured everything... the Big East Tournament championship, the NCAA Tournament run building momentum, and Kemba in one of the most iconic Jordans ever made.
I can’t be the only one who misses the real Big East Conference. The one that existed from 1979 to 2013. Syracuse, UConn, Georgetown, Villanova, Pittsburgh, St. John’s... playing in Madison Square Garden felt like it mattered more somehow. Especially for the athletes who came up in that area. That six-overtime game against Syracuse? That was Big East basketball. The tournament that Kemba dominated in 2011, winning five games in five days? That was the Big East Tournament in its final glory years before conference realignment tore it all apart.
Nothing custom, nothing flashy. Just a kid from the Bronx rotating through whatever Nike and Jordan Brand team-issued models were available, making them look special through the way he played.
That’s the thing about Kemba’s sneaker story... it was never about having the rarest PEs or the most exclusive colorways. It was about what he did in whatever he laced up. The shoes became memorable because he was memorable.
I started tracking every pair after that six-overtime game. When UConn won the national championship in 2011 with Kemba leading the way, he did it in Jordans. By the time he entered the NBA Draft, everyone assumed he’d sign with Jordan Brand. It made sense. He’d worn them in college. He had the game. He had the story. Bronx kid making it, playing with the Jumpman on his feet. That Sports Illustrated cover in the Cool Grey 11s looked like a Jordan Brand advertisement.
But that’s not what happened.
When Kemba got drafted ninth overall by the Charlotte Bobcats in 2011, Under Armour came calling. They were hungry. They were building their basketball division from scratch, trying to compete with Nike’s stranglehold on the sport. They needed young talent. They needed someone who could become the face of something new.
Kemba signed with Under Armour. Not Jordan Brand. Not Nike. Under Armour.
It was a risk for both sides. Under Armour didn’t have the basketball credibility yet. Kemba was betting on being a centerpiece rather than another athlete in Nike’s massive stable. He wore the Micro G Bloodline, the Anatomix Spawn, the ClutchFit Drive... shoes that performed well but never quite captured the cultural moment the way his game deserved.
I remember watching every colorway, every PE, every on-court choice. Years later, I got to work with him during that Under Armour partnership. 2013. We did a photo shoot at the Sack Wern basketball court in the Bronx... a court Kemba and UA were refurbishing for the community.
Watching him interact with kids who saw themselves in him, seeing how much it meant to give back to a neighborhood that looked like the one he grew up in... that made me appreciate him even more and was yet another reminder of why sneakers are more than just product. They were connection. They were access. They were proof that someone who looked like you made it.
Kemba stayed with Under Armour for years. He became an All-Star in their shoes. He led Charlotte to the playoffs. He put up numbers. But the shoes never quite became part of the cultural conversation the way his game warranted. Under Armour couldn’t figure out how to make basketball cool. They had the right athlete, they just couldn’t build the story around him.
Eventually, in 2015, Kemba left Under Armour and signed with Jordan Brand. The circle closed. He was back where many thought he’d start. Back to the Jumpman. Back to the brand he wore when he became a legend at UConn. Back to the brand he wore on that Sports Illustrated cover in the Cool Grey 11s.
Finally wearing the shoes that felt like they always should have been on his feet.
Fast forward to January 18, 2016. Just months after signing with Jordan Brand. When Kemba was still in Charlotte, still fighting for recognition.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Charlotte Hornets hosting the Utah Jazz.
Kemba Walker dropped 52 points.
Ten years ago this week.
And he did it in what appears to be the Jordan Super Fly 4 in the Black History Month colorway. My favorite in the Super Fly line. A special-occasion shoe for a special-occasion game. The circle had just closed... he was back with Jordan Brand, the shoes he wore at UConn, and now he had a moment that deserved to define that partnership.
Even in photos where it’s hard to see clearly, it’s a beautiful sneaker. The silhouette is unmistakable if you know the Super Fly 4. And yet... it doesn’t seem to exist on any of the sneaker blogs. Not on marketplace sites. Not in release calendars. Not in BHM retrospectives.
What’s up with that?
Think about the layers of that moment. MLK Day. A day celebrating a man who fought for equality, for justice, for the idea that Black lives and Black achievement matter. Kemba laces up a Black History Month Jordan... shoes designed specifically to honor Black history and culture. Then he goes out and delivers one of the great performances in Hornets history.
The symbolism writes itself.
52 points leading Charlotte to victory. The kind of game that should be remembered not just for the stat line, but for when it happened and how it looked.
But we barely remember it happened.
Today being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I feel like it’s important to talk about this moment that happened on this day ten years ago. It’s also a reminder of how, even in the age of information with the internet seemingly capturing all things, it’s important for us to document moments.
We live in an era where everything is supposed to be archived. Every sneaker release has a product page. Every colorway gets cataloged. Every game has highlight footage in 4K. And yet, a Jordan Brand Black History Month colorway worn during a 52-point performance on MLK Day has somehow slipped through the cracks of sneaker history.
That tells you something about what we choose to remember and what we let fade away.
Beyond remembering, honoring, and celebrating Dr. King and what he meant to our collective existence as humans, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is also a reminder of my responsibility to help lift the voices that aren’t always heard, the stories that aren’t always told, and the moments that aren’t always on the front page.
Like Kemba scoring 52 on MLK Day ten years ago.
That’s a special moment on a special day that deserves special recognition.
The sneaker industry moves at a relentless pace. Black History Month releases drop, we cover them for a week, then we’re on to All-Star Weekend, then March releases, then playoffs. We forget to ask: did anyone do something meaningful in those shoes? Did anyone create a moment worth remembering?
Kemba did. On the most symbolically appropriate day possible. Wearing shoes designed to honor Black excellence, on a day celebrating one of the most important figures in the Civil Rights Movement, delivering a performance that reminded everyone why he’s been special since those six overtime minutes against Syracuse in the real Big East.
And we let it slip past without the recognition it deserved.
Kemba’s career has been defined by moments that deserved more attention than they got. That 2011 UConn championship run, where he carried the Huskies through the Big East and NCAA tournaments, should have made him a household name. It did in Connecticut. But nationally? He was always fighting for recognition.
His Under Armour years were defined by that same struggle. Great player, performing at a high level, but playing for a small-market team in shoes that didn’t have the cultural cachet. Even when he made All-Star teams, even when he put up All-NBA numbers, the conversation always felt like it was happening somewhere else.
That MLK Day performance was peak Kemba. Special moment. Special day. Playing in Charlotte, a city that rarely got national attention. Wearing Black History Month Jordans that most people probably didn’t even notice. Dropping 52 points against the Jazz in a game that didn’t get the primetime spotlight.
Everything about it mattered. And it feels like nobody remembers.
Dr. King’s legacy isn’t just about remembering one man. It’s about the responsibility we all carry to recognize and honor the moments that matter... especially the ones that don’t make the front page. The ones that happen in Charlotte on a Monday afternoon. The ones that don’t get the primetime spotlight or the national media coverage.
Those moments still matter. Those stories still deserve to be told.
Kemba Walker, on MLK Day, in Black History Month Jordans, dropping 52 points... that’s not just a basketball game. That’s the kind of moment that connects past and present. That shows what’s possible. That reminds us why representation matters, why symbols matter, why paying attention matters.
We almost forgot it happened.
I’m writing this ten years later because I don’t want to forget anymore. Because part of honoring Dr. King’s legacy is doing the work... the work of paying attention, of telling the stories that get overlooked, of making sure the moments that matter get the recognition they deserve.
Not just on MLK Day. Not just during Black History Month. All the time.
The sneaker industry has a responsibility here too. We celebrate the big moments. The championships. The All-Star Games. The sneakers that break the internet. But what about the performances that happen on days that mean something beyond basketball? What about the athletes who create meaningful moments in shoes designed to honor history and culture?
Those stories deserve more than a box score and a highlight package that gets buried in the archives.
I’ve been watching Kemba since I ran through six overtimes on a treadmill in Texas because I couldn’t look away. I worked with him when he refurbished a court in the Bronx, watching him give back to kids who needed to see someone like him succeed. I watched him navigate Under Armour, then eventually find his way back to Jordan Brand where many of us thought he belonged from the start, back to the brand he wore in Cool Grey 11s on that Sports Illustrated cover.
And on MLK Day 2016, in the middle of all that, he gave us a perfect moment. The right shoes, the right day, the right performance. The Jordan Super Fly 4 in Black History Month colors. Beautiful even in grainy game footage. And somehow almost completely undocumented.
Ten years later, I’m making sure we don’t forget it.
That’s the work. That’s the responsibility. That’s how we honor not just Dr. King, but everyone who creates meaningful moments that deserve to be remembered.
Kemba Walker scored 52 points on Martin Luther King Jr. Day while wearing Black History Month Jordans. That happened. That mattered. And we should remember it.
Not just because it was a great game. But because it was a moment that connected who we are, what we wear, and why it all matters beyond the box score.
People are more interesting than products. It’s the people. And Kemba Walker, on that day, reminded us why paying attention to the people and their moments is what this is all about.
Have you seen photos of the Jordan Super Fly 4 in the BHM colorway? Let’s not let its existence be forgotten. Hit reply if you have any photos or details on this elusive colorway, or if there are other sneakers you’ve always wondered where they disappeared to.
I’m Nick Engvall, and I’ve been writing about sneakers and culture for nearly two decades, from building Eastbay’s first blog to being employee #9 at StockX. I run Sneaker History (website and podcast) and write The Sneaker Newsletter... sneaker lore, industry insights, and the stories that connect what we wear to who we are. I’d love to have you along for the journey as I go full-time as an independent creator in 2026!