These are trying times for all Americans. One of the most divisive elections in our country’s history may be happening in a matter of weeks, but the true national nightmare is the state of NBA jerseys.
Basketball jerseys used to be cool as hell. You had great color schemes and huge team names emblazoned across the chest in aesthetically interesting fonts. Eventually, you got a bunch of sick logos like a basketball that’s the sun, a menacing hawk clutching a basketball, and a velociraptor dribbling a basketball.
Unfortunately, people have squeezed all art and whimsy out of the jersey designs, and basic corporatization is taking over. Colors are less in your face, and team names are basic and to the point. No logos allowed. Just look at the state of this year’s Nike City Edition jerseys, and you’ll see a league that has sacrificed creativity for new jerseys every year. I don’t even want to share the link to this year’s leaked crop of Fanatics looking like garbage coming out of Beaverton, but I have to in hopes this slop sparks a revolution. There are some outliers — thank you, Toronto, for giving us the Vince Carter Raptor logo — but most of these look like some kid’s team practice jerseys.
The Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls took millennial gray from every home built after 2017 and put it on a basketball jersey. Miami is still trying to sell Heat Culture to the unsuspecting masses. And Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers fans might be willing to give back a few banners never to see these things again.
We used to be a society where you could learn everything there is to know about a person by the NBA jersey they were wearing and the context in which they were wearing it. Some dude wearing a Steve Francis throwback Houston Rockets jersey 12 beers deep at Lollapalooza? Hell yeah, brother!
You walk by anyone wearing any ’90s jersey, and you know they’re at least not a casual. And if you come across someone who bought an Andrew Wiggins–sleeved jersey, you know to leave the area immediately because that person is dangerous. Now whenever you see someone wearing a current jersey from their favorite team, all you can glean is that this poor sap’s favorite squad forced him to buy that piece of s— to show their support for their team.
The Minnesota Timberwolves aren’t exempt from this lack of creativity. Their leaked 2024-25 jerseys look an awful lot like a variation of last year’s lake-themed City Edition jerseys. Allegedly, this year’s jerseys are “ice” themed, which is code for we’re getting away with selling you a mostly white jersey that’s the inverse of what they did last year. It’s a sign that the teams and creatives tasked with coming up with different ideas every year are running out of ideas.
Somewhere in the last decade, we lost our way, and the disease of more forced teams to churn out new bulls— every year. Nike introduced the City Edition jerseys for the 2017-18 season, and the Ice jerseys will be Minnesota’s seventh City jersey. The special jerseys have been hit and miss since their inception.
The first was the epitome of millennial gray. The great purple Prince jerseys were followed by the baby blue MSP jerseys, the black and green North Star edition, and the blue throwback-looking jerseys from 2021-22 that should be Minnesota’s new base jerseys. Then we got the colorful mural-inspired jerseys. Finally, last year’s lake theme threads. If you ask any Wolves fan, that’s probably a 50-50 breakdown between I would buy one of those to Never in a million years.
It’s not just the city jerseys that are getting lamer every year. Most teams’ normal, everyday jerseys are a far cry from their peak in the 90s. Minnesota’s blue Icon jerseys are okay, but the whites make them look like sailors. Most other teams have cut the flair and pizzazz and go as basic as humanly possible.
The NBA and the Timberwolves need to get back to their base. In Minnesota, that’s some guy in a Sprewell jersey hitting on my now-wife at the Pour House because she was wearing my Kevin Garnett throwback blue and green jersey. Those were the good old days. All teams should return to three jersey rotations: a home, away, and some special third jersey that doesn’t change every season, especially if the fans like them.
For the Wolves, this is easy. Use the classics from last season as the base home jersey. Take the 2021-22 blue City Edition jerseys as the away, and give the fans some options for a special third jersey that will them be in rotation for at least three seasons. I know it’s all about money. We’d rather have 5,000 cheap jersey combinations and see-through baseball pants than actual, meaningful designs that fans will gladly pay $150 for. But basketball jerseys used to mean something! They used to tell us if someone on the street was definitely a fan of Pearl Jam, they visited Los Angeles once, or the person in the Mike Bibby Vancouver Grizzlies jersey is your soulmate.
The NBA took the soul out of their jerseys years ago, making the game we all love a little duller when we’re watching grown men with screen-printed dri-fit shirts on the hardwood.
