P.J. Tucker is currently in his ninth NBA season with the Houston Rockets. He joined the Rockets in 2017 and has become one of the team’s top players.

Tucker became a full-time starter during his second season with the Rockets. Off the court, he has an impressive shoe collection having almost 5,000 pairs of shoes.

P.J. Tucker’s journey throughout the NBA

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Tucker has had an interesting basketball career. His NBA career began in 2006 when the Toronto Raptors drafted him in the second round. He spent the 2006-07 season with the Raptors playing in 17 games and averaged 1.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per game. In January of 2007, he was sent to the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Development League. The Raptors waived Tucker in March of 2007.

After that, Tucker went to play overseas. Tucker enjoyed a successful career overseas where he played from 2007 to 2012. He played for seven different teams. In 2008 he won the Israeli Super League Championship and was also named the league’s MVP. Three years later, he accomplished a lot playing in Germany. He was a champion, the Finals MVP, and was an All-Star all during the same season. Tucker returned to the NBA in 2012 and signed a two-year deal with the Phoenix Suns. He spent four and a half seasons in Phoenix and was traded to the Toronto Raptors during the 2016-17 season.

Tucker then joined the Rockets for the 2017-18 season and has been a part of the team ever since. During the 2018-19 season, Tucker averaged 7.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game. Tucker has been a part of some successful Rockets teams, and he has helped Houston become a championship-contending team in the Western Conference. He’s going to be a key piece for the Rockets in the 2020 NBA Playoffs if they want a shot at coming out of the west.

P.J. Tucker’s love for shoes started in college

Tucker played his college basketball at the University of Texas. While he was there, he became passionate about shoes, and he can thank his teammate for that. In an article from si.com, Tucker talked about how one of his former teammates would get shipments of sneakers delivered to his dorm. That teammate was Royal Ivey, current assistant coach of the New York Knicks.

“Royal loves sneakers as well, and he would be on eBay shopping. The only site I used to visit was NikeTalk, and I had never really bought shoes. I had no idea,” Tucker said. “He started getting packages, and I just saw the whole process. I was like, Oh wow, and I went and got my first ever bank card, and ever since then, it has been on.” Ever since then, Tucker has been buying shoes after shoes. His collection is big enough to have its own room. He is known throughout the NBA as someone who has a lot of shoes.

P.J. Tucker brought a lot of shoes to the NBA bubble

According to si.com, Tucker brought 91 pairs of shoes to Orlando for the NBA restart, and his collection has grown since he’s been there. “I packed the sneakers in all different ways. I had some sent [to the bubble] a few weeks before we even left,” Tucker said while being in Florida. One thing that Tucker did was that he partnered with eBay, and he now has a sneaker loft solely dedicated to his massive collection of sneakers.

Tucker has shopped on eBay to find some of his favorite pair of sneakers. With the number of shoes that he has, the loft is perfect for Tucker. His shoe collection will continue to grow in the future.