
Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five changes that NBA teams have made to their branding that I’ve found quite baffling.
Look, I’ll put my hand up and admit to being a creature of habit that sometimes needs to be pushed – or indeed, dragged kicking and screaming – through the proverbial door of change. With that being said, I do still believe that change for change’s sake opens the door to bad ideas. To quote a classic pearl of colloquial wisdom, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. That certainly applies to a number of branding changes that NBA teams have made over the years. As a Chicago Bulls fan, I’m rather lucky that they’ve kept their iconic look decades beyond the championship years!
Although I’m not as personally affected by changes that other NBA teams make to their branding, I still have my likes and dislikes when it comes to what I see when they’re on the court. It’s understandable that teams want to freshen up their look, and admittedly, there have been many times when I’ve really liked the new designs that a franchise has introduced. Other times however, an NBA team will make changes to their branding that are simply baffling, either because it feels like such a step down, or the team didn’t seem that committed to the design because they change it again soon afterwards. With that being said, here are five baffling NBA team branding changes!
1. Sacramento Kings’ New Uniforms for 2003
One thing I’ll say about the Sacramento Kings’ branding and jerseys, going right back to their beginnings as the Rochester Royals, is that they’ve stuck with variations on some consistent themes. To that point, looking back at all of their jerseys, I can’t say they’ve ever really had any bad primary uniforms. They’ve done an admirable job of updating the designs to suit contemporary trends and styles, and the re-brand ahead of the 2003 season arguably reflects that as much as any other change they’ve made. I have always found it to be somewhat baffling, though. Granted, it’s personal taste and nostalgia at the end of the day, but I did like their jerseys from 1994 to 2002 better.
It doesn’t help that they were coming off their best season in Sacramento, albeit one that featured a loss in the Western Conference Finals that has gone down as perhaps the most controversial Playoff series in NBA history. As such, the old jersey came to represent their rise and a promising future, while the new one adopted for 2003 is tied to an era of injury woes and disappointing decline. Obviously the change was in the pipeline well in advance, but if they could’ve, I believe they should’ve held off on the re-brand a little bit longer. And, if that wasn’t allowed, it should’ve been! Sometimes, the NBA should save teams from ill-advised branding changes. Speaking of which…
2. Utah Jazz’s Complete Branding Downgrade for 2023
I’m just going to steal from James Rolfe here, and quote the Angry Video Game Nerd: what were they thinking?!? The Utah Jazz have had some classic designs throughout their history, from the modest purple, white, and green uniforms with a musical motif, to the mountaintop jerseys that I personally like best. Their major and minor re-brands in the mid 2000s and in the early to mid 2010s were fine, playing around with some of their classic colour schemes and previous design concepts. In 2022 though, they lost the plot. From the minimalist plain black logo to the atrociously boring black, white, and highlighter yellow jerseys, it’s a bafflingly terrible change to the Jazz’s branding.
Honestly, not only is it the worst re-brand in the history of the franchise, but it’s a contender for the worst design change the NBA has ever seen! It speaks volumes that the team seemingly wore their City and Classic edition uniforms as often as possible, and planned another change after only a couple of seasons. Again, I can understand wanting to keep things fresh and trying new ideas, but seriously, nobody vetoed those designs before it was too late? It’s hardly unusual to weather some losing seasons in order to rebuild the roster for the future, but this may be the first time that a team has tanked their efforts to re-brand! I’m truly baffled that those designs were approved.
3. Philadelphia 76ers’ Short-Lived Jerseys Circa 2007
Even ignoring special event and commemorative uniforms for league anniversaries and the like, the Philadelphia 76ers have made a habit of making minor and major changes to their jerseys every few years or so. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it’s allowed for some subtle improvements here and there, and they’ve had some excellent jerseys. However, the new uniforms that they introduced in 2007 are definitely among the most baffling branding changes that NBA teams have made. It’s not that they were horrible designs, but despite being a notable change from the previous jersey, those uniforms were extremely short-lived, only being worn for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
Furthermore, not only did the 76ers not change their primary logo at the same time, but they had a complete overhaul to their branding lined up for 2010; one heralding a return to their classic colour scheme and aesthetic. As such, the new uniforms ended up marking a transitional era following the departure of Allen Iverson in 2006, though ironically AI did then return in 2009 and sport the new retro-inspired jerseys. Unlike the branding changes that other NBA teams have made over the years, it isn’t baffling because it’s bad, but rather because it just seems so unnecessary when an even bigger overhaul was coming. Then again, I suppose the new merch did make them money!
4. Los Angeles Clippers’ New Branding for 2016
While the Los Angeles Clippers have frequently been the butt of jokes, and are still in the Lakers’ shadow, their branding has been pretty solid, if unspectacular for the most part. I’m not a fan of their current logo, but their new uniforms are a decent mash-up of some of their better jerseys. That notably does not include the branding that they adopted ahead of the 2016 season, which instantly spawned a ton of memes. People were quick to point out that the red and blue “LAC” initials in their new logo bore a resemblance to Clippy, the much-loathed and lampooned mascot of Microsoft Word. The fact that the team was now owned by Steve Ballmer made the gag even funnier.
Basketball gamers also recognised something familiar about the new primary logo bearing the Clippers wordmark. It’s incredibly similar to the old NBA Live logo, in particular the version used on the cover of NBA Live 06. Now, I love NBA Live 06 PC and its cover art, and this very article was originally typed up in Microsoft Word (though without any assistance from Clippy). Still, when your new aesthetic invites memetic comparisons to old video game logos and unpopular digital mascots…yeah, it’s safe to say it hasn’t been a very successful branding change! Other NBA teams have made worse branding changes, but the memes immediately doomed these logos.
5. Phoenix Suns’ Branding Beginning in 2013
Let’s wrap up this list with one of the most interesting examples of NBA teams making a baffling change to their branding, and potentially my most controversial opinion on this topic. Like the Kings, the Phoenix Suns haven’t really had any truly terrible uniforms, instead devising variations on previous designs and essentially paying homage to them at the same time. To that end, their current jerseys that they’ve worn since 2023 are an amalgamation of some of their most popular looks. In my opinion though, all of their best jerseys – and their best logos and court designs for that matter – preceded the branding change that went into effect in the early 2010s.
Interestingly, the new court design came first in the 2013 season, providing a teaser of the new wordmark and prominence of black in the forthcoming colour scheme, while still incorporating their current primarily purple logo. The new black version of their logo and minimalist take on the “starburst” jerseys debuted the following season, and established a basic template for subsequent designs. As I said, they’re not terrible, and I appreciate the consistency over the past decade or so. To me though, Phoenix hasn’t been able to match or best their iconic branding from the 90s and 2000s with any of their recent design changes, but then again, I feel that way about several NBA teams!
What’s your take on these designs? What are some of the most baffling branding changes that you’ve seen NBA teams make? Have your say in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.
As a life long Rockets, I never understood the uniform change after they won the 95 title. Money was the reason of course to capitalize on success. I did not hate uniforms but, it seemed to make things different.
That’s a good example! I actually am a fan of that Rockets branding – a lot of mid to late 90s nostalgia there, though Pippen sure looked weird in them! – but a big branding change after your second-consecutive title does feel like a jinx. It’s more the thing a team does when they’re looking to enter a new era and shake off a long slum, not when they’re on top.