When Anime Meets the Hardwood: The NBA's Cultural Moment with One Piece

A Watershed Moment in Global Popular Culture

The entertainment landscape is experiencing a seismic shift. The Los Angeles Lakers' collaboration with One Piece, the legendary Japanese anime and manga franchise, marks far more than a simple merchandising partnership—it represents a watershed moment in global popular culture where two seemingly disparate worlds have discovered they speak the same language of passion, determination, and triumph. Beginning in February 2025 with a special "One Piece Night," the partnership has evolved into a comprehensive merchandise ecosystem featuring six-inch MASTER STARS PIECE figures depicting Luffy dunking in the uniforms of the Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Memphis Grizzlies, with subsequent releases promising Chopper plushies and blind-box figures throughout 2026. This isn't marketing on the margins—this is a major brand committing substantial resources to celebrate anime culture at the highest levels of American professional sports.​

Cultural Alignment and the Broader Phenomenon for the NBA & One Piece

What makes this moment particularly significant is the cultural alignment between these two global powerhouses. One Piece, with over 500 million manga copies sold worldwide, embodies themes of camaraderie, collaboration, and the relentless pursuit of dreams—values that resonate profoundly with basketball culture. The NBA, reaching more than 200 countries and territories, similarly celebrates teamwork, determination, and the heroic individual striving against adversity. Yet the Lakers-One Piece collaboration represents only the most visible expression of a far broader phenomenon reshaping sports culture. My Hero Academia has already forged its own partnership with the NBA, creating exclusive fashion collaborations with nine NBA teams, while artists like the Seoul-based illustrator Kim reimagine NBA moments through anime aesthetics, transforming Ja Morant's on-court drama into Naruto-inspired scenes and depicting Jaylen Brown's dominant performances as the formidable swordsman Kenpachi from Bleach.​

NBA x ONE PIECE Collab

Deep Historical Roots and Player Culture

The roots of this integration run deeper than recent years might suggest. Decades before the Lakers donned Straw Hat Pirates imagery, the manga series Slam Dunk had already transformed basketball's presence in Japan, creating an entire generation of Japanese basketball players who drew inspiration from fictional characters rather than real-world heroes. In 2012, recognizing this profound cultural impact, the Japanese Basketball Association awarded the series' creator with a special commendation for his contribution to basketball's popularity. Within the NBA itself, anime has become deeply woven into player culture—approximately 80 percent of NBA players engage with anime, a staggering statistic that speaks to the genre's mainstream acceptance among elite athletes. Players like John Collins keep Naruto-themed necklaces in their lockers; Daniel Gafford streams anime during road trips; Cole Anthony attends anime movie premieres. What was once considered embarrassingly nerdy has become a source of pride, a marker of cultural sophistication among the league's brightest talents.​

A Generational Turning Point

This normalization represents a generational turning point. Players once kept their anime interests private, fearing social stigma of being perceived as childish or disconnected from "serious" masculinity. Today, NBA stars openly champion anime's themes of perseverance, character development, and redemption through struggle.

As one player explained, NBA athletes relate deeply to anime's narratives: "Whether it's coming from a not very good situation growing up, or dealing with injuries, having to come back from injuries, it's that similarity that draws NBA players to that."

The timing of this cultural mainstreaming cannot be disconnected from broader demographic shifts—Generation Z and younger millennials grew up with anime as ambient cultural background noise rather than a subcultural curiosity, and contemporary consumers now access entire libraries through streaming services like Crunchyroll, democratizing anime consumption from niche enthusiasm to mainstream leisure activity.​

Reshaping Sports Media and Visual Culture

Anime has begun inspiring how sports themselves are visually presented and narratively framed. Platforms like Bleacher Report reimagine NBA highlights through anime-style animation, recognizing that this aesthetic language resonates with contemporary audiences more powerfully than traditional sports broadcast conventions. When Ja Morant's dramatic mid-season turnaround becomes a Naruto redemption arc or Jaylen Brown's playoff dominance transforms into a shonen manga scene, these moments gain cultural resonance beyond the immediate sporting context. What Bandai Spirits, the Lakers, and the NBA recognize is that anime and professional sports share fundamental appeal structures—both celebrate human excellence, both revolve around dramatic narratives of testing one's limits, and both traffic in the currency of emotional catharsis.​

A Structural Realignment of Entertainment Culture

As Chopper plushies prepare to join the marketplace in March 2026 and Luffy celebrates victories in the uniforms of NBA ONE PIECE, it becomes clear that this represents not a temporary trend but a structural realignment of global entertainment culture. Anime has moved from the periphery to the center, not through grudging acceptance but through active embrace by some of the world's most prestigious athletic institutions. The Lakers-One Piece collaboration signals that the future of sports entertainment belongs to those willing to meet their audiences wherever those audiences are—and increasingly, they're meeting them in worlds populated by determined captains, loyal crews, and dreams that refuse to be ordinary.

---

Explore more on Asian American Culture on 88tumble.com/explore