> Rap and professional sports have always gone hand in hand, and we can see the evolution of rappers’ favorite basketball players:
"Jordan" keyword for example would more often be used in reference for Nike shoes, so not a direct representation of the sports players popularity.
/pedantic rant
And how exactly did these shoes got their name?
This is...incredibly not true. The crossover between basketball and rap and hip-hop is significant and the cultural awareness of, uh, Michael Jordan is certainly there. Kendrick Lamar, Kurtis Blow, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Drake--the group of major rappers who've written songs about Jordan (Lamar) or have written songs that draw heavily from basketball and its history (the rest of that list) is huge.
Hell I spent $200-$300 4-5 years ago and bought a pair of the Spike Lee Jordans http://images.freshnessmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ai... - I bought them purely for the fashion.
-I never like replying on a subject too much like this; this topic isn't that important, guess I must be bored :-/