Remember the Big Color uniforms that the teams wore on Christmas Day last season? Remember how you could barely read the numbers because of the dubious color-on-color scheme? Remember how it was all just a gimmick to sell a different uniform and they were kind of ugly as hell?
Well are you ever going to miss those uniforms when you see the 2013 Christmas unis!
You've probably already seen them, but I really don't think anything will prepare us for how it's going to look when they're out there on the floor, ten of these things at a time. I'm going to refer to them as the pajaniforms, because really, how else can you describe solid color, matching shorts and T-shirts, with just a big logo on the front? (That's what they're calling it FYI, Big Logo, as opposed to Big Color.) For the early games, it will make sense. When the Bulls play the Nets at 9 AM PT, it will be like "Sure, they just rolled out of bed, opened their presents, decided to play some basketball. It's cool that they're still in their PJ's." But the Clippers play the Warriors at 7:30 (they won't be finished until well after midnight on the east coast): they're just going to look lazy and stupid in their pajamas. Like, come one guys, get a job!
There are 10 teams playing, but the NBA has released some unis for other teams as well for some reason. Adidas has been pushing the sleeved jerseys since last season of course, and the Clippers have their powder blues already... but as much as those look weird, at least the word Los Angeles on the front makes them feel like a uniform. The logo only thing -- while I must give them credit for being bold -- really exacerbates the feeling that this is just a T-shirt, nothing more. They don't even have numbers on the front! Refs are literally going to be asking players to turn around so they are sure to get the calls right! I haven't seen that in a while.
You can go to NBA.com to see a gallery of all the Christmas teams. Here's the Clippers design:
Clippers Christmas Day Jersey pic.twitter.com/2oK3QnzAoy
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) November 14, 2013
Actually, the Clippers are lucky that their logo actually has the team name in it. The ones with wordless logos, like the Bulls and the Heat look even weirder to me.
I guess I'm acting like a bit of a purist on this, but it already bugs me when teams don't wear white for their home games. The trend towards non-white, especially when it seems like so many of them are Lakers inspired like the yellow home alternates in Denver and Indiana, really bugs me. And it can lead to on court color mashups like yellow and orange -- which no one wants to see and is never good. I mean, I'm not a xanthophobe or anything, but yellow? Really?
Christmas Day we're going to get a Thunder-Knicks game that will treat us to orange and blue (go Broncos!) not to mention the blue and gold (go Bruins!) of the Clippers vs. the Warriors. Ugh. Someone REALLY needs to be in white, just from a design perspective. You can't be subjecting the audience to random combinations on the color wheel; someone out there is going to have a stroke. Fortunately, the other three games feature one team in a non-color -- Lakers in white, Spurs in gray, Nets in black. I guess I should be glad that we dodged the Knicks-Heat bullet of orange and red. I'm getting a little queasy just thinking of the possibility.
I will say that it's interesting and more than a little unfamiliar to have the Clippers in the forefront of NBA marketing. This is a team that has barely had an alternate jersey in their history -- and this season they'll play in five (so far! who knows what else Adidas has up their ...ahem... sleeve.) Between all these and the All Star game unis, you could buy six different Chris Paul jerseys (spending close to $1000) this season alone. If you can't afford to buy them all, make sure to get the pajuniform at least, so you'll have something to sleep in.
Having said all that, the jingle bells commercial is pretty damn cool, I have to admit. I mean, no way Derrick Rose can shoot with the other four, but still, it's pretty cool.