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by Gerald Flores
Imagine you're a 16-year-old NBA ballboy and a Michael Jordan comes to your building. Would you have the testicular fortitude to ask him for his sneakers after the game? That's exactly what former Lakers ball boy Khalid Ali did back in 1984.
Even though he wasn't a Michael Jordan fan, Ali was enamored with Air Jordan 1. "I had never seen anything like that before, and neither have any of the other ball boys," Ali said.
He was so infatuated with the sneakers that when a rookie Michael Jordan came into town to play the Lakers, Ali was willing to risk his job to get a pair from MJ himself. "My parents always told me, 'Let them tell you no," Ali recalled. "So I went up to Michael Jordan and I was going to let him tell me yes or no."
His gumption to ask the player for his shoes worked, as MJ told Ali to meet him in the locker room after the game was over. Despite not being allowed into the visitor's locker room, Ali went in anyway for a chance to score a pair of his game-worn sneakers. Luckily, it didn't cost him his ballboy job.
As it turned out, Jordan didn't play in the Air Jordan 1 that night, but instead, the Nike Air Ship, which Jordan gracefully signed and dated for Ali. After being kept safe at Ali's parent's house for over 30 years, the sneakers are now up for bids at SCP Auctions. The current bid is close to $19,000. Looks like Ali's guts to walk up to Michael Jordan is about to pay off big time.
See Ali share the full story in the video below:
