LeBron James and NBA Twitter are demanding the league bring Christmas jerseys back
The NBA on Christmas day is tradition in the sports world at this point. Part of that tradition, once upon a time, was the Christmas day jerseys players would wear — something the NBA started in 2012.
Since 2017, they’ve been gone. Once again, the NBA doesn’t have a special Christmas day jersey for the teams playing in their marquee matchups.
The Christmas jerseys were part of an initiative from Adidas when they were still the NBA’s official jersey retailer. The partnership between the two sides dissolved in 2017 and Nike took over. After that, Christmas day jerseys were done.
Now people want them back. Basketball Twitter went off today when they realized the league wasn’t trotting out new Christmas jerseys for the third year in a row.
And it’s not just the common folk of basketball Twitter that want these back. It’s also LeBron James — you know, just Nike’s most high profile athlete.
That’s….not a good look.
It’s not surprising that people are reacting this way. As corny as the jerseys were at times — and, trust me, they were — they still became a major part of the NBA’s Christmas day presentation.
They weren’t just simple jerseys. They were a signal that this was the NBA’s day. Christmas has always been the day that America tunes in to watch basketball and basketball alone. The league’s job is to give them something to remember. A normal jersey doesn’t do that.
And it’s not like this is something Nike isn’t aware of. There’s really no excuse. They make enough jerseys between the league’s home, away and city edition gear.
If they can do all that, creating a Christmas day theme should theoretically be a breeze. The Christmas day jerseys weren’t always loved, but the effort was always appreciated — even when we made fun of them sometimes as a basketball viewing public.
People remember those sleeved, all-red Heat jerseys from 2013 or all the jerseys with the player’s first in 2014 for better or worse. Either way, they were part of a moment.
Giannis Antetokounmpo in a normal Bucks jersey is cool, or whatever, but it isn’t special. Hopefully, next year, they finally give us something that is.