A take on the NBA's Christmas Day jerseys
The Christmas uniforms
Ok, many of us are looking forward to a new, fantastic tradition that has gone on a few years now. Christmas day doesn’t just mean ugly sweaters, giving and getting gifts, and all the eggnog you can drink anymore. Now, it’s a day full of NBA basketball. And the NBA does its best to not just give us basketball, but great match-ups. Very few times a year can you get five games that put ‘Melo against KD, Dwight vs Duncan, the Clips against the Dubs…
It’s fantastic. It’s better than fantastic; it’s as good as you can get it. For those of you who are sitting there, at an awkwardly large family gathering, this is a great outlet. The teams span most regions, so chances are you or someone in your family follow a team playing that day. The games have promise to be entertaining… or at least they did when they were scheduled in the summer (D-Rose injury and the Nets decline have changed the entertainment value in Bulls vs Nets).
And maybe those awkward holiday-saving conversations are why the NBA is going old school with the uniforms. No, I don’t mean the Thunder are wearing Sonics jerseys, nor are the Knicks are going with the Walt Frazier look, and the Rockets will leave the pinstripes to the suits in the business suites. The NBA and Adidas are going to go way back in style, to short sleeve jerseys this Christmas Day. And the jerseys don’t even have team names on the jerseys, but massive team logos on the front of them.
All I ask is who thought this was a good idea? I mean, I’m of the understanding that Adidas thinks its great for marketing. But it just looks goofy. It’s not a player-instigated fashion movement like when the Michigan Fab Five switched to the longer shorts (THANK YOU CHRIS, JALEN, JUWAN, JIMMY, AND RAY). This is the company that makes the NBA uniforms forcing the players into wearing short sleeves in a game that has worn sleeveless shirts since before George Mikan rocked the nine-nine.
Adidas, who sponsors the NBA as a league and a lowly 62 NBA Players (out of the roughly 450 NBA players), is very much controlling this fashion movement. Over the summer, Sal LaRocca told ESPN that they intended to give the fans another retail option. He says that Adidas “know[s] that most men are more comfortable wearing T-Shirts than Tank Tops[.]” (Well what about the young men who are wearing these as a uniform to play in? But that’s another argument…)
It seems that this change has to be made for selling. And I can see what LaRocca is doing. Nike made a huge leap with getting the NFL out from under Reebok just two years ago. He raises a good point: short sleeves sell. And selling is the name of the game. Period.
But I feel like LaRocca and Adidas are potentially missing another major point. Many basketball players have spoken out against the sleeves, most notably Shane Battier of the Miami Heat. LeBron James, a key guy for the NBA to keep happy (the NBA’s top jersey seller last year), has reportedly been both for and against it. But, some players, such as the Warriors’ Steph Curry or the Knicks’ Iman Shumpert, like the look.
Curry has burst into NBA stardom since being snubbed from the All-Star game. There’s a reason the Warriors were the first team to debut the short sleeves last season. Steph Curry could put his name on the back of rotten cheese and Adidas would still be able to sell it. Also, when you span college and AAU basketball, plenty of young up and coming players wear tight fitting performance shirts under relatively tight uniforms. So is Adidas making an alternative uniform that the players of the future may prefer? Who knows.
Stephen Curry with the sleeved shirt
But I have an idea that they can sell along with the traditional, time-tested tank top style jersey.
I’m all for having unique holiday uniforms, unique alternate uniforms, and mixing up uniforms (except for the Celtics, don’t mess with tradition) every few seasons. And to keep the idea up, I propose Adidas make performance tee shirts and long-sleeved shirts that match each team for them to wear under, like Adidas schools do in football. Then, players that choose to can wear the shirt under the uniform and they’ll match each uniform specifically. Each kid will want an official shirt to wear under their official jersey, of course, so you can sell them at a looser fit for fans. Grown men will buy them as Authentic Game Apparel.
Authentic Game Apparel will be expensive, because they’ll be high quality. Team logos printed on the chest for the fans to show, then the logo or secondary logo on the sleeves to show during the game. And with all the variations of uniforms, the teams would have that many more authentic short sleeve and long sleeve shirts to wear. Kids will go from owning say three jerseys, to owning two jerseys, two short sleeved under shirts, and a long sleeved under shirt, all different.
Call me old fashioned, but I’d play basketball, and think the game should be played, without any sleeves. I certainly didn’t wear any sleeves when we won our intramural championship in college (shout out to Team GTL 2012). While that certainly doesn’t make me an expert on what NBA shooters want, I see a way to give players the playing options, fans the retail options, and Adidas / the NBA more things to sell.
All that being said, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered buying a Christmas Day jersey this year.
Dwight Howard in the Rockets’ Christmas jersey