Jordan 11 - XI

The Air Jordan XI (11) was released in 1995/96. Jordan was back for real and he led the Bulls to yet another NBA victory. He also became the second man to ever win Most Valuable Player awards for the regular season, All-Star Game and NBA Finals in the same season. He averaged 30.4 points per game and scored 40 or more points in nine games. What a come back! Triple come back If Jordan was back, so was Tinker Hatfield. A terrific design with a new patent leather and the return of the clear rubber sole made the Air Jordan XI the most appreciated Air Jordan model ever released. But when the design stunned everyone, the durability and quality was disappointing. Again the clear rubber soles easily yellowed and the patent leather also tended to crack up and/or easily get scratched. Top design - lacking quality With the XI's we also saw the return of low-tops. Something that would follow the Air Jordan's all the way to the XVI's (though skipping the XII's). Back to the banning days Michael was fined $5000 per game during the semifinals in 1995 for wearing the white/black-dk concord ones. He wore them twice and this was looked upon as uniform violation as the rest of the Bulls wore entirely black shoes. (This kind of brings back memories from when the I's were banned from the NBA.) Being fined two games was enough though and the next game he wore Anfernee Hardaway's shoes. But did Nike enjoy MJ not wearing AJ's? Probably not as he got the "Space Jam's" for the remaining games. The same shoes that could also be seen in the movie Space Jam. Jordan XI's are off the heezy. Retro fever When the XI's were retroed in 2000-2001 they would prove to become the retro that sold in the highest quantity ever and also the fastest selling Air Jordan's of all time.