Ranking and analyzing all 30 NBA City edition uniforms
25. Los Angeles Lakers
LA has pulled out all the stops this season to honor Kobe Bryant, retiring two jersey numbers and then, regrettably, designing a uniform immortalizing him. According to this Zach Lowe article, Bryant was extensively consulted as the Lakers made out their City jersey in his Black Mamba image.
It features a delicate snakeskin pattern evoking the Mamba, and the yellow shadowing on the black numbers is a throwback to Lakers’ legends of the past. Black and yellow is not seen as a color scheme elsewhere in the NBA, adding an element of uniqueness to this set, but the lack of white is a mistake, and attempting to pull off the Heat-style color-over-color hurts both the aesthetic appeal (especially on the front wordmark) and its practicality.
The Lakers have good intentions, and they get points for the number shadowing, but the negatives override the positives here. Make some adjustments and they’ve got a good look.