The Los Angeles Lakers announced an official One Piece collaboration that will be launched during their February 28 game against the Los Angeles Clippers. The team released two visuals ahead of the collab:
More details for the Los Angeles Lakers and One Piece collab will be revealed at a later date, according to the team’s official X account.
This will now be another anime collab for the 2024-2025 season for the NBA. In October, a collab with Kuroko’s Basketball and the league was also announced to promote its mobile game.
There has been an influx of anime collaborations with professional sports leagues and organizations. In August this year, Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants launched a project with Naruto Shippuden as did other teams.
The National Football League’s Los Angeles Rams also ran an entire One Piece promo event during one of their games last year in which fans received some merchandise for attending the game.
Also that same year, some of the teams from the NBA collaborated with My Hero Academia for a limited merchandise line that included everything from jackets to t-shirts.
But it also extends to the players themselves. For Halloween this year, San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama even dressed up as Spirited Away‘s iconic character No Face. And in 2022, the Jordan brand revealed a Naruto Shippuden shoe line for Zion Williamson as well.
The anime takeover in professional sports extends well beyond collaborations with teams. From players taking part in anime awards to showing off their love for the medium with cleats and apparel, anime and professional leagues will only continue to hold more collaborations.
One Piece Manga
Authored by Eiichiro Oda, ONE PIECE began serialization in the 34th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump on July 22, 1997, and it celebrated its 25th anniversary of serialization in July 2022. The cumulative worldwide print circulation of the manga exceeded 516.6 million copies as of December 2024, making it the most successful manga in history.
The TV anime produced by Toei Animation began airing in 1999 and is currently on hiatus until March 2025. Most recently, the live-action adaptation of One Piece was released exclusively on Netflix and has received great acclaim, with Season 2 on the way.
Source: Los Angeles Lakers Official X Account (formerly Twitter)
©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha
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