The Los Angeles Lakers have some of the best jerseys across the entire NBA and are potentially adding to that collection for the 2021-22 season. As part of Nike’s City Edition series, the Lakers have featured different alternate jerseys over the last several seasons.
The best-looking jersey was undoubtedly the Black Mamba Jersey that the Lakers wound up wearing in Game 5 of the 2020 NBA Finals. Last season they took a different spin, instead going with white and blue jerseys to honor the Minneapolis Lakers days.
This year’s City Edition jerseys appear to have been leaked online and while they might not be everyone’s cup of tea I am going to have to say it… they are certainly unique and are pretty fire.
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1437833891771990021
Of course, this is just a leak at this point in time but it checks off all the boxes of being a legitimate leak. It looks like a proper Nike-made jersey (you can tell the fake from the real) and was picked up by NBA Central, which is a reputable Twitter account for aggregated NBA news and rumors.
Jersey leaks are not all that uncommon, either. It was not that long ago that the Dodgers City Connect Nike jerseys were leaked before their release.
What is Nike going for in this new Los Angeles Lakers jersey?
This looks to be a mixture of two different eras of Lakers history into one. The base purple color is obviously related to their current colorway and their days in Los Angeles while the light blue trimming is related to the jerseys that the team wore in Minneapolis.
The stars are an interesting tough that perhaps pay an homage to the stars in Hollywood? Stars on Lakers jerseys are not uncommon as the team has stars on the side of its 2019-20 City Edition jerseys that were designed by Shaquille O’Neal.
As you can see, “The Lakers Dynasty” is on the lower left of the jersey and is a nice, subtle touch to the dominant history of the Lakers franchise.
I definitely understand if there are fans that hate this jersey as it is not traditional and definitely a new spin on the jerseys (and let’s be honest, every fanbase gets outraged by a new jersey even if it looks good).
And if you do not love it now give it some time and it might grow on you, especially if it does end up being the new Los Angeles Lakers city edition jersey and we get a better look at it than what appears to be an iPhone shot.