by Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports

In Tuesday night’s season opener against the Boston Celtics, LeBron James will wear specially-designed Nike shoes that celebrate his 2012 NBA championship with the Miami Heat.

The custom-made pair of LEBRON X sneakers are gold, matching the color of the ring LeBron and his teammates will receive before the game.

There are various messages on the shoes, each honoring the NBA MVP’s achievements in last season’s playoffs.

One inscription has the letters MVP and the number 697, a nod to the number of points LeBron scored in the postseason.

The other says “CHAMP” and lists Miami’s 2012 playoff record.

What, no references to the Illuminati or intricate stitching that gives clues to the location of the controversial Van Gundy Code?

The little details Nike throws on personalized shoes are always cool (the Roger Federer Wimbledon shoes are perfect) but they go into overkill on the LeBrons.

Who cares that the Heat went 16-7 in the playoffs? Winning the title is an impressive feat. Why draw attention to the seven losses that accompanied it?

And listing 697 points without context is meaningless. Since when are gross playoff point totals a valued metric? Unless the goal is to confuse Kevin Garnett during the game, all the numbers and letters are a bit much.

LeBron says the shoes “are special” to him, and that it didn’t take him long to figure out how he wanted the design to look. That’s a relief. We didn’t want him spending hours toiling away in the Nike labs, getting the bounce of the vulcanized rubber and placement of the swooshes just so.

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