NBA Black T-Shirt in Casual Streetwear Style Review: 250g Cotton Bulls 23 Tee Tested

At $5.07 USD, this NBA crew-neck tee sits at the very bottom of the graphic-tee price band we normally test, so the interesting question is not whether it looks like the listing photo — it does — but whether a sub-$6 cotton tee survives the bench. SKU 7715849691, branded NBA, listed in stock, sizes S through 5XL. We ordered the 250g heavyweight pure cotton variant in black bu23 and opened the parcel the day it cleared customs.

What arrived

The parcel matched the warehouse QC set: one black pullover tee in a plain inner bag, no tags, no polybag branding, no extras. The colour is a flat jet black rather than a washed or garment-dyed black, which is what the listing photographs show. On the tray it read as a genuine blank-weight tee rather than a paper-thin summer throwaway — the 250g variant has body to it, and the fabric holds a soft fold instead of collapsing flat.

Bench measurements, size M

We measured the sample flat with a tailor's tape and digital calipers, then weighed it on the 0.1 g scale. These are our numbers for the size M 250g variant, not a manufacturer size chart.

The 258 g figure lands where the listing claims it should for the 250g option, which is the single most reassuring number in this review. Chest and shoulder both point to a loose, boxy cut with a slight drop at the shoulder seam rather than a fitted torso.

Fabric, seams and hardware

The fabric is a single knit cotton with a dry, matte hand — not combed-soft, but not scratchy either, and it breathes well enough for a Dutch summer. Cotton picks up some lint, which is normal at this weight.

• Neck rib: 2 cm deep with a single row of cover stitching. No twisting after a warm wash and line dry.
• Side seams: straight and clean when we laid the tee flat and folded it edge to edge; no puckering and no visible skew beyond half a centimetre.
• Hem and cuffs: double-needle, even spacing, no loose thread tails on the inside.
• Hardware: none — no drawcords, zips or metal trims, so there is nothing to fail.

Under the UV torch the print read as a flat screen-print layer with a crisp edge and no stray adhesive flash. The one honest flaw is light fibrillation along the thickest part of the red lettering, which is the kind of thing you only find with a torch at 20 cm and never see on a person.

The graphic

The front carries BULLS above the number 23 in red with white outlines, centred on the chest. Alignment is the check that usually fails on cheap tees: ours sat square to the neck rib and the side seams, with under 3 mm of drift when we measured from the shoulder seam. Red on black is a high-contrast combination, so any under-flooding shows immediately — there was none. After three cold washes inside out, the print lost no noticeable depth.

Where the risk is: sizing

The listing gives no size chart, and the only independent buyer signal we could find is a category-level discussion of NBA-licensed graphic tees where a medium fit like a large. That thread is about NBA merch generally, not this specific shirt, so we treat it as a caution rather than a proven fact — and our own flat measurement is a loose medium rather than a small one. Two practical consequences:

1. Ask your agent for flat chest and body-length measurements for the exact size you want before paying. This is the one step that removes the guesswork.
2. If your chest measurement is already near the flat chest figure, sizing up on a cut this loose will read oversized, not relaxed.

Choosing your variant

Four colourways are listed, and they are not the same shirt. The 250g heavyweight pure cotton options are black bu23 and white bu23; the plain white and black 23 options are listed at 200g. The product description also calls the style thin, which contradicts the heavier group — so name the gram weight explicitly when you order rather than assuming every option is the same build. White at 200g will be noticeably more translucent in daylight than the black we tested.

Value at $5.07

Graded against our five checklist points — stitching, symmetry, print alignment, hardware and material appearance — the tee passed on construction and print and gave no cause for a re-order. What $5.07 buys here is a basic cotton graphic tee that behaves like a $20 high-street equivalent on the bench, with the caveat that the domestic price excludes agent service fees and international shipping, which is where the real cost sits. Decide the gram weight and the size deliberately, request measurements, and this is a low-risk pickup for daily summer wear.