A poster on X, the social media app previously referred to as Twitter, made the declare earlier this week that NBA games on Christmas have lost their aura lately.
A part of that’s the lack of particular uniforms, which have been a staple of Christmas video games from 2012-16 however have been discontinued when Nike took over the league contract forward of the 2017-18 season.
Nike, in fact, opted for the Metropolis Version uniforms as a substitute, creating a brand new design every season that highlights the connection between the groups and their communities quite than a one-game design.
That mentioned, if there’s one particular person within the league who may persuade Nike to create Christmas-specific uniforms as soon as once more, it’s Los Angeles Lakers celebrity LeBron James, who publicly shared his need to see them return.
“I do wish we had Xmas uniforms across the league still,” James mentioned in a put up on X previous to the Lakers’ 126-115 loss to the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day. “Wonder why it stopped.”
This isn’t the primary time that James has expressed that sentiment, both, as he tweeted something similar ahead of the Lakers’ 2019 Christmas matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers.
“MAN I wish I walked into the locker room tomorrow and we had Christmas Day uniforms,” he mentioned. “It’s a MUST we bring those back. I’ve been seeing those Lakers unis over the airways. Sheesh.”
The NBA a minimum of acknowledged Christmas this yr, as all 10 groups that performed on Monday wore a snowflake patch on the again of their jerseys. This fell in step with what the league did from 2008-11, though it was on the front of each team’s jerseys instead.
With that, let’s check out the league’s different Christmas-themed uniforms:
2012
The league leaned into the Christmas theme in 2012 with “BIG Color” uniforms that featured a base colour with a contrasting define across the wordmark and numbers.
The uniforms have been promoted with a industrial that confirmed Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Joe Johnson, Russell Westbrook and Dwayne Wade impressively dribbling to “Carol of the Bells.”
2013
The NBA’s earlier clothing store, adidas, pushed sleeved jerseys on groups in 2013, with them making an look on Christmas Day and on the 2014 All-Star Sport.
The Christmas-specific designs as soon as once more featured a single base colour with a big silver staff emblem on the chest, numbers on the left sleeve and team-colored accents.
2014
The next yr, the NBA made a number of small tweaks to every staff’s customary uniforms, changing the wordmark on the chest with their emblem and including every participant’s first identify on the again beneath the numbers.
The league and adidas mentioned in a press release that the jerseys have been “a nod to (the players’) familiarity and popularity with the NBA fanbase around the world.”
2015-16
My private favourite(s) of the group, the 2015 and 2016 uniforms each featured festive colours and a script wordmark impressed by Christmas playing cards.
The 2015 set adopted every staff’s customary design and added cream accents whereas the 2016 units have been a bit extra generic however included every staff’s secondary colour within the numbers and wordmark, as proven in our header photograph.
