The writing had been on the wall for almost a month.
After unveiling their “Lake Show” City Edition uniforms in October, and debuting them on November 21st, the Los Angeles Lakers accumulated an abysmal 1-9 record in their (pretty awful) alternate uniforms.
The Lakers were scheduled to play the New York Knicks on February 1st, in what was to be a matchup of two City Edition uniforms (I actually checked LockerVision before the game), and — thanks to a dispute between MSG Network and my local cable provider — was one of the few Knicks games I’d been able to watch this year since it was on ABC/ESPN. (Incidentally, that dispute was finally settled a couple days ago.) But I won’t soon forget it — it was a Friday night, and the Lakers did not come out in their CEs, but instead wore their “Statement” (purple) unis. The announcers made no mention of the uni switch, but we’d quickly learn the Lakers opted to go against the NBA’s uniform scheduling system, and did not wear their scheduled CEs. No reason was given at the time, but the maybe the Lakers, playing a marquee, nationally televised primetime game in Madison Square Garden, really wanted a “W” — and their 1-9 record when wearing CEs didn’t bode well in that department.
I don’t remember the game because of the uni change-up (though now I’ll never forget), but for when the play-by-play guys announced before the game that the Lakers were “resting” Anthony Davis. “Sweet,” I thought, “looks good for the Knicks tonight.” Well, not only didn’t the Knicks win (the Lakers and LeBron dominated from the start), but it was after the game it was announced the Lakers had traded for Luka Dončić (and one of the players in the trade was the rested Anthony Davis). So two big things happened that night.
At the time, the Lakers were scheduled to wear their City Edition uniforms seven more times this season, including the following Thursday (February 6) against the Golden State Warriors. They didn’t wear them against the Warriors. But at the time LockerVision still had them listed in their CE’s for the following dates:
February 27 vs. MIN
March 6 vs. NYK
March 26 at IND
March 31 vs. HOU
April 3 vs. GSW
April 9 at DAL
Yesterday, the final death knell was apparently struck:
Per the NBA’s LockerVision site, the Lakers are no longer scheduled to wear their City Edition jerseys this season, a change from as recent as earlier this month.
It appears they have officially ditched their cursed jerseyshttps://t.co/cRUr8b6Ong
— Jacob Rude (@JacobRude) February 24, 2025
LockerVision no longer shows the Lakers in their CE uniforms on any of those dates.
Good riddance, I say.
I’ve written (too) often about teams wearing alternates and riding winning streaks in them (Detroit Lions in their Blueberries and mono-whites, Red Sox in their City Connects, etc.), so I can understand the whole Crash Davis mentality there. But it’s refreshing when a team ditches a crappy alternate because they have a terrible record in them. I don’t know how pleased the NBA is about this (I’m sure the “Lake Show” jerseys sold well at retail), but good for the Lakers.
And it’s not like the Lakers haven’t played well when they’ve worn something besides the CEs. While they are 1-9 in the CE, they are 33-12 in every other uniform.
I know it will never happen in today’s NBA, but the Lakers are one of the few teams who should wear gold at home, and purple on the road. Maybe even keep the white for home Sundays. Teams like the Lakers and Celtics have such classic and instantly recognizable uniforms, they should avoid alternates at all costs. This is a start.
I’m actually surprised the NBA has permitted the Lakers to just dump a uniform in the middle of a season — but the team did wear the CEs 10 times, so perhaps there is an absolute minimum number of times a team must wear a uniform (and the Lakers have met it), or perhaps we’re seeing a first. Let’s hope it’s the latter and more teams will follow suit.
One final thought: shortly after Luka was acquired, he was photoshopped into a “Lake Show” uniform — one he’ll never wear. We can add him to the list of athletes pictured in uniforms they never wore in a game.
Your thoughts?
Our great national nightmare is over!
“We can add him to the list of athletes pictured in uniforms they never wore in a game.”
Nope. Photoshopping does not count, or else that list would have thousands of entries.
Addition by subtraction = Joy Division
Too soon!
Laker fan here: I HATE(D) this uniform and wish it nothing but the worst. Certain teams should be like the Yankees and refuse blatant merch revenue grabs with ugly uniforms.
Now let’s bring back the Magic Era purple uniforms. Just not the nut-hugger shorts LOL
100%. The Lakers purple kit should NOT include any black in it. Hate this version so much. Go back to the classic look.
The black stripe is so pointless. If you’re going back to the classic look for the “home” unis, why did they decide to reinvent the wheel for the “road” version? The Kobe era uniforms were better if you’re taking the entire set into consideration.
Get rid of these horrible city addition uniforms and go back to home whites and color roads. Enough with this insanity.
City edition? Because we know all the terrible uniforms the NBA/Nike has some out with lately are not adding anything useful to the league. Most new ones are a complete junk show, just there to sell merch.
Classic lakers wore Yellow at home and Forum Blue (Purple) on the road. The White Uniform was added as a Sunday option in the 90s.
They were an abomination before they ever wore them for a game so good riddance. The NBA has turned into a uniform joke. Scrap all this BS designed to sell jerseys and get back to the traditional uniforms. I turn on highlights from some games and have no idea who is playing when I look at them because they are unrecognizable. Would love a ballsy owner to step up and say ‘No More’ and refuse to give in to this uniform catastrophe.
Hear hear!
Preach!
NBA uniforms are terrible. I don’t watch, nor ever will, but I hear stories of uniforms like this existing just because nike can.
Lakers are one of those special teams across the big 4 sports that have such an iconic look that is absurd that they deviate and wear these awful temporary costume alternates. Good riddance.
This is great news. Although, I am not a Lakers fan, I can tell you that “The Lake Show” was nothing more than a TV promo that was started several years ago by the local cable channel that televises the Lakers out here in So. Cal. Nobody, and I mean nobody here in So. Cal that is an avid Lakers fan and supports the Lakers liked those uniforms. Believe me, I work with them. As a matter of fact, most of the Lakers faithful, do not like some of the other many modifications and alterations they’ve made and embraced recently to all of their uniforms. Especially the beautiful purple and gold uniform that they somehow found a way to incorporate black side panels into. But so goes the NBA. Unfortunately, this league is in dire need of a standard uniform policy.
Any chance NBA would simply return to the pre-2017 rule of home white and dark road uniform??? Under the current Nike plan, this rule was unfortunately scrapped…..
Oh how I wish they would – but I think the chances of this happening are somewhere between slim and none. I’d love to be wrong though.
I can’t answer your question, but thank you for pinpointing the exact year the NBA went to aesthetic hell.
I think the solution is the opposite—require every team to wear their
traditional white uniform for all 41 road games, and rotate thru their three dark options at home.
It would bring some continuity to the league, while still allowing teams to show off their Statement & City nonsense to the home fans (aka the people they’re trying to con into buying a new jersey every year).
“Lake Show” is not actually beloved by Lakers fans the same way, say “Showtime” was. In fact it was originally associated with the Cedric Ceballos Lakers teams that served as the weird interregnum between the Magic/Kareem/Worthy and Shaq/Kobe eras. Fun team to watch that never won anything. So it always seemed odd to promote it as part of the Lakers’ “legacy” when it mostly celebrated a half decade of early playoff exits.
Man, those are a special kind of ugly.
The only good thing the Sixers did all season.
We retired these uniforms.
Seriously, we really have nothing else, so we are taking this.
Agreeing with Phil that the Lakers should only wear gold at home, purple away. And maybe the whites at home on Sundays. It always throws me off seeing the Lakers wearing their golds on the road,at least they’re recognizable as the Lakers but it just feels wrong to my eyes.
“…it’s refreshing when a team ditches a crappy alternate because they have a terrible record in them”
It would be more refreshing if a team ditched a crappy alternate simply because it was crappy.
I can’t stand how bad uniforms survive and good unis go away based on the teams’ record in them. They’re not the cause of success or failure… they’re just clothing.
Lake Show? more like ‘s*** show’ for both the uniform and their record in it.
The Lakers are gonna cease wearing their City jerseys after going 1-9 in them?
Does this mean the Wizards will cease wearing all four of their jerseys after going a combined 10-47 in them?
If they take the court naked it might rattle the opponents enough to win a few games.
The Lakers are a brand like the Yankees that does not need to get involved in these trendy abominations the league forces upon everyone. Glad to see them gone. Gradients don’t belong on any uniforms to begin with.
“It’s a real shit show, Randy.”
Maybe if the Mets record in CCs stink again they’ll drop those….
Good riddance. Nike will gnash its teeth, Adam Silver will shake his head (why are most people not buying into this money grab of ours?) but they will continue to throw superfluous and ugly uniforms at us.
My theory is the NBA/Nike allowed the Lakers to ditch this jersey because they met the threshold for CE jersey sales. I’m basing this off of Adidas’ method of granting third jerseys to MLS teams that sell their primaries well. So this would be the same action, but in reverse. Sell enough ugly CE jerseys, make money for daddy Nike, and THEN you can shelf them.
LakeShow hasnt existed in decades