Wayback Wednesday: 2015 Christmas Jerseys in Games
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the 2015 Christmas jerseys, and their appearances in video games.
Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings, basketball gamers! I hope you’re having a fun day with your loved ones, or enjoying the holiday however you see fit. I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that nostalgic basketball gaming content probably isn’t on most people’s minds today, but I do pride myself on sticking to a schedule, as well as ensuring that there’s something new here on the NLSC every day. And so, if you’re joining us on Christmas Day – or catching up on recent posts as the case may be – I’d like to give you the gift of Wayback Wednesday!
Given that it’s the festive season and Wayback Wednesday has fallen on Christmas Day this year, it only make sense to cover a topic that’s related to the occasion. To that end, let’s reminisce about the Christmas jerseys that teams wore in 2015, and their presence in basketball video games. Obviously, I’m a year early as far as it being a nice round number for the anniversary, and I did touch on the subject back in 2019. Still, 2015 was a noteworthy year for Christmas jerseys when it comes to the virtual hardwood – and ’tis the season – so let’s take a look back…way back…
Before we get into the 2015 Christmas jerseys and their virtual hardwood appearances however, here’s a quick history of alternate uniforms in real life and video games. The first NBA team to wear a third jersey was the Atlanta Hawks back in the 70s, namely their famous (or arguably, infamous) neon green uniform. The concept didn’t become a league-wide trend until the mid 90s, when six teams (including the Hawks) added a third jersey for the 1994-95 campaign. Since then they’ve been a staple of the NBA, with teams adopting numerous alternates and also sporting special event and holiday-themed jerseys. Under Nike, the concept has subsequently been taken even further.
Alternate and special event jerseys would come to be represented in video games, but it didn’t happen immediately. I’d suggest that a combination of limitations with file sizes, textures, and storage space, as well as legacy code for handling just two jerseys per team, were roadblocks early on. NBA in the Zone notably used the Phoenix Suns’ black alternate for their uniform, a creative choice that made them stand out. As the 90s were drawing to a close, games such as NBA Live began including third jerseys, having them appear during Sunday games in Season play, and randomly in exhibition games. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that sim games allowed us to choose uniforms.
Once we had that choice though, we wanted the full complement of jerseys for each team, not to mention a selection of throwbacks! Over the years, NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other sim games, have all furnished us with an array of current and retro jerseys. Some of them have been unlockables, particularly holiday and special event uniforms, as it meant the developers could release codes and officially unveil the virtual jerseys as the relevant date approached in real life. This is how the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version of NBA 2K12 unlocked their Christmas jerseys, though of course thanks to the lockout, the 2012 season actually ended up tipping off on Christmas Day 2011.
As I noted in my 2019 article on Christmas and the virtual hardwood, beginning in 2008, teams playing on Christmas Day still sported jerseys with their usual designs, plus a festive snowflake on the shoulder. It was a simple and elegant idea, but there was little incentive to include those jerseys in video games. After all, it was just the regular jersey with a minor change, and only worn in one game, so they were logical omissions. It was certainly something that modders saw fit to add though, and again, the snowflake uniforms were finally officially added in NBA 2K12. From 2012 to 2017 however, adidas and the NBA put far more effort into the Christmas jerseys.
The results were mixed, and in the years since, publications and content creators alike have seen fit to rate and rank the best and worst of these festive uniforms. As you’d expect when it comes to matters of taste and basketball branding, you won’t find many universally-held opinions. With that being said, the “Christmas card” jerseys worn in 2015 and 2016 tend to be popular, while the “sleeves with big logos” and “logo on the front, first name on the back” designs, worn in 2013 and 2014 respectively, tend to be more divisive among fans and pundits. Personally, I think the “Christmas card” look was the best, being a simple and clean design that captured the spirit of the occasion.
Those 2015 Christmas jerseys naturally appear in NBA Live 16 and NBA 2K16. However, since both games were released on September 29th and the forthcoming Christmas uniforms weren’t unveiled until October, they were added later via a patch. This has understandably become standard practice in an effort to avoid video games leaking designs that are yet to be officially revealed, but it does come with a catch. Because those newly-added holiday jerseys were tied to the rosters in NBA 2K16, they weren’t available in any saves that were created prior to the update. Forcing gamers to start over in order to use those jerseys definitely wasn’t an ideal scenario.
Granted, if you’d been diligently playing MyLEAGUE since NBA 2K16 launched, you would’ve most likely already passed Christmas 2015 by that point. As such, you’d have no need for those jerseys until Year 2, where they’d be outdated anyway. Still, it’s the principle of the matter, and an obvious drawback to adding any jerseys post-release, rather than making them unlockable via codes as they once were. In any case, they were available for any future files, as well as Play Now games. Incidentally, despite my gaffe which resulted in the loss of the final roster update and my face scan in NBA Live 16, those jerseys fortunately still come through with the official patch.
Five games were played on Christmas Day 2015, meaning that ten teams were in action and sporting those seasonal jerseys: the Pelicans and Heat, Bulls and Thunder, Warriors and Cavaliers, Spurs and Rockets, and Clippers and Lakers. The addition of those jerseys allowed us to accurately recreate those matchups, but this time, the rest of the league could join in the virtual holiday cheer. Although they wouldn’t ever wear them in real life, the other 20 NBA teams in NBA Live 16 and NBA 2K16 also have Christmas jerseys that blended their primary colour with cream tones, and feature a greeting card-style typeface for the team and player names, as well as the numbers.
They were in fact official designs, created by adidas ahead of the upcoming schedule being finalised and announced. This way, they were prepared no matter which teams ended up playing on Christmas Day. It was also advance notice for retailers, as the other teams could still sell them as holiday-themed merchandise. Previous NBA Live and NBA 2K games hadn’t included any jerseys for teams that didn’t end up playing on Christmas Day, either for the sake of accuracy, or simply because the NBA and/or adidas didn’t approve it. For whatever reason, the decision was made to allow NBA Live 16 and NBA 2K16 to feature those ultimately unused 2015 Christmas jerseys.
It was a welcome change. Bonus content never goes astray in basketball video games, and it’s even more fun when it involves a rarely-used or conceptual design. If nothing else, “seen only in video games” makes for some good trivia! Beyond that of course, it allowed fans of teams that didn’t play on Christmas Day 2015 to have them sport some seasonal jerseys during gameplay. It was also useful for multi-season play in franchise and career modes. Even though they wouldn’t be accurate for the 2017 season and beyond, giving every NBA team a Christmas jersey prepared them for the generated schedules that gamers would be playing through in future virtual seasons.
Interestingly, NBA 2K17 launched with those 2015 Christmas jerseys for all 30 teams, and made them available right out of the gate. There was a reason for that, of course. Not only did it allow us to play with Christmas jerseys without having to wait for a patch, but they were placeholders for the incoming 2016 designs that would be added post-release. As in NBA 2K16, every team had the jersey that adidas had designed for them just in case, so none of them was left with last year’s style. The name on the jersey selection screen wasn’t updated however, so those 2016 Christmas jerseys are still labelled “Christmas 2015-2016”, despite definitely being updated.
Once the uniform contract went to Nike, the tradition of Christmas jerseys came to an end. On one hand, it’s surprising. Nike hasn’t been shy about introducing new designs every year, not to mention revamping jersey designations and nomenclature. On the other hand, I can see them preferring not to adopt an idea that adidas pioneered. It reminds me of NBA 2K’s apparent reluctance to add right stick dribbling controls and thus following in the footsteps of NBA Live. Much as that stubbornness held back 2K’s controls, Nike is foregoing a fun (and let’s face it, profitable) idea. Then again, it’s a moot point if the NBA isn’t on board, or if there’s some lingering licensing issue.
The inclusion of Christmas jerseys in video games, whether just for the teams that wore them in real life, or for the entire league as with the 2015 and 2016 designs, is now another way that those releases serve as interactive almanacs. If you’re dusting off one of those titles this holiday season, it only makes sense to choose those unis! As for games that don’t have them, there are always mods on PC if you’d like to make your virtual hooping a little jollier. And, at the end of the day, that’s what basketball gaming – indeed, all gaming – should do: bring a smile to your face. I hope that this festive season brings you health, cheer, and good times on the virtual hardwood!
The post Wayback Wednesday: 2015 Christmas Jerseys in Games appeared first on NLSC.