Starting next season, N.B.A. teams will begin wearing small patches advertising a sponsor. Right there on the upper left of LeBron James’s jersey will be the winged-foot logo of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
Ads on uniforms are a common sight in some sports, but not in the major American professional leagues. Not everyone is enthused about the commercialization of uniforms, and there have been derisive comments about the “Philadelphia Stubhubs” or the “Sacramento Blue Diamonds.”
But this is not the first time top-level professional basketball teams in the United States have worn sponsors’ names.