Friday, January 22, 2010

The NBA Should Let Both Teams Wear Colored Jerseys During Games


"My colors, my honor, my colors, my all
With my colors upon me one soldier stands tall"

Ice-T-"Colors"
Thursday night's Haves-Fake Show tilt was thoroughly entertaining; capped by a Charles-Smith-esque-sequence where LeG.O.D.D. stuffed Pau "Mr. Uglyman" Gasol, Gasol went up again and got stuffed by Sideshow Bob. The ball fell to Shaq who gave the quick outlet to LBJ. LBJ raced upcourt, paused at the arch, then blasted past three defenders for the layup. Ballgames.

Making the game more of a joy to watch was the visual contrast between the Haves' faux-throwback wine-colored jerseys with the 80's wordmark up against the now-diluted-but-still-classic Fake Show yellow. Compare the 80's Lakers jersey with the current edition. The side-stripes add only clutter while robbing the power of all-yellow. Plus they took away a cool number font. Meanwhile, the Haves, like the Mets, seem to have 15 different jerseys. But unlike the Mets, almost all their jerseys look good.

NBA teams are visually associated with strong colors. Celtic green. Laker yellow-and-purple. Chicago red. Knick blue-and-orange. Warrior blue-and-yellow (well, at least what they used to be and what they should be). Spur black. Hornet teal.  Philly red-white-and-blue. Sonic green-and-yellow (-sigh-).

The Association should embrace their colors and allow both teams to wear colored jerseys during games. Imagine the Celtics in green going up against the Knicks in blue. The Bulls in red going up agasint the Pistons in blue. The Suns in orange going up against the Spurs in black. The Magic in teal going up against the Heat in red.

The notion that the home team wear white and the road team wear colors dates back to black-and-white tvs. I think we can tell which team is which nowadays. White jerseys are a bore, at least in the NBA. Think about jersey sales, how many people to you see walking around in NBA replica whites? Exactly. The Lakers, with their home yellow, had the right idea all along. 

6 comments:

Bryan said...

Amen brother. A-freaking-men.

coachie said...

the same argument applies to other sports as well, particularly hockey. the ice is already white. let the habs wear red against the bruins in black. the 'gers in blue against the flyers in orange. and of course, in the NHL's fiercest rivalry, the predators in mustard against the thrashers in sky blue.

Bryan said...

You're right. That rule change plus HD plus mandatory bong hits would make hockey the most popular thing of all time. Well all that and the new Alaska-Fairbanks intro video.

coachie said...

maybe mandatory bong hits would finally allow me to see the puck actually go in the net.

Bryan said...

No it wouldn't. You would bug out way before then.

Anonymous said...

nice post. thanks.