The NBA Needs To Stop Creating New All Star Jerseys And Instead Just Let The Players Wear The Ones From Their Own Team

Dylan Buell. Getty Images.

I would say that in both real life as well a life on the internet, it's virtually impossible to get people to universally agree on something. Off the top of my head, the only thing that comes even remotely close is Ernie Johnson. Every single person on the planet loves Ernie Johnson. He might be the only human with a universal approval rating. Find me an Ernie Johnson hater, you can't.

When I think of something else that would fit this description, NBA All Star jerseys is another. Is that very random? Yes, but hear me out. I truly feel like this is another one of those moments where we're all going to agree here. 

Every season I'm interested to see what the league does when it comes to the new and improved look for their All Star jersey. Ovet the last handful of years, we've been all over the place with these things. Some years things aren't so bad, for example, I'm a fan of what we got in 2003

Jamie Squire. Getty Images.

Once we got into a more current era there were way more misses than hits though. For every "OK" one we got like 2019

Streeter Lecka. Getty Images.

There were plenty of disasters. We don't need to talk about what happened in 2008 or 2014

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Greg Nelson. Getty Images.

You get the idea. I would say there have certainly been more stinkers than good ones over the last 15+ years. Once the NBA decided to make the switch from East vs West to Team LeBron vs Team Giannis (and Team LeBron vs Team Durant), they flirted between having the traditional blue/red color difference for each conference to finding a way to incorporate that player's team's logo into the jersey, but it still never truly felt right. I dunno if it's maybe because of where we once were when it came to the All Star jersey, but everything recently seems to truly hit the mark.

Now with the NBA going back to East vs West for this year's game, I was very interested to see what their latest East vs West jersey would look like. The results? Let's have a look

My honest gut reaction? Not terrible. I like how clean it is, the colors aren't too bright or distracting, I like how it's a traditional jersey and not something with sleeves or a weird shape. I'd give this a solid 8.1/10. It's probably the best one we've had recently, so take that for what it's worth.

Here's the thing though and where I think we're all going to agree. Even in a situation like this, where the option that Jordan Brand/Nike came up with isn't even that bad, in fact, I'd call it good, it still doesn't even matter to me. So even with a "good" option, it does not change the reality that the NBA needs to stop dicking around and just go back to what we had as recently as 2002.

Let everyone wear their own team's jersey

Manny Millan. Getty Images.

I understand the NBA and Jordan/Nike do this every year in an effort to make money. I'm no dummy. Well, I am but you get the point. Guess what? Do you not think the type of people that are going to buy an All Star jersey wouldn't buy a Jordan brand team specific jersey? 

Here's why my idea is good. 

I don't think you make players use the 2023-24 version of their jersey. I mean if they want to that's cool, but I think you open it up to everything in that team's jersey history. If you want to let Anthony Edwards rock a 2002 KG era Wolves jersey? That's allowed. You don't think that shit sells? Put LeBron in a Showtime Lakers jersey? Fine by me! Let Jayson Tatum just wear his normal home white jersey because it's the most iconic jersey the NBA has? I'm on board. You're telling me KD rocking a Dan Majerle era Suns throwback wouldn't be awesome? I don't think it's a stretch to suggest the league and Nike would make even more money than they currently do with these custom jerseys. If you want something fresh, just change up the year every season. Let the fans vote every year on which ones they want to see or something like that as part of the All Star fan voting process. Tell me this isn't a great idea.

Think of how much better that would be. Hell, just look at how awesome that picture above is compared to anything post-2002. You cannot sit there and tell me those are better. 

So while I don't think this year's jerseys are all that bad, it still doesn't change the fact that they could be so much better with a simple decision.