As most NBA fanatics know, the marquee matchups of Christmas Day — with the exception of these recent Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks teams that somehow always getting slated in — are the one of the best parts of the holiday. Unfortunately for the Phoenix Suns fans, they haven’t been able to watch their team play on Christmas in quite some time.
The last time the Suns played on Christmas Day, Steve Nash was still in Phoenix. Back in 2009, the Suns thumped the Los Angeles Clippers by 31 on Christmas — during a season in which the Suns would reach the Western Conference Finals.
Since then, Phoenix just hasn’t been good or interesting enough to earn a holiday game, even if they are 12-6 all-time on Christmas Day.
Unless the Suns have some hidden plan to haul in a superstar free agent this summer, that probably won’t change for the 2015-16 season either. But even though two-thirds of the league will be in the same boat, that hasn’t stopped the NBA from designing Christmas Day uniforms for all 30 teams.
Paul Lukas of Uni Watch has leaked the special edition Christmas Day jerseys for the 2015-16 season, and the Suns’ rendition is…interesting, to say the least.
#Suns Christmas Day uniforms leaked for next season. More designs here: http://t.co/jRXLo0ZPxT pic.twitter.com/tIX8L7ATLB
— Andrew Joseph (@AndyJ0seph) May 13, 2015
Now, don’t get me wrong, for the most part, these special edition unis are a MAJOR improvement from last year‘s Christmas jerseys, which were really just sort of “meh” with the bar on the back with each player’s name on it. And don’t even get me started on 2013’s T-shirt pajamas. At the very least, these ones are actual jerseys without any annoying sleeves.
I like the stylish cursive writing, which simultaneously gives the jerseys a vintage and holiday feel. I’m just not quite sold on the cream color, even if it aesthetically matches up well with the orange font. The design of the shorts is pretty identical to the Suns’ current shorts (with the obvious exception of the color).
That being said, putting in some purple or black would have really made these bad boys stand out. But as Lukas notes, most of the uniforms shied away from white in favor of the cream color to give the holiday jerseys the feeling of parchment. Whatever that means.
These custom Suns uniforms will probably never see the light of day, since Phoenix isn’t a marquee Christmas Day spectacle anymore. But if they’re somehow slated in the holiday lineup this year, it’s time to start saving up for your special edition holiday jersey, Suns fans!
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