NBA commissioner Adam Silver has already stated that the day will soon arrive when NBA uniforms will be branded like the jerseys of the English Premier League — oops, sorry, the Barclays Premier League (BPL). (How does the GSNBA — Goldman Sachs NBA — sound? Yeah, ugh.) But it’s coming — the uniforms, at least. Silver took a first step just this year when car brand KIA got its patch on the NBA All-Star team uniforms in Toronto.
Back in 2011 when Adam Silver was deputy commissioner he estimated that the NBA could bring in an additional $100 million a year by allowing its uniforms to be taken over by brands. Big brands like McDonald’s could share space with “Lakers” on the LA jerseys, for example, just as Samsung is synonymous with Chelsea FC. That plan, already in progress, just got some extra momentum with word of the BPL’s latest coup. The Repucom’s European Football Jersey Report 2015-16 says that sponsorship on the soccer league’s jerseys will bring in $370 million this year — up 13%. Adam Silver heard that. He did.