It may be June, but the NBA is already starting to think about Christmas. Every year the league creates a unique set of Christmas jerseys to commemorate the holiday, and the 2016 sets were released extra early this year in a catalog provided by Adidas.
ESPN’s Uni Watch was able to get a hold of the catalog and post the designs for all to see. Stylistically the uniforms are very similar to the ones that were made for last year, which isn’t a bad thing, as the 2015 Christmas jerseys were very well received by fans.
Here’s a peek at the uniforms the Lakers could be wearing if they play on Christmas Day this year:
One interesting note is that most of the teams in the league have their team name on the chest rather than city (i.e. “Bucks” instead of “Milwaukee), but the Lakers will have “Los Angeles” in a classic Christmas script. Another thing that stood out was the Clippers jersey, as they chose to go with “LA Clippers”, using the abbreviation for Los Angeles in order to further differentiate themselves from the Lakers.
Of course, most of these jersey designs will never actually be used in an NBA game. The league typically puts on five games on Christmas Day, which means that only ten teams actually wear their holiday-specific jerseys. The NBA uses Christmas to showcase some of their top matchups, like last year when the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers met up in a Finals rematch.
The Lakers were featured in a cross-town match-up with the Clippers in 2015, but it’s anyone’s guess whether or not they will be featured on Christmas next season due to the retirement of Kobe Bryant. The Lakers have the largest fan base in the league, but without Kobe’s star presence or a big free-agent signing this summer it’s questionable whether they will be included in the Christmas Day festivities.
