By now, you’ve probably already had a peek at the jerseys NBA players will be wearing on Christmas.
Yes, they have sleeves.
Now, if Santa leaves one of these under your tree, you may not be so happy. They are clearly not conventional jerseys, which remain incredibly popular. And they are not quite T-shirts, either. They are somewhere in between.
The sleeved jerseys are unquestionably a marketing tool. In addition to being a new item that many fans believe they have to have, the sleeves have extra real estate not found on conventional jerseys that opens the door for – gasp! – branding on uniforms.
But before going all Grinch and labeling this as another unabashed money grab, you might want to get into the holiday spirit an bit early and take a look at the commercial the NBA put together to hype its annual Christmas quintupleheader.
I don’t know about you, but that was about a zillion times more impressive than last year’s ball-bouncing tune.
And if you’d like a peek at how they went about creating the advertisement, take a look at the video below:
FYI, here’s the lineup of teams that will be wearing the jerseys on Christmas:
At noon ET, the Chicago Bulls visit the Brooklyn Nets on ESPN. At 2:30 p.m. ET, ABC’s doubleheader begins with the New York Knicks hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder followed by the Miami Heat visiting the Los Angeles Lakers.
At 8 p.m. ET, it’s back over to ESPN for another doubleheader. First, the Houston Rockets visit the San Antonio Spurs before the Golden State Warriors host the Los Angeles Clippers.
Thirteen hours of NBA action, with cool commercials? Who needs a sleeved jersey?