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Are James Harden and Steph Curry hiding the Nike logos on their game socks?

Nike is in the first year of an eight-year, $1 billion deal with the NBA to be the league’s official uniform supplier. And with Nike’s massive investment, the Nike Swoosh has been given prominent placement on the jerseys, shorts and socks — something we didn’t see with previous supplier Adidas.

But have two of the NBA’s biggest stars managed to hide the Nike logo?

It certainly looks that way.

As part of the NBA agreement, Nike replaced Stance Socks as the league’s sock supplier. And now, the top of the NBA game socks features that Nike Swoosh. John Wall and LeBron James, both Nike athletes, gladly display the logo on their socks.

(AP Photo/Nick Wass)

The same can’t be said about James Harden and Steph Curry.

Harden signed a $200 million deal with Adidas back in 2015, and has shown a history of hiding the Nike logo. He would cover the logo up on his Drew League uniform, for example, in the offseasons.

Though he can’t cover up the logo on his game jersey, Harden appears to be going to considerable lengths to deliberately exclude the Nike logo from his game socks. Harden has been cutting his socks at the top, leaving off the Nike Swoosh entirely.

AP

This trend has continued for multiple games this season.

AP

Yet, last season, Harden did not go out of his way to hide the Stance logo — a company that doesn’t rival Adidas like Nike does. In fact, he didn’t hide it at all.

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

When it comes to Curry, he too has been hiding the Nike logo, but it has been less blatant than Harden. Curry, who has a history of ankle injuries, wears a tall ankle brace on both legs but has been rolling down his socks at the top, obscuring the Nike logo.

AP

Curry recently extended his Under Armour contract through 2024, but like Harden, he didn’t hide the Stance logo last season.

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

According to uni-watch, rolling down the socks isn’t banned in the NBA operations manual. It still is another issue for Nike, which has seen jerseys tear at an alarming rate and fail to absorb sweat.

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