Welcome to another weekend! Before I get started, I want to remind you that next Sunday, June 16th is Father’s Day. I’ll be continuing Phil’s tradition of posting our readers’ Dads in Uniform. More details to come at the end of today’s post, so in case you’re not an NBA fan, scroll to the bottom.
Now then, lost amidst the flurry of football uniform reveals from the state of Minnesota, the NBA Finals started Thursday night in Boston. The hometown Celtics, dressed in their classic white unis with a black Bill Walton memorial ribbon on the left shoulder, took on the Dallas Mavericks and took them to the cleaners. The 107-89 score was closer than the uniform matchup, as Dallas went with their black City Edition set, with small gray lettering and hard-to-see tiny blue numbers.
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Even though Kyrie Irving is in the front of the picture, you clearly can see how much smaller Dallas’ details are compared to Boston.
The font itself isn’t that bad. In fact, it reminds me of a certain 70s sitcom…
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Appropriate, since the league is all about chucking up the three-pointer these days.
I’m still getting used to the teams not having a Finals patch on the front of the jerseys. They’ve been moved to the backs above the player names.
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As you can see in the above photo, there’s no huge Larry O’Brien trophy at midcourt…and no Finals graphics at all on the floor.
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Holiday’s triple puts six Celtics in double-figures 🙌
Extends the Boston lead in Game 1 on ABC. pic.twitter.com/yfuV5ibzd3
— NBA (@NBA) June 7, 2024
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I don’t really miss it. I would prefer the Finals patch on the front of the jerseys, but of cour$e we know the rea$on why they made that $witch. #NoUniAds
Same as the Blue Jays City Connect jersey, up close and in the right lighting you can see the numbers. From a distance? Pffft.
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The miniscule “Presented by” at the base of the basket is more visible than the numbers here. Anyway, I’ll forgive the Mavs if they take the next four games. They’re not slated to wear the City Editions again until game 6, per the graphic they tweeted:
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If Boston wins in four or five, I’ll forgive them, too. I’d rather not have to do that, though. They’re going with their black uniform in game 2 Sunday night, according to NBA LockerVision and friend of the site Chris Creamer from SportsLogos.net. It’s a little better than Dallas’ black uni, but I’m looking forward to games 3 and 4, when it’s the Celtics in white vs. the Mavs is dark blue. Not sure what Boston has in store for games 5 through 7. WFAA TV in Dallas says they’ll be in green.
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I don’t know where they got that info, since it isn’t on LockerVision or anywhere else. If the station replies to my query I’ll let you know. Green vs. white would be a great looking way to end the season, so I hope that’s the case.
As you can see in the above photo, there’s no huge Larry O’Brien trophy painted at midcourt
There never was; it was a giant decal applied to the court.
*groans*
Fair point. I adjusted the wording.
The finals trophy decal only lasted 5 years, some people I’ve talked to seem to think it was a long standing tradition or something. I guess the decals were causing people to slip sometimes. I do miss the Finals decal which now seems to be more of a YouTube ad in the digital display.
I actually like Boston’s black uni. I haven’t seen it in action because I almost never watch basketball, and I suspect some of the lack-of-contrast issues would still apply. But at least the numbers are big enough to be readable, and I just like the combination of black and green.
Call me crazy, but I don’t really like uni patches at all – whether they’re Finals patches, anniversary patches, memorial patches, or ad patches. To me they look like unnecessary clutter, and it’s especially bad if the patch colors don’t match the uni colors. (I’m looking at you, Vancouver Canucks, with your ridiculous bright green ad patches on a black, red, and yellow jersey.)
While I don’t like any specialty *unis* I’m okay with patches. Especially when they promote the sport itself or a person connected to said sport.
Finals, bowl games, player/coach/staff memorials, team/league anniversaries… I’m good with that.
Yeah wish the Jets would take notes, Green and black don’t look bad together and it’s not crazy for the Cs to wear black. Green numbers on black can work quite well with a white outline and doesn’t totally subsume the green as a result. It’s a solid 3rd look.
I actually adore the Celtics black unis, too, but nothing can compare to their original BFBS unis. (link)
Love the theme song switch. Miami Vice over Taxi works. Taxi over Miami Vice, the video is too fast paced for Taxi tempo. Maybe one of the Cosby intros?
I think it is cool Jim that you were able to show the parallel of font with three is company.
I know it’d be hoping for too much, but for the finals it would be amazing if teams leaned more traditional/classic and wore white at home – looks like Game 1 will be the only time that happens the whole series.
I’ve always thought color at home looks awful if the color matches the paint on the court. Too much green if Celts wear the green unis at home and lots of teams do that. Another context in which the concept of contrast has seemingly escaped the people who make these decisions.
The same color as the floor can work ok with light colors, like yellow or gold. The 80s Showtime Lakers are probably my favorite uni/floor combo of all time. It just felt like something special was going to happen, all the time.
link
I completely agree! Something about that worked better than yellow on purple lanes (although I don’t think they wear yellow at home as much either)
Hey Jim! Fun fact—the NBA logo used to be on the front of the jerseys until the 2014-2015 season, when they moved them to the back above the name and below the collar. The finals logo has always “surrounded” the NBA logo, so it was moved to the back color as well. This was first seen in the 2015 finals. This well predates the addition of uni-ads (and all the other Nike nonsense we’ve seen on the last few years). Could it have been a move made in advance in preparation for ads on the front of jerseys? Possibly. But the fact remains that the logo has been on the back of the jersey for ten years now, all the way back in the Adidas days. Just wanted to point that out. Enjoyed this post a lot!
Thanks for the exact dating! I knew it had been a while, but I’m still getting used to it.
If they have to put that stuff on the backs of jerseys, the least they could do would be to put them below the number, so that the patch and the NOB frame the number instead of shoving the number downward even more.
The NHL matchups will be far superior to NBA.
The amount of interchanging uniforms with different colour schemes for NBA clubs is dizzying. A casual fan who has not watched the NBA closely for some time may think the Celtics are playing the Orlando Magic if they glance at a screen in a bar.
I used to be excited when NBA teams announced new uniforms. It would be a new home, road,or alternate uniform and would be in keeping with the team identity. That fun as been compromised for me the way the NBA does it now.
Scrolled right to the bottom!
Thanks for keeping the tradition going, Jim…it remains my favorite UW feature.
Speaking of Dad and Three’s Company – my dad would not allow me to watch that program…and I’ve still never seen an episode!
“If Boston wins in four or five, I’ll forgive them, too. I’d rather not have to do that, though. They’re going with their black uniform in game 2 Sunday night, according to NBA LockerVision and friend of the site Chris Creamer from SportsLogos.net. It’s a little better than Dallas’ black uni, but I’m looking forward to games 3 and 4, when it’s the Celtics in white vs. the Mavs is dark blue. Not sure what Boston has in store for games 5 through 7. WFAA TV in Dallas says they’ll be in green.”
I hate that I can no longer always remember what was supposed to be the home uniform and what was supposed to be the road uniform. In my mind I see the Celtics in green in the Finals but then I have to work at it a bit to see them in those unis on other teams’ floors but then my vision clears and I see the whole picture; in the Forum against the Lakers, Magic and Kareem looming nearby in Forum Gold, in Houston against the Rockets, Hakeem and Sampson towering nearby in white. valiantly fighting a losing battle etc. Now that we’re in the “Well, nothing really matters so wear whatever” era, I can no longer summon up this very ordinary sort of magic for contemporary sports and it nags at my old man heart.
“I hate that I can no longer always remember what was supposed to be the home uniform and what was supposed to be the road uniform”
It’s pretty simple, really. White at home, color on the road.
That’s so 1986.
LockerVision awesome. Are there equivalent sites for other leagues that you are aware of?
DJJV?
Mixmaster Vilk?
Kool Vilk?
Either way, love the mashups, Jim Vilk.
I also got ’70s sitcom vibes from those Mavs jerseys:
link
I agree: the front numbers on the Mavs black jersey are too small. I do like the 70s wordmark and the tiny patch on the waistband of the shorts with the Texas soundwave grapgic. But all in all Boston’s uniform set is superior, even in black (which I do not get. Sure, it is a team color, but to have a whole uniform in black?). Funny detail which I cannot help but to come up with every time i see the Celtics: the Leprechaun logo was designed by Red Auerbach’s brother who was a talented but too modest graphic artist.