Head-Scratching Possible 2018 NBA All-Star Jersey Leaks

Let’s just hope this one is a prank or a simple misunderstanding.

We’ll get it out of the way right away, we cannot confirm the authenticity of this jersey – at all… but it’s plausible enough that it’s worth a post to present what we know and let you decide if it’s real or not.

The images were uploaded to Instagram sometime late last night (ET) by @hoopcity_dongdaemun, a South Korean based Nike shop which had previously posted accurate photos of the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers “City” uniforms a whole week before they were unveiled.

Guys, I have potentially terrible news. Let’s hope to everything sacred that this ISN’T a first look at the NBA All-Star 2018 uniform template, but it appears to be at least a possibility ? (via hoopcity_dongdaemun on insta, h/t @Alphasialcool) https://t.co/lAvFvv89ZC pic.twitter.com/ibtbXVrC6T
— Conrad Burry ??? (@conradburry) January 10, 2018

They show a black jersey with a screened-on team logo on the front in just white with black trim; in the top-right corner instead of the Nike swoosh is the Air Jordan logo; the opposite corner features a KIA advertisement. At the bottom left it appears to read “ALL-STAR EDITION” with the “LA * 18” wordmark logo below.

On the back of the jersey things start to look a little suspicious to me; the tab at the top – featuring another LA18 logo appears to be sewn on rather sloppily, the “starman” logo above the number looks like it could be leaning a little off to the left, and do those numbers have colours bleeding through on the thread? It could definitely just be the material, I suppose, it does look like there’s something different with the edges around the numbers.

Again, this is all for you to judge for yourself.

You may notice that the jerseys shown here have the “KIA” logo on the front, very much worth noting that the All-Star Game jerseys are the only ones that are sold by the NBA and their retailers to include the advertisement patch; typically the ad patch is reserved for team-owned shops, not in the case of the All-Star Game.

As for the Air Jordan logo instead of Nike? That’s not necessarily a red flag… behold:

Actually, for reasons I can’t disclose here, I’m pretty sure that the ASG uniforms will indeed have the Jordan logo.
— Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) January 10, 2018

The description for the jersey lists it as “NBA AUTH JSY EAST 2018”, so that would be the authentic jersey for the Eastern Conference. Naturally the team logo/player name would be replaced by whoever is wearing the jersey but why use the LA Lakers on the East? Why is Kobe Bryant on the jersey? Is this an error by the retailer – is it actually a WEST jersey or is the NBA following the Lakers by going overboard with the Kobe Bryant worship? The All-Star Game is being played in Los Angeles afterall.

Lots of questions surrounding this design; it’s the sort of “leak” in the past I would have held off on posting until we had more information; like I said earlier — I figured we’d throw it out to you this time and let you decide.

So what do you think? Legit? If so, uh… what happened?

As for what a NBA All-Star jersey typically looks like, here’s 2017: