Warriors And Rockets Celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year With Sleeved Jerseys

Next month is Chinese Lunar New Year, and two NBA teams who have a pretty strong connection with China are going to acknowledge it in a special way with new alternate jerseys.

Now, we already knew about the Houston Rockets’ alternate jersey way back in preseason. Clutchfans.com was able to get a photo of Dwight Howard wearing the jersey for Media Day, so we knew that this jersey would eventually be unveiled and it’s now it’s here.

The shorts appear to be have the same design from the 2013 Christmas Day uniforms, which means that the only thing that’s new here is the jersey.

While we knew about the Rockets’ Chinese New Year jersey a while back, Golden State getting in on the festivities was a bit of a surprise. The Warriors will be wearing what appears to be a special version of their “Slate”-colored sleeved jerseys. The main difference here is that Chinese colors and design elements have now been integrated into the striping, chest logo, and numbers of the jersey.

To be honest here, some of these elements would make their regular black sleeved jersey look a lot better; Namely if they kept the gold and replaced the red with blue. It’d still be a pretty bad-looking jersey, but better than what they currently have.

Now, here’s each team explaining why they’re doing this, starting with the Rockets:

“The Lunar New Year uniforms represent a great opportunity to honor our incredibly loyal and passionate fans throughout China,” said Houston Rockets Owner Leslie Alexander. “From the time the Rockets participated in the first live NBA television broadcast in China on June 8, 1994, to my selecting Shanghai’s native son Yao Ming with the first overall selection of the 2002 NBA Draft, to our participation in the first NBA China Games in 2004, the Rockets have always enjoyed a very special bond with our fans across the region. We are thrilled and humbled to establish the Lunar New Year uniforms as a way to honor the culture, heritage and historical and future connection we’ll always enjoy with our Chinese fans.”

Now, the Warriors:

“We have been working with the NBA for two years now on our Chinese New Year uniforms to recognize the tremendous fan base that our Asian community represents,” said Warriors President and Chief Operating Officer Rick Welts. “Connecting with our Asian community is a priority for our organization and we are proud that we are going to be one of two teams in the NBA to debut a Chinese New Year themed uniform as a way to thank our fans here in the Bay Area and abroad in China.”

So, what do you guys think? Which one do you prefer?