The Los Angeles Lakers have a long hill to climb to again reach the top of the Western Conference. It’s about as long as the one facing Kobe Bryant during his rehabilitation from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon. But they’re also unveiling some new alternate uniforms that revel in their close proximity to the stars of Hollywood.

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The new black uniforms aren’t in any way related to Kobe’s snake of choice, and they’re still going to primarily wear the purple and gold for which they are famous. But in a league that’s expanding the scope of their jersey designs, the Lakers aren’t thumbing their noses at the change (any change is likely to come via Jeanie Buss rather than older brother Jim).

According to ESPNLA’s Dave McMenamin, the Lakers will also be wearing a new white, short-sleeve jersey similar to the one unveiled by the Suns last week and the Warriors last season. They’ll wear the sleeved jersey on Christmas Day next season as one of the headliners for ESPN and ABC’s quintuple header. Mcmenamin also noted they’d be wearing the short-sleeve jersey “several times” next season, so it won’t just be a Christmas Day one-off.

The Lakers will wear short-sleeve jerseys next season, according to a team source. LAL's will be white and they'll wear them "several" games — Dave McMenamin (@mcten) August 20, 2013

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What do you think of the team’s changing to short-sleeves?

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