Have you seen the NBA’s trendy new chinese new year uniforms?

As part of the NBA’s celebration of the Chinese New Year, the Houston Rockets sported a set of custom designed basketball uniforms on Tuesday night. Although they lost 123–110 to the Golden State Warriors, they stole the show with their special uniforms emblazoning a Chinese design.

With the Chinese New Year beginning on February 8, the NBA is using the opportunity to reach out to its ever-increasing fanbase in China and Asia. Both the Warriors and Rockets will wear commemorative uniforms on selected home dates (last year they became the first teams to do so), and this year they will be joined by the Washington Wizards.

After having signed Yao Ming in 2002, the Rockets have one of the biggest Asian followings of any team in the NBA, so they were a natural choice. The Warriors meanwhile have the mass Asian population of San Francisco to tap in to (current stats say that 21% of Frisco’s population is of Asian descent). China actually broadcasted one of their games live on CCTV last season.

Asian-American guard for the Charlotte Hornets, Jeremy Lin, spoke of how he is looking forward to playing during the holiday.

“For me last year, I couldn’t wear my [Chinese New Year] shoes to celebrate because I didn’t have a game on Chinese New Year. Hopefully I’ll be able to rock some more stuff [this year],” he said.

As well as the custom designed uniforms, the NBA released an advert depicting Lin (sporting a massive dragon costume no less) sharing a Chinese New Year meal with James Harden and Stephen Curry, while they also booked Lynn Lee to perform before the Bulls Hornets match.

The NBA will be hoping this campaign is more successful than their Sacramento Kings T-shirt giveaway that celebrated the Year Of The Monkey, which caused DeMarcus Cousins to speak out about the racial overtones of the T-shirts.