NBA City Edition Jersey: Ranked
Nike unveiled the NBA teams alternate jerseys that they are deeming “city editions”. The jerseys are intended to have a local, hometown theme. The name and intent of the jerseys is begging to be ranked. The grading criteria looked at the intersection of each city’s identity and team identity. Marrying the two criteria leads to a higher ranking.
Let’s get into it.
1. New Orleans Pelicans
Mardi Gras colors. Bourbon Street vibes. Cut the King cake, I’m in.
2. Golden State Warriors
This thing is wild. The colors are electric and make it very hard to hate. You want this jersey to not work, then it does. The tribute to the “The City” design is nice. They take it one step further with “The Bay”, reminding us that they are located in Silicon Valley. The dragon behind the bridge pays homage to the iconic San Fransisco chinatown.
3. New York Knicks
NYFD Tribute. This nod needed to happen a long time ago. Circa 2001 maybe? Anyway, great design. The Knicks might actually be bearable to watch in these.
4. Indiana Pacers
While it takes a minute to let this jersey soak in, it is sweet and packed with underlying meaning. The circle around the number represents the city circle in the center of Indianapolis. The racing stripe finish line represents the Indianapolis 500. It is a unique design. Blending both into one jersey design successfully is commendable to say the least.
5. Philadelphia 76ers
Wow. This jersey is pure. The off-white parchment papyrus that matches the Declaration of Independence is next level. This jersey needs a one-way ticket to the 6ers primary look. They could even alternate this alternate and toss a liberty bell front and center and call it a day.
6. Boston Celtics
TD Garden parquet floor design is smooth. Could be much smoother if they pulled it off in Boston green. The 2008 world champion banner on waistband is interesting. They could have just had the waistband filled with their 17 NBA Championships. Don’t know why they just went with the last one. I am not going to be mad watching Kyrie slice and dice the court in these.
7. Miami Heat
A neon Miami night. I appreciate the effort to come up with something somewhat new and unique here. Miami Vice colorway is applauded. I hope a player retros the Lebron 9 South Beach with this jersey.
8. Denver Nuggets
Very similar to a recent alternate (see right picture), the Nugget’s city edition’s add a couple features. First, lets start with the mile-high waistband. A incredibly detailed touch. The linear-composed mountain ranges on the shorts should be annoying and overdone, but for some reason I’m digging it.
9. Utah Jazz
I know what they are going for here and they aren’t far off, but everything in me needs this gradient to be purple-to-blue-to-white. Overall, the jersey is good-looking. It just doesn’t seem fitting for Salt Lake City. South Utah has red-rock terrain, but I need this to be blue gradient. Everything else can stay and for that, Utah is top 10.
10. Portland Trailblazers
The concept is sound and the tribute to former coach Dr. Jack Ramsey is noble, but the execution is a bit weak. Bring that full plaid through, Portland. If you are going to go with a underlying pattern, a better pattern to mock would be the recently removed, iconic carpet in Portland airport (PDX). Huge missed opportunity. Would have been a Top 3 worthy move.
11. Memphis Grizzlies
Memphis conducted an alternate jersey tribute to MLK and his assassination in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel. It was a great tribute, so they thought they would try again. This time around they decided to be about as boring as humanly possible. No Memphis Bridge? No Pryamid? Nothing to spice this up a bit. Sad, but still an honorable mention to the city’s history.
12. San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio really mashed the easy button here. They already had camo uniforms in the past. The only saving grace of these are the military bases located near San Antonio.
13. Milwaukee Bucks
I have no clue what this has to do with Milwaukee or Wisconsin. I feel like they should have beer or cheese involved, but I am really not sure. I don’t know anything about Milwaukee, but I don’t care because these are clean.
14. Houston Rockets
These are the Rockets Chinese New Year jerseys without sleeves, which is an improvement. However, I have no clue what China has to do with Houston in the slightest. Give me a rocket ship take off smack in the middle and lets go to the moon.
15. Washington Wizards
The District of Columbia. I like the direction of this. There is a sneaky Washington monument hidden in the D of district, but more national mall references are needed! Lets get creative, guys. White numbers on white jerseys?! Yikes.
16. Toronto Raptors
North, North. These aren’t awful. I truly am stunned they have nothing to do with the six, drake, or his woes. I so wish little baby Drake was sitting on top of the CN Tower instead of North. Oh well.
17. Charlotte Hornets
Buzz City has nothing to do with Charlotte. The purple-to-blue gradient is crisp though, so I can get behind it.
18. Detroit Pistons
This is a poor effort. Motor City, cars, and manufacturing has such great potential for a neat production graphic iconic to the automotive industry, but instead we get this bland piece.
19. Chicago Bulls
There is nothing wrong with this. There just isn’t anything great about it either. It features the Retro Chicago typeface, but is uninspired, similar to watching the bulls play basketball.
20. Orlando Magic
You have everything in the realm of magic and wizardry to work with and this is what you come up with? This is just bad. LA Galaxy need to swipe this design.
21. Los Angeles Lakers
Underlying snakeskin design: a tribute to upscale fashion or the black mamba? Either way, I’m out. Its LA. How about some underlying movie film or Hollywood styled font? This is a hand wave.
22. Cleveland Cavaliers
Nope. Nope. Nope. This has nothing do with Cleveland other than being the color of the air and sky in downtown Cleveland. Can we get a nod to the industrial aspects of Cleveland? The Goodyear ad is the closest thing this jersey gets close to representing about Cleveland.
23. Los Angeles Clippers
This was the Clippers chance to actually put a clipper (a very fast sailing ship of the middle-third of the 19th century) on their jerseys. Sad, but true. They missed this opportunity.
24. Minnesota Timberwolves
This somewhat resembles an actual wolf, but has nothing to do with Minneapolis or Minnesota. No skyline? No twin city reference? No land of 10,000 lakes reference? However, this jersey is going to pair well with any “cool grey” Jordan colorway, which I’m about.
25. Sacramento Kings
I have no clue where to begin. I don’t know what goes on in Sacramento, but I hope it is not this.
26. Phoenix Suns
Poor effort. See Utah jersey, add a cactus, and play ball.
27. Brooklyn Nets
They simply did not try. Zero effort was given in the design and development of this jersey. A subway metro map transposed in the underlay of the jersey could have been a nice touch or even a picture of Jay-Z.
28. Oklahoma City Thunder
The only good thing going for this is the ominous gray gradient, simulating clouds and thunder. After that feature, they let this thing burn. Russell Westbrook will find a way to make this look sweet though.
29. Atlanta Hawks
This is hot garbage. I cannot even begin to compare this to the city of Atlanta. I might have a better shot if it had bumper to bumper traffic across the chest. Other than that I am truly lost.
30. Dallas Mavericks
This one fits Dallas perfectly. They are both awful. This jersey is a disgrace to the NBA as a whole. Its pathetic and there are no excuses for it. Shocked it doesn’t have a Texas state flag like every other article of clothing in Texas does.
