'Puss N Boots' Explains Lack Of Pants And Gives Credit To His Signature Footwear (VIDEO)

Back when Mars Blackmon was trying to figure out what what made Michael Jordan the NBA's most dominant player, he kept coming back to the notion that "it's gotta be the shoes."

But, rocking his signature Nike kicks wasn't the only sartorial statement that Jordan made during his career. He was also the trailblazer who led the basketball-playing populace from the nightmare of short shorts into a world of long shorts.

In fact, in that iconic Nike commercial, Blackmon even asked Jordan if it was "the extra-long shorts" that made him so special.

Jordan's game was transcendent and his competitive fire burned with a white heat that singed just about every one who crossed his path. But his lasting cultural impact has nearly as much to do with his shoes and his shorts and the way that everyone wanted to "be like Mike," as the Gatorade commercial said.

Obviously, though, Jordan wasn't the only heroic figure to combine some signature footwear with a rather, at the time, unorthodox method of wearing one's pants. Or, in this case, of not wearing one's pants.

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