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Dave McMenamin
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When LeBron James takes the court Monday in the city his NBA career started in 2003, his Los Angeles Lakers uniform will look a little different to commemorate the occasion.
James’ jersey will have a patch affixed to the upper right chest to celebrate his record-setting 23rd NBA season, featuring a silhouette of his pregame chalk toss and three colored stripes representing the franchises he’s played for in Cleveland, Miami and L.A., a source told ESPN.
James will wear the patch throughout the remaining 46 games of the regular season.
After every game James plays, the patch will be removed from his jersey by the Lakers’ equipment manager, dated and then shipped to Topps’ production facility in Dallas where it will be authenticated and later inserted into a trading card, the source said.
Topps, which launched its first NBA-licensed cards in 16 years in October, introduced a similar jersey patch program with rookies wearing a «Debut Patch» on their uniform for their first game and last season’s MVP (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), Defensive Player of the Year (Evan Mobley) and Rookie of the Year (Stephon Castle) wearing a special gold NBA logo on the back of their uniform to later be featured on a trading card.
The 41-year-old James is averaging 21.9 points on 51% shooting, 6.9 assists and 5.6 rebounds for the Lakers, who are No. 5 in the Western Conference with a 23-13 record.
Lakers coach JJ Redick said he re-watched James’ debut, when the Cavaliers played the Sacramento Kings on Oct. 29, 2003, to prepare for an episode of his former podcast with James, «Mind the Game.»
James scored 29 points on 12-for-20 shooting with 9 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals, but the Cavs lost, 106-92.
In the video review, Redick was shocked to see James playing off the ball in a «floppy» action — a traditional basketball set used to get a player an open catch-and-shoot opportunity by running him off of screens along the baseline.
«They were running floppy for him, which is crazy,» Redick said. «And I don’t think he’s ran floppy in 15 years. But his first bucket was on floppy, which is nuts.»
