LeBron James wore a new patch in his first game as a 76er: a shield reading "NBA SEASONS" over a 24. Topps says it comes off his jersey after every game this season, and that certain of those patches will go into 1-of-1 trading cards. It is the second season in a row the company has run this program, and neither announcement has named a product.

Topps announced the patch on X on Tuesday, Oct. 20, hours before James' Sixers debut at Madison Square Garden. The post read: "LeBron James will wear a special 24th season jersey patch throughout the 2026-27 season. The patches will be removed from his jersey after each game, and certain patches will be placed into ultra-rare 1-of-1 trading cards."

NBA.com called it "a special-edition jersey patch commemorating his 24th season" and said "select patches will be featured in upcoming exclusive Topps trading cards." James is the first player in league history to reach 24 seasons, and entered the night with a record 1,622 games played, NBA.com reported.

Game One

The first patch went on in New York against the reigning champion Knicks. The Sixers won 106-100, coming back in the second half, and James scored 14 points, according to NBA.com's game story. That makes the opening-night patch one from a win at the Garden, in what NBA.com counted as his 35th career game there.

Topps' image shows the patch on the upper chest of a blue "PHILA" jersey, above the wordmark: a shield with "NBA SEASONS" across the top, a white 24 on a red-and-blue field, and the black silhouette of James with both arms raised. Heavy describes the figure as James' signature chalk toss. Sports Illustrated said the same of last season's patch.

The Same Program, Last Season

Topps did this first in January. On Jan. 12, 2026, it announced a 23rd-season patch, worn starting that night in Sacramento, where James made his NBA debut in 2003. NBA.com's report that day: "The patches will be removed after each game, and some will be placed into upcoming Topps trading cards."

Front Office Sports reported the 23rd-season patch would be worn for the Lakers' final 46 games of 2025-26. Sports Illustrated described the handling: each patch "will be removed by the team's equipment manager, dated, and filmed for authenticity," then sent to Topps' facility in Dallas, "authenticated by CGC," and put into a card. Heavy reported the same chain, the Lakers' equipment manager removing and dating each patch and shipping it to Dallas.

Neither announcement says where the cards go. For the 24th-season patches, Heavy reported Topps "has not announced which products will contain the patches or when the cards will become available," nor how many cards will be made or whether individual patches will be tied to particular games.

What Changed in the Wording

Topps' two posts, nine months apart, read almost the same. The differences are in the second sentence:

  • Jan. 12, 2026: "The patches will be removed from his jersey after each game, and some will be placed into ultra-rare trading cards."
  • Oct. 20, 2026: "The patches will be removed from his jersey after each game, and certain patches will be placed into ultra-rare 1-of-1 trading cards."

Analysis: The new post adds "1-of-1." The January post called the cards ultra-rare and stopped there. Now Topps has said what each card is: a single copy. "Some" also became "certain," which reads as a selection, though Topps has not said how it will choose. Heavy's reading of 1-of-1 is that "no two copies of a particular card will be identical."

The Ceiling on the Supply

Analysis: One patch comes off after each game, so the most patches a season can produce is the number of games James plays in them. Last season's program covered at most 46 regular-season games. This season's starts on opening night, so the ceiling is a full 82-game schedule, plus any playoff games if Topps continues the patch into them, which it has not said. Topps has committed only "certain" of those patches to cards, so the real number of cards is something below the games played. That is arithmetic on Topps' own words, not a print run. Topps has published no count.

The contrast is with the last card Topps made around James' move. After James moved to Philadelphia in July, Topps released an NBA Topps NOW card celebrating his decision to return for a 24th season. Heavy, citing Topps, reports it had a print run of 211,627 copies, a new NBA Topps NOW record. Each patch card, by Topps' description, will be one copy.

What Has Not Been Said

Topps has not named a product, a release date, a card count or whether any patch card will be signed. It has not said whether patches from particular games, such as Tuesday's debut, will be identified on the cards. The January announcement named no product either.

Verdict: For the second straight season, a commemorative patch comes off James' jersey after every game and heads to Topps. This year Topps calls the resulting cards 1-of-1s and has had a full season of games to draw from since opening night. What it has not named, for either season, is the product the cards will be in.

Confidence note: Topps' Oct. 20 announcement is quoted from its post on X, as embedded in NBA.com's Oct. 20, 2026 report; its Jan. 12 post and the 23rd-season details are from NBA.com's Jan. 12, 2026 report. The 46-game span is from Front Office Sports (Jan. 12, 2026). The removal, dating, filming and CGC authentication process is from Sports Illustrated (Jan. 15, 2026); Heavy (Oct. 20, 2026) reported the same handling and the open questions about products and counts, and is the source for the 211,627 Topps NOW print run, which it attributes to Topps. The game result, James' points and his game count at Madison Square Garden are from NBA.com. Passages labeled Analysis are this blog's interpretation, not findings in those sources.