The tunnel fit is dead. Long live the tunnel fit. LeBron James, the indisputable face of the NBA this century, is partially responsible for its present-day decline. While he didn’t make a formal announcement in Vogue like his former teammate Kyle Kuzma, LeBron seems to have quietly quit the tunnel fit game as well. For most of this season, King James arrived at the arena in a simple hoodie, often worn with athletic shorts and Nike slides.
This being literally LeBron James—either the best or second-best basketball player of all time by most accounts, who has also been in the league longer than some players have been alive—you can understand the decision to let himself go a bit, fashion-wise. The tunnel fit is a young man’s game, and LeBron has been there, done that. The 20-time All-Star (!!!) also recently turned 40, and has, fittingly, embraced a new tunnel persona that we’re dubbing Uncle Bron. The latest installment in the Uncle Bron catalogue was Thursday night in LA, when he strode through the arena in, you guessed it, a black hoodie.
This time, though, he zhuzhed it up with some vibrant red slides to add a pop of color, which paired nicely with the hat he wore to rep his home state’s beloved college football team one day after their commanding Rose Bowl victory. The coffee cup is also very relatable. As we all know, the older you get, the more that evening caffeine starts calling to you. (He’s arrived with coffee in hand more than once this season.)
What’s really endearing about this season of LeBron looks, though, is that he’s not afraid to go back to the well. Everyone’s got that one hoodie that fits like a glove, and sometimes, especially during winter, it’s the only thing you want to wear. Kudos to LeBron for giving into the intrusive thoughts and doing just that. In October, Kuzma told Vogue, “I can speak from experience that when you’re a younger player, you don’t want to wear the same thing twice. A lot of times we get played into thinking, oh, we gotta switch it up, we gotta buy something new. And now we’re just buying clothes to impress people or to stand out. It’s ludicrous.” Something tells us LeBron saw that quote and thought: Exactly.
There has been some variety, though. A personal favorite is this all-white ensemble with a camo bucket hat that he broke out for the Lakers’ game in Atlanta on December 6.
