Today, we begin the road to crowning our 2014 Kicks On Court Champion. Over the next few weeks, we give a rundown of our six nominees: Tony Wroten, Nick Young, P.J Tucker, Terrence Ross, Monta Ellis and DeMarcus Cousins. We begin with the latter.

Typically, guards and forwards dominate our Kicks On Court Champion race, but this year brought about a welcome change as big men, such as DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond switched up their footwear more regularly. The former kept our interest throughout the entire 82-game season by wearing a nice variety of LeBrons, KDs and Jordans.

“DeMarcus Cousins always wears a lot of shoes,” says Dwayne Wilson, Sacramento Kings Equipment Manager. “Heck, he’ll even go to practice and start out wearing one shoe and then switch to another one midway through a scrimmage.”

Cousins was one of the few big-time supporters of the Nike LeBron 11, and he also sported LeBron colorways of the VI and 8 model, including the “Dunkman” Nike LeBron 8 during NBA Green Week and the “Blackout” Nike LeBron 8 V2 Low.

“Despite what other people say, I actually like [the LeBron 11] a lot,” said Cousins. “It was my favorite shoe to wear on court from this past year.”

In addition to lacing up the newer models on the market, the fact that Cousins brought out older footwear in a larger-than-life size was extremely impressive. He dug deep into his closet and brought out Jordans we rarely see on court, namely the 2006-released “Black Cat” Air Jordan 4, the “Black Toe” Air Jordan 14 and the Air Jordan XX White/Black-Varsity Red.

“It’s a lot harder for guys to pull shoes out like he did at a size 16 or 17,” said Sacramento Kings teammate Derrick Williams, the 2013 Kicks On Court Champion. “He’s committed to it, so he’s on the Internet hunting for shoes in his size every single day.”

NIKEiD/PE

Top NIKEiD/PE Wears:
1. Nike LeBron 11 ‘Chroma’ iD
2. Nike LeBron 11 ‘Speckle’ iD
3. Nike KD VI iD
4. Nike Zoom HyperRev PEs

Cousins definitely earned points for wearing some of the most decorative NIKEiDs on court this season. His purple ‘Chroma’ LeBron 11 iD that he wore earlier in the regular season turned heads, and his speckle print iD on the same silhouette garnered interest as well. He also laced up a couple of KD VI iDs and wore multiple HyperRev player exclusives during the month of the shoe’s release.