New York Knicks legend Dick Barnett passed away earlier this week, and the Knicks honored him and his Knick achievements last evening, and have added a “12” black memorial band to their jerseys.
The team debuted the memorial band on their “City” edition jerseys, dropping a home playoff game to the visiting Detroit Pistons.
The black memorial band has become de rigueur for teams to memorialize great players (and others of importance to the organization) who have since departed this earth.
In just the past 12 months, we’ve seen memorial bands for Jerry West, Pat Williams, Bill Walton, Al McCoy, and Junior Bridgeman.
All of those memorials added a band to the left sleeve opening of player jerseys, and while each had a unique look, they all shared the common location and style.
As we’ve noted, memorial bands on NBA jerseys are fraught with visibility issues (the bands themselves are barely visible even close up), and they also must be located in close promimity to the jersey ads teams already sport on their chests. Barnett’s memorial band suffers this fate as well.
The Knicks have already retired Barnett’s No. 12, and no one has worn that number since 1974. Prior to the start of the game, Barnett was remembered and honored by the Knicks.
One would assume the Knicks will wear the memorial band for the remaninder of their time in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, but they haven’t announced whether they will keep the band for the 2025-26 season.
I wish that instead of a too small and barely legible band teams would wear a roundel or other commemorative logo on the front of the leg without the team logo of the shorts (the swoosh luckily sits up high so there is plenty of space on the leg). Best, ofcourse, would be on the front of the jersey, instead of an ad or the swoosh, but that will never happen.
Would work fine in case of the Knicks: the right leg is empty, the NBA logo sits up high as well.