Photos: LeBron James wore a sweet black mask last week

epa04103271 Miami Heat forward LeBron James encourages the crowd during their NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida, USA, 27 February 2014. James broke his nose in a previous game against the Oklahoma City Thunder and is wearing the mask for protection. EPA/RHONA WISE CORBIS OUTShow less

LeBron James broke his nose, which is not terribly uncommon in the NBA. To stay on the court, basketball players very frequently wear a protective mask for a few games until their nose heals.

Nothing too interesting about any of that, except for that when LeBron broke his nose, he came back last Thursday against the Knicks sporting a black mask, that, coupled with his black Miami Heat jersey and the fact that he's the best basketball player alive, made him like awesome.

He only got to wear it for the one game, though, with the NBA making him switch back to a conventional , boring clear mask because clearly nobody in the league office was listening to anyone in the marketing department.

(Although to be fair, in a regular mask, he did score a career-high 61 points on Monday night)

Not much else to say about it, except to pass along a few photos of LeBron looking like the Man in the Iron Mask.

Alright, the white mask is kind of cool too.

Photos courtesy Rhona Wise Corbis / EPA (top, third), Alan Diaz / AP (first,second) and J Pat Carter / AP (fourth)