The Washington Wizards wore white uniforms, which they normally wear at home, for their Christmas Day game against the host Cleveland Cavaliers after LeBron James decided he wanted his team to wear its navy blue jerseys because he was unveiling the "Chalk" shoe - the ninth edition of his Nike Zoom LeBron VI.
The shoe is navy blue with touches of burgundy and gold and gets its name from James' pregame ritual of tossing and blowing hand chalk into the air just before he takes the court. So while the rest of the teams in the league that played Thursday wore special snowflake Christmas patches, the Wizards didn't because the NBA sent them only blue jerseys bearing the Christmas patch. The Wizards flew directly from Charlotte to Cleveland on Tuesday, and they brought the special blue jerseys with them. So the Cavaliers sent an employee to the District to pick up the Wizards' white jerseys and fly back with them Thursday afternoon.
* James hasn't forgotten what he considered overly aggressive play by the Wizards in last spring's playoff series. James complained the Wizards tried to hurt him with hard fouls in the series, which Cleveland won 4-2.
"They tried to take me mentally out of the game in the series and tried and tried and tried, and it never worked," said James, who averaged 29.8 points a game during the series. "Bad plan, I guess."
