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Sam Smith: Michael Jordan was "Made a victim" of misinterpreted "Republicans buy sneakers" quote
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- Sam Smith: Michael Jordan was "Made a victim" of misinterpreted "Republicans buy sneakers" quote
There are countless quotes attributed to Michael Jordan throughout his playing career and retirement. Still, among all of them, one stands out as probably the most misused, twisted and weaponized.
His 1990 remark about "Republicans buying sneakers, too" has been repeated, debated and dissected, but the real story behind it remains somewhat of a mystery.
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Sam Smith, the man forever associated with the quote — a long-time NBA writer and author of the book "Second Coming," where the infamous sentence first appeared — recently recalled feeling bad for Jordan after the media got hold of the quote and further clarified the context of the statement.
A different time in the NBA
In 1990, North Carolina Democrat Harvey Gantt ran for the Senate against Republican Jesse Helms and sought Jordan's endorsement.With a carefully curated public persona, he declined because "he wasn't into politics, and didn't really know the issues," Smith's book stated.
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Then came the quote, which is somewhat different from the version we know today.
"As he later told a friend, 'Republicans buy shoes, too.'"
Jordan's words spread like wildfire and were used so frequently that it evolved over time — shoes were eventually replaced with sneakers.
"I always felt bad about the way the media interpreted the 'Republicans buy sneakers, too' comment by Michael Jordan," Smith said . "Michael would sit and talk for hours on end before every game. He loved the give and take. And so me having a political background, after a couple of hours of talking basketball, you end up bringing up some other stuff."
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A different time in the NBA, not just because the locker room doors were open to reporters for hours before the game, but because players were discouraged from commenting on political issues.
"That was a time in the NBA when there were financial problems. The league was on the players, telling them, 'Stay out of politics.' Even if you go back, you'll find Kareem Abdul-Jabbar never talked about politics then. Everybody, they were told, basically, the league's not doing great. They were on the verge of losing five teams, like 100 jobs. And so it's like, let's keep it to basketball," Smith said.
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It was meant as a joke
As an ultimate competitor, not just on a basketball court, but in life in general, Jordan always had to take the last shot. Conversations were no different — if he wanted to end one, he would do it in his own style.
"I can see Jordan's like, 'Get away, I don't want to talk about that.' His nature, his life, is having the last word. I realized later he's just trying to get rid of me. So he kind of came up with a quip to get rid of me," Sam said.
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Even though Smith explained the joking nature of the sentence more than once in the last 30 years, the media has its own way of fitting quotes to certain narratives. These four words were no different.
"Unfortunately, a lot of my colleagues, the media used it as a way to take shots at him, especially in the New York Times. I thought they used it a lot to say, well, this is his political philosophy, unlike these players today. Doing it in 2010 was a lot different than saying something like that in 1988 or something," he concluded.
More than three decades later, articles and analyses continue to be written about Jordan's true intentions when he said, "Republicans buy sneakers, too." The Chicago Bulls legend himself addressed the issue in the Netflix documentary "The Last Dance," where he confirmed it was said "in a jest" (although he remembers it as something he said on the team bus to Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen).
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Classic gotcha moment
Players today are free to express their opinions about political and social issues, although most of them refrain from doing so, aware that the media, especially social media, rarely forgive and forget.
Jordan was on the path to becoming the biggest athlete on the planet at the moment he cut off the political conversation with Smith, saying the infamous quote. But that didn't stop the media from framing the sentence as they saw fit.
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"I always felt Michael was made a victim, and I wanted to clear that up, that that was a joke that had nothing to do with political philosophy, and that was a classic out-of-context gotcha. We don't care what he meant, but it's a good story, so we're going to use it as a good story," Smith concluded.
One might argue that times are changing, but some things stay the same.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jan 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
