On Friday night, there was an issue in the Hawks-Thunder game that was as unsurprising as it was predictable. Atlanta showed up to the game in red uniforms, while Oklahoma City was wearing orange. If you think that's not enough of a contrast to tell the teams apart, you're right. See for yourself:
It reminded me of the 2012 NCAA Tournament, when Baylor, Louisville and Syracuse all wore uniforms that were so bright you needed to adjust the contrast on your TV! Or, perhaps a better example is when the NFL started doing the "Color Rush" thing and had that Thursday night game where the Bills wore red and the Jets wore green , the two colors that colorblind people have the biggest problem differentiating! And they both had white helmets, so it's not like that helped! (What happened immediately after? The NFL started making sure there was enough of a light/dark contrast between the uniforms.)
The NBA blamed the whole thing on a miscommunication. Apparently nobody caught it when the teams entered their jersey choices into the online system. And, since the game was in Oklahoma City, they made the Thunder change into their white jerseys at halftime. But they still played 24 minutes with anybody watching the game really having no clue which team was which!
As I said, I'm not surprised that this situation happened. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. I've been expecting it ever since the 2017-18 season, when the NBA scrapped "home" and "road" uniform designations and started letting teams wear whatever color they want whenever they want. Now, every team has at least four jerseys (Association, Icon, Statement and City), some of which don't even identify the team beyond a nickname for the city they play in! I went through the NBA jersey database to figure out exactly how many and discovered that more than half the league--18 teams!--has uniforms that fall into that category!
If a casual fan came across a game on TV and one of these teams was playing in one of these uniforms, there's a good chance they'd have no idea what teams they were actually watching! (And you can't use the "they only wear these for certain games" excuse, because every game is televised!) I simply don't understand the logic behind that. Shouldn't you want to make the people watching the game actually know what teams are playing?!
There's an obvious reason for this. Money. More jerseys for each team are more jerseys for fans to buy. And I'm sure the fans probably love some of these jerseys.
To be honest, I love some of them, too. The Heat's Miami Vice jerseys are outstanding, and they're made even better by the fact that they make the arena floor match whenever they wear them! I also like the ones where the team went with a throwback for one of their alternate uniforms.
But far too many teams didn't take that approach. They went with a nickname for their city or some other obscure reference that only their fans will get. Other people won't, though. They'll simply be confused and spend half the game trying to figure out what team they're watching. And that's a problem.
When "The Valley" plays "The Land," it's obviously the Suns vs. the Cavs (I'll let you figure out which one is which). "Rip City" vs. "H-Town?" Blazers vs. Rockets. Duh! It's "Sactown" against "Cream City," sorry, I mean the Kings against the Bucks! "Buzz City" and "Bed-Stuy," meanwhile, are the Hornets and Nets. C'mon people! How could you not know that?!
Some are slightly easier to figure out, but only because they used a well-known nickname for their city. "Mile High City" can only be the Nuggets. Same with the "Motor City" Pistons. The Wizards have both "DC" and "District of Columbia" jerseys, which can only mean Washington, DC.
Likewise, it's not really a problem when teams use a common abbreviation for their home city on the alternate uniforms. "OKC" isn't just the Thunder's abbreviation on standings, graphics, etc. It's also how people refer to them most of the time. So, an "OKC" jersey doesn't exactly lead to any confusion. (The Timberwolves use "MSP," which I'm assuming stands for Minneapolis-St. Paul. While not as obvious as OKC, every team in the Twin Cities is very careful not to look like they're favoring one over the other, so I'm fine with that, too.)
Then there's the Pelicans. Their new "City" jersey for this season has no identification on it at all. It doesn't say "New Orleans" or "NOLA" or "Pelicans" or a team logo of any kind! It's simply three fleurs-de-lis. Which means they either play in New Orleans or in Quebec!
Speaking of Canada, I've long had a problem with the Toronto Raptors and their "North" jerseys. We get it. You've got that whole "We the North" marketing campaign. (They even put "North" on their freaking championship rings in 2019!) But do you think any random person who sees a jersey that says nothing but "North" on it is gonna have any idea what the hell it means?! It could be a high school or college team for all they know! (And, for the record, Toronto isn't even the northernmost city in the NBA...Portland is!)
Fortunately, they won't be wearing those uniforms this season while they're playing in Tampa (and they would really make no sense!). Although, I was half expecting "South" jerseys in honor of their temporary home. I'd also be willing to bet the "North" jerseys make their return for the 2021-22 season, when the Raptors are, hopefully, once again playing their home games in Toronto.
Toronto/Tampa Bay isn't the biggest culprit, though. That would be their 2019 NBA Finals opponents--the Golden State Warriors. Or is it the "City" Warriors? Maybe the "Bay" Warriors"? The "Town" Warriors perhaps? The "San Francisco" Warriors? Apparently the geographic area they represent depends entirely on which uniform they happen to be wearing that particular day!
We're long past the days of teams having just one home, one away and one alternate uniform. I get that. But the NBA has taken it too far with all the variations for each team. It's confusing for fans and, as we saw in the Hawks-Thunder game, can be confusing for the teams, too.
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