The Lakers Might Be Getting A ‘Black Mamba’ Nike Alternate Jersey

Nike’s takeover of the NBA’s uniform production and design has had its highs and lows, from quality updates and new alternates to the issue of jersey’s ripping at an alarming rate.

The redesign of some uniforms have been better than others, but to this point there have been relatively few major changes in the uniform arsenal of the 30 teams in the league. That figures to change soon when the NBA and Nike unveil their “City” alternate uniforms, which are far different than most anything else we’ve seen from many of the franchises.

While we don’t have any official images, Conrad Burry (@conradburry) of SportsLogos.Net has been putting together mockups of what he’s been told each team’s “City” uniform design will look like. There are bizarre ones, like the Magic, and more straight forward ones that update a current alternate, like the Pelicans and Spurs, but the one that will undoubtedly garner the most attention and buzz if it is indeed correct is the Lakers’ “City” alternate.

Burry’s mockup shows a “Black Mamba” alternate in black with gold trim, with a snakeskin pattern (an obvious hat tip to Kobe Bryant).

Burry went on to note on Twitter that the shorts will pay even more tribute to Bryant, with the numbers 8 and 24 appearing somewhere on the shorts.

It’s important to note that Burry’s confidence level on the snakeskin pattern is at 50 percent and he’s not sure what the side panels will feature, but a black and gold uniform appears to be assured for the Lakers and the concept of a Kobe tribute jersey is certainly interesting. It would make sense if this went into the arsenal for Bryant’s impending jersey retirement game on Dec. 18.

The bigger question would be whether the Lakers would wear the Mamba alternates again this season, but whatever the case, you could be sure they would sell a ton of them if this is indeed the design.