LeBron James will wear a special-edition 23rd season jersey patch beginning tonight in Sacramento; the city where he began his legendary career in 2003. The patches will be removed from his jersey after each game, and some will be placed into ultra-rare trading cards.
Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47589517/source-lebron-james-gets-jersey-patch-mark-23rd-season
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – When LeBron James takes the court Monday in the city his NBA career started in 2003, his Los Angeles Lakers uniform will look a little different to commemorate the occasion.
James’ jersey will have a patch affixed to the upper right chest to celebrate his record-setting 23rd NBA season, featuring a silhouette of his pregame chalk toss and three colored stripes representing the franchises he has played for in Cleveland, Miami and L.A.
James will wear the patch throughout the remaining 46 games of the regular season.
After every game James plays, the patch will be removed from his jersey by the Lakers’ equipment manager, dated and then shipped to Topps’ production facility in Dallas where it will be authenticated and later inserted into a trading card.
Topps, which launched its first NBA-licensed cards in 16 years in October, introduced a similar jersey patch program with rookies wearing a “Debut Patch” on their uniform for their first game and last season’s MVP (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), Defensive Player of the Year (Evan Mobley) and Rookie of the Year (Stephon Castle) wearing a special gold NBA logo on the back of their uniform to later be featured on a trading card.