Champions’ reward: Nike honors the UConn men’s basketball team with player exclusive LeBron 20 shoes

Since securing the program’s fifth national championship, the UConn men’s basketball team has been raking in the honors and accolades, including a parade in Hartford, signs around the state marking the achievement and the chance to ring the opening bell on Wall Street.

Now, the shoe must go on. Nike is issuing its LeBron 20s in a UConn color palette, with the Huskies logo in the back where the LeBron James logo appears on conventional models.

You can’t buy a pair at this point, however. They must be earned, like the trophy.

“The UCONN PE is one of the most exclusive and coveted colorways of the Nike LeBron 20,” Nike said in a statement. “This PE (Player’s exclusive) shoe is only available to players and staff of the University of Connecticut Huskies men’s basketball team who won the NCAA championship in 2023.”

The shoes are mostly black, as the Huskies occasionally wear, with red white and blue trim and red laces.

The LeBron 20 was introduced late in 2022 and features a low-top silhouette, woven upper with overlapping Nike swooshes. It has a carbon fiber mid-foot shank and Zoom Air units front and back to cushion impact.

Both the UConn men’s and women’s teams won their brackets at Nike’s Phil Knight event, PK 85, in Portland back in November 2022.