The Suns misspelled Eric Bledsoe's name on the back of his jersey

It took less than a week for the NBA to experience its first wardrobe malfunction of the 2016-17 season. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present the Phoenix Suns’ newest high-scoring guard: Eric Beldsoe.

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Y’know, you’d think the Suns would make sure to lock down the spelling of the name of their highest-paid player before they hit the court against the defending Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors. But accidents will happen, as my man Declan McManus has taught us; sometimes, even eight-figure men like Eric Bledsoe have to take that L. (Or that “el,” as the case may be.)

The “Beldsoe” tank top continues a long, storied tradition of NBA jersey fouls. (Shouts to our friends at Puck Daddy.) Who among us can forget classics like the Washington Wizards’ Mustafa Shakur and Andray “Baltche” debacles in 2011? How about Wilson “Chanlder” and Zaza “Pcahulia?” Or Jason “Smiht,” Richard “Hamiltion,” Andre “Drummund” and Paul “Milsap?” (Wow, this really does happen pretty frequently.)

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The good news for the Kentucky product: the Suns’ equipment managers were able to make a midstream switch to get him looking right …

… and camera-ready in time for this sweet alley-oop finish off a feed from fellow ex-Wildcat combo guard Brandon Knight:

And, thankfully, Bledsoe took the whole thing in stride:

The bad news: despite 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting, six assists, five rebounds and a steal in 36 minutes from Beldsoe/Bledsoe, plus 26 from bucket-getting forward T.J. Warren, the Suns still didn’t quite have the firepower to outgun the visiting Warriors, who earned a 106-100 win behind 65 points from the MVP combo of Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.

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Losing to the Dubs despite at one point holding a 13-point lead is painful, but it’s not the most painful thing to happen to a member of the Suns organization on Sunday:

Ouch. A poignant reminder that, even if you have to go out in front of tens of thousands of people in the arena, and millions more watching at home, with your name spelled wrong across your back, it could always be worse. Thank heaven for small mercies, y’all.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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