Team Shod in Curious Yellow Shoes

The Bruins weren’t always eye-catching in their play Saturday, but there was nothing understated about their school-bus yellow shoes.

“We’re going to put those in the hall of fame with the black uniforms,” joked Coach Steve Lavin, who took heat a few years ago for veering away from the traditional road togs. “We’re going to auction them off and see what kind of price we can get for them. Maybe we’ll get Coach [John] Wooden to autograph them first.”

Lavin said he learned minutes before tipoff that the players would be wearing the yellow high-tops, a soon-to-be-released version of the Kobe Bryant model. Already this season, the Bruins have worn white, blue and silver models of the shoe.

“I said, ‘What’s the deal with the yellow shoes?’ ” Lavin said. “I thought it was part of a rain outfit. It looked like part of the winter gear that we brought with us for the change of seasons.”

One man’s eyesore is another man’s treasure. And assistant coach Michael Holton happened to love the Day-Glo look. Holton said the company made only 7,000 pairs of the shoes--and he has one of them. He plans to get his autographed by Bryant.

“When I was playing with Michael Jordan and he was wearing the red-white-and-black ones . . . “ said Holton, who played for the Chicago Bulls in the mid-1980s. “You know how everyone thought those were ugly? Well, if I had a signed pair of those today. . . .

“Those [yellow ones] are nice shoes. You guys don’t realize what you just saw.”

Apparently, neither did forward Jason Kapono. Asked what he thought of the shoes, he thought for a moment, then said: “They’re bright.”

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Center Dan Gadzuric suffered a twisted left ankle with 6:46 to play and had to be helped off the court. He watched the remainder of the game from the bench with his ankle swaddled in ice.

Gadzuric was on crutches after the game and said X-rays on his foot and ankle revealed no broken bones. He said he hopes to be ready for Thursday’s game against Arizona but could give no guarantees.

“We’ll see what happens when I get it treated,” he said. “It’s just a sprain. I knew it was going to be fine. I’ve just got to go back, get it ready, treat it and be back on the floor as soon as possible.”

Incidentally, Gadzuric was the only member of the team who didn’t wear the yellow shoes. He stuck with his gray pair for, of all things, superstitious reasons.