Gorgeous Celtics Christmas Day Uniforms Revealed

Image via Paul Lukas/UniWatch

Paul Lukas of UniWatch, the must-read blog for lovers of sports’ sartorial side, got the scoop on what the NBA’s biggest stars will wear on Christmas Day, when many casual fans murmur to themselves after a few glasses of nog, “Huh, basketball’s back.” If Marcus Smart and the Boston Celtics land on the league’s marquee slate of games, they will wear don the above threads.

In recent years, the NBA has used its Christmas Day cavalcade of games—watched en masse by a captive audience couch-locked after wolfing down a holiday feast—to debut its latest uniform gimmick. Two years ago saw the dawn of the much-maligned Age of the Sleeved Jersey, much to the chagrin of the players forced to wear them. Last year, players’ names were featured below their numbers, on a contrasting nameplate a la the Philadelphia Flyers or 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team.

This year, the Christmas Day uniforms will be “fauxbacks,” throwing back to a time that never quite existed, with fancy script across the front and old-timey italic numbers on goths sides. Across the league, there is a liberal use of “griege,” which is neither cream nor an Adidas marketing term, Lukas notes. All the off-white is meant to emulate parchment, complimented by the NBA logo on red wax seal on the back.

Cheesy gimmicks aside, these Christmas Day uniforms are great. By all means, Celtics, wear these year-round and chuck those pewter monstrosities from the Zakim Bridge posthaste.

You can check out the rest of the league’s Christmas Day uniforms over at UniWatch (the Charlotte Hornets and Phoenix Suns’ kits are especially sexy).