It's supposed to be a Nike Free basketball shoe. The whole point of the design is to allow for greater flexibility, and a midfoot shank would go directly against that. If they put one on there, you'd probably just have people complaining that it wasn't truly making use of Nike Free tech. Can't really have it both ways.
Not true. Please refer to the Kobe 2. A shoe I really like. This was promoted as the first bball shoe to have a true Free mid/outsole. It had one.
I understand the Free concept in the forefoot, but we' talking about the midfoot.
My theory is that the Kobe X carbon shank on the outrigger prevents the shoe from twisting, which would eliminate the need for the midfoot shank.