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.
Nike can make four alternative jerseys a year for each team but no more Christmas unis? :/
— Verts (@_Verts) December 25, 2019
I usually don't care so much about Nike's jerseys, but it's dumb to make Christmas Day an EVENT and not have a visual signal showing us that today is special. Bring back Christmas jerseys.
— Mike Prada. I have spoken (@MikePradaSBN) December 25, 2019
“The NBA is never going to bring back Christmas jerseys. They know we’re just gonna make fun of whatever design they choose so it’s not worth their trouble” pic.twitter.com/GI4VyzHUlL
— Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) December 25, 2019
all i wanted for Christmas was for the NBA to bring these jerseys back 😍 pic.twitter.com/BvXZFNku0e
— Adam Kudeimati (@iamadamthe1st) December 25, 2019
wish the NBA would bring back the special Christmas day jerseys, specifically those weird short sleeved ones
— Hanif Abdurraqib (@NifMuhammad) December 25, 2019
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.
MAN i wish I walked into the locker room tomorrow and we had Christmas Day uniforms! It’s a MUST we bring those back @Nike @nikebasketball I’ve been seeing those Lakers 🧊 unis over the airways. Sheesh!!!! 😱
— LeBron James (@KingJames) December 25, 2019
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.
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