NBA stars' 'superhero' Nike shoes violate rules

Published Mar. 26, 2013 5:59 p.m. ET

foxsports

So, Nike has introduced some new superhero shoes for LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. Superhero shoes? Yeah, basically Nike had to release some new shoes for the NBA playoffs, and came up with a superhero theme. Officially, this is the Elite Series 2.0 line and, truth be told, they are pretty sweet.

There's a little bit of a sticking point, though: They violate the NBA's uniform rules.

In case you don't have an NBA rule book handy, the rule about shoes (which hangs in every NBA locker room) reads like this: "Color must be any combination of white, black and the colors within the team identity."

The photos Nike released of James' shoe (the LeBron X PS Elite), however, is mainly blue, orange and black. You'll note the Miami Heat's colors do not include blue. Bryant's shoe (Kobe 8 System Elite) is almost completely green, which the Los Angeles Lakers don't wear. Durant's model (KD V Elite) was shown in bright blue and green. The Oklahoma City Thunder's primary color is blue, though in quite a different hue than that of the shoe Nike released.

"James, Bryant and Durant will wear their player editions in the postseason," Nike's Web site reads.

That could mean the player editions differ a little from the retail editions. We left a message with Nike Communications and will update the story if we get to the bottom of this. NBA senior vice president of basketball communications Tim Frank said he was "not going to speculate" on how the NBA would handle it.