NBA warns San Antonio Spurs fans to watch out for counterfeiters

The NBA on Friday issued a warning to San Antonio Spurs fans as they shop around for their favorite team's merchandise while gearing up for Game 2 against the Los Angeles Lakers.

With the defending champion Spurs heading into the Western Conference Finals this week, there is higher demand for Spurs merchandise. This makes unsuspecting basketball fans in San Antonio a prime target for counterfeiters, league officials say.

NBA officials say potential victims of counterfeiting schemes may include legitimate retailers in the San Antonio area as well as individual fans who believe they are buying officially licensed merchandise.

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Licensed merchandise should have either a hologram sticker or tag and a sewn-in label identifying the product as "genuine" or "official."

Since 1993, the league has worked in concert with the Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports logos (CAPS) and law enforcement agencies nationwide to seize more than nine million pieces of counterfeit merchandise featuring the branding of major college and pro teams. The value of this counterfeit merchandise totaled some $329 million.

"As the Spurs continue to win and advance through the Playoffs, their merchandise becomes more popular among basketball fans and counterfeiters alike," says Ayala Deutsch, senior vice president and chief intellectual property counsel for the NBA.

"The 2008 NBA Playoffs is an event that San Antonio fans will want to remember for many years to come, but a counterfeit T-shirt is not really a keepsake if it contains a typo or shrinks three sizes when you put it in the laundry," Deutsch says.