NBA

#NBAJerseyDay: What was your favourite NBA jersey you owned growing up?

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The NBA is encouraging fans around the world to rock their favourite NBA jerseys for the second-annual #NBAJerseyDay on Dec. 14.

In honour of #NBAJerseyDay, our NBA.com staff discusses each of their favourite NBA jerseys they owned growing up. Whether it was a player on your favourite team or your favourite player from a random team, everyone had that one jersey they always couldn't wait to wear.

What was yours? Here are some of our personal favourites.

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Kyle Irving (@KyleIrv_): This is a tough decision. My Rajon Rondo Boston Celtics jersey and Kevin Durant Oklahoma City Thunder jersey are two that I wore the most, but I'd have to say my favourite – because it was more unique where I'm from – was my white Steve Nash Phoenix Suns jersey.

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Nash is one of my favourite players of all-time. I wore No. 13 for every basketball team I played for growing up because of him. In fact, I still keep his rookie card in my car to this day, because what else am I supposed to do with it? Where I'm from, no one else had a Nash jersey or even a Phoenix Suns jersey for that matter, so that made it all that more special to me.

Scott Rafferty (@crabdribbles): Toronto's Dino jersey will forever hold a special place in my heart. It's a cool jersey, first and foremost, but some of my earliest basketball memories are of watching Tracy McGrady (my favourite player of all-time) and Vince Carter wearing them.

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As you can probably imagine, I was pretty excited when the Raptors brought them back last season. It's just too bad we didn't get to see Kawhi Leonard rocking it.

Kane Pitman (@KanePitman): The purple Ray Allen Milwaukee Bucks road jersey was the first I ever owned and will always hold a special place in my heart. In fact, it's still somewhere in the house in a box from a previous move. There is a little bit of nostalgia involved nowadays with Milwaukee moving on from the purple and also the fact that his No. 34 is now worn by the current day franchise star in Giannis Antetokounmpo. Another curious jersey I had was an Anthony Davis New Orleans Hornets rookie jersey. At the end of his rookie season in 2013, the Hornets became the Pelicans and well....we know what happened after that.  Ray Allen

Carlan Gay (@TheCarlanGay): There are two jerseys that defined my childhood. A Buffalo Bills No. 7 Doug Flutie jersey (shout-out to #BillsMafia) and No. 8 purple and gold Kobe Bryant

I had other basketball jerseys before the Kobe No. 8, but I didn't love them like I loved Kobe.

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There are very few iconic jerseys in sports: the Yankees, the Celtics, Montreal Canadiens, Maple Leafs and of course the Lakers. 

I just wish I could still fit in my No. 8 Kobe jersey. It would save me from having to buy a new one!

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Gilbert McGregor (@GMcGregor21): Anyone that knew me growing up knows that jerseys were my thing, so it's pretty hard to choose just one.

With all of the jerseys that come to mind – the majority of which were Hornets (from Glen Rice and Vlade Divac to Baron Davis and Chris Paul) – the one that stands out to me as a favourite was my No. 8 Kobe jersey. I feel like for my generation, that No. 8 jersey had mythical powers. When you threw it on, you just felt different.

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It helps that I also had Lakers shorts and a shooting shirt to go with it, so when it was time to play hoops in my hallway, the No. 8 was going on. That feeling was impossible to beat.

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