We already knew that the NBA had many uniforms, but Thunder took things to a new level on Friday night against the Hawks, wearing different uniforms in each half of the game against Atlanta.
There was a good reason for the change, namely that the NBA many damn uniforms. The Hawks showed up on the court in Oklahoma City wearing their (check notes) Icon jerseys, while Thunder donned his (check the notes again) Declaration sweaters.
The result was an incredibly stupid confrontation of red against orange.
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Incredibly, Thunder – the home team, with the ability to wear any uniform they could muster – I tried to blame the Hawks fiasco “wearing the wrong uniform color for the game”.
Apparently, the Hawks only brought red uniforms on the trip, almost as if they thought they could get away with a concept as silly as “road uniforms”. Thunder may have been incredulous about this, but he kindly changed it at halftime to white uniforms – no, sorry, (check notes again) Pool Shirts.
Thunder beat the Hawks, 63-55, in orange, and beat Atlanta, 55-54, in white, for a 118-109 final.
The worst part of it is that it wasn’t just a weird occurrence. Uniform choices were made in advance and the situation was completely avoidable.
In 2013, the red-and-orange Hawks-Knicks clash was a far more understandable mistake. New York was using its orange alternatives only for the fourth time, and NBA rules at the time demanded the home team to achieve this, “wear light colored t-shirts and dark visitor t-shirts, unless otherwise approved”.
Orange was designated as a light-colored alternate shirt, and NBA Vice President Tim Frank said, “From now on, we will ensure that the opponent uses a more distinctive color when the Knicks use orange.”
He didn’t say anything about the Thunder wearing orange, however.
Sorry, not orange. “Sunset.” Is it a basketball league or an LL Bean catalog?