Syracuse players share preferred basketball shoes ahead of Player’s Era

The Syracuse Orange basketball team is set to compete in the Player’s Era Tournament in Las Vegas. The Orange tip off first against the Houston Cougars before taking on the Kansas Jayhawks and a to-be-determined third opponent. Leading up to the tournament we asked players on the team to share their preferred basketball sneaker.

Syracuse players were given the Kobe 6 Protro “Total Orange” series this season, which Kiyan Anthony wore in his debut. Those shoes were donated and used as part of a Topps trading card series.

From Rakeem Christmas’ shoe game with varied colorways (often KDs) to Frank Howard’s wide-ranging sets of shoes and Tyus Battle’s love for customized Kyrie’s, there’s been no shortage of Syracuse players with interesting shoe preferences over the years.

We were able to get to nine of the guys (sorry JJ, Souare, Cheffy and Womack) on the 2025-26 team who shared their favorite shoe. They are as follows:

Donnie Freeman: Kobes

Kiyan Anthony: Kobes

Naithan George: GT Cut 1s

Bryce Zephir: Kobe 8

Luke Fennell: Kobe 5

Sadiq White: GT Cut 1s

Tyler Betsey: Kobes

William Kyle: Kobes

Nate Kingz: GT Cut