While the standard jerseys for NBA teams tend to stay the same for years and years, the last few years have seen more special edition jerseys make their appearance. Each season now teams introduce new jerseys often inspired or designed by legends of the past and the Los Angeles Lakers have had some outstanding ones.
The most memorable, without a doubt, are the Black Mamba editions that were helped designed by Kobe Bryant before his tragic passing and that the Lakers would wear all the way to the 2020 NBA Championship series. The team has also had classic edition jerseys paying homage to the 1960s era Lakers led by Elgin Baylor and this year’s will go back even further.
The Lakers officially unveiled their Classic Edition jerseys for the upcoming 2022-23 season, which will pay homage to Minneapolis Lakers era of the 1950s:
Every legacy has a beginning.
Featuring the MPLS ‘50s era blue and gold, the Classic Edition recreates the Lakers' first-ever home uniform in honor of our 75th season.#Lakers75 x @bibigoUSA pic.twitter.com/2vepxr3DTV
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 8, 2022
MPLS origins with that West Coast flavor
The 2022-23 #Lakers75 Classic Uniform has arrived and is brought to you by our Official Jersey Patch Partner, @bibigousa pic.twitter.com/eHqv7yxCPS
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 8, 2022
In honor of the 75th season of the franchise, the Lakers have decided to recreate the team’s first-ever home uniform. Of course, those Minneapolis Lakers were the first dynasty of the NBA as well as having the first true superstar.
George Mikan led those Lakers to five championships in six seasons, cementing the Lakers as the premier franchise in the early days of the NBA. These uniforms pay homage to those days with that same color scheme that some would likely compare to that of the UCLA Bruins.
The Lakers do have a banner hanging in the rafters of the Crypto.com Arena amongst their retired jerseys that pays respect to the Minneapolis era, listing all of their Hall of Famers including Mikan, Vern Mikkleson, Clyde Lovellette, Jim Pollard, Slater Martin and head coach John Kundla. There is also a banner amongst the rest of the Lakers’ championships with all five of the Minneapolis championships.
With an extremely clean look like this, it makes it even more likely that the Lakers will continue their dominance in merchandise and jersey sales. The franchise led all NBA teams in merchandise sales during the 2021-22 season and LeBron James led all players in jersey sales as well so that No. 6 in this scheme will be flying off the shelves.
Training camp viewed as ‘soft deadline’ for Lakers to trade Russell Westbrook?
One player who may or may not be sporting this classic jersey is point guard Russell Westbrook, who has been part of endless trade rumors all offseason. Training camp will soon be coming up and apparently, that may be a target date for a move to be made.
Recent reports suggest that some within the Lakers organization might view the start of training camp as something of a soft deadline for the team to move Westbrook. With so many reported conversations taking place, it could soon be a matter of time before one of those deals finally comes to fruition.
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