Mike Bibby is one of the biggest shoe collectors among retired athletes. Some even claim that Bibby has the largest sneaker collection ever, which is literally housed inside his Phoenix compound.
While most collectors have a sneaker room, Bibby has a separate house for his massive shoe collection. No one has a video of his entire shoe collection, but those who have seen it swear that it's the largest they've ever encountered.
Not only is Bibby's collection colossal, but the shoes in it are some of the most valuable ever. They include the rarest Air Jordan Player Exclusives and several 1-of-1s.
There are many stories about Bibby's collection, but perhaps the one that stands out is an alleged altercation between Mike and rap superstar Fat Joe over rare Jordan shoes. During the commotion, the retired guard choked Joe after the latter took some of the rarest sneakers on the shelves and put them inside a duffel bag.
During a recent interview with Complex , Bibby admitted the confrontation with the rapper but denied that he choked his longtime buddy and fellow shoe collector.
"No, I mean I just had my hand on his throat like, 'Yo, come on, you can't take all of them.' It wasn't to the point where I choked him," said Bibby.
Fat Joe too the Bugattis from the shelves
Bibby and Fat Joe are longtime friends who are bonded by their love for sneakers. One time, Mike invited his buddy to his shoe house to show him his stuff. But when Joe showed up, he brought with him a duffel bag and started filling it with some of Bibby's shoes.
Because Joe is a collector, he knew which ones were valuable and he ended up picking the so-called Bugatti's from the shelves. When Bibby realized that Fat Joe had taken his most prized possessions, the incident happened, and he forced the rapper to return the items but allowed him to take one pair.
"I just looked back and I told him like, 'Joe, you can't take all of them. Pick one and then you can take one.' In the back of my mind, I was hoping that please don't take the 9 Lows, please don't take the 9 Lows. And he ended up taking those. That was a shoe that I don't think, I haven't seen that anywhere. But other than that, I didn't choke him. I definitely didn't choke him," added Bibby.
Related: Michael Jordan opens up about his older brother Larry not making the NBA: "He has always been a good player, but he just didn't grow enough"
Bibby is a member of the Jordan Team
The story is incredible but is true as Fat Joe proudly displayed the white 9 Lows during a 2016 interview with Sole Collector . It was also during that interview that he claimed that an alcohol-influenced Bibby muscled him up and choked him. In the video, the rapper also claimed that the retired Kings guard owns the most number of sneakers ever, which is probably true, too.
When Mike entered the NBA Draft, he signed with super agent David Falk, who was also MJ's agent. So right from Day 1, Bibby wore Jordan exclusives as an NBA player. In 1999, he also became one of the earliest members of the elite Jordan Team. That meant more Jordan PEs for him. Soon, it became a collection. Now it's a house full of shoes.
To this day, Bibby remains a member of Team Jordan. Because he is no longer a player, he is compensated with shoes and gear, which means that his shoe collection continues to grow. But as Fat Joe said, Bibby's collection isn't really about the volume but having the rarest PEs, including the 1-of-1s.
Related: Mike Bibby shares a crazy Brad Miller story: "He had two dead ducks nailed to my locker"
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