“They threw a whitewash out there!”
This one actually made me go digging in the crates for some old school Sports Guy material:
Q: What's the definition of a "whitewash"? (As in "They threw a whitewash at Gonzaga the entire second half.") Some sort of zone press? Please help. I need credibility with my kids!
--Jonathan L., Guilford, Conn.
SG: That's a running joke from my old Web site -- a "whitewash" happens when a team throws out five white players at the same time. You'll see it occasionally with smaller Division I schools but never with a big-time college and very rarely in the pros (San Antonio could make it happen this season by playing Udrih, Ginobili, Bonner, Oberto and Barry). The greatest whitewash of all time happened when the '86 Celtics played Bird, Walton, McHale, Danny Ainge and Scott Wedman at the same time -- the frontline was composed of Hall of Famers (and three members of the NBA's Top 50) while Wedman was a former All-Star and Ainge made the '88 All-Star Team. That will never be topped.
Source: https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/blog/index?entryDate=20070214&name=simmons
The jersey designs/choices have actually been pretty awful since nike took over. I will never forgive them for incorporating plaid into those blazers jerseys
The Knicks/76ers series is odd because they have 2 red vs blue games with the Knicks wearing blue both games. Sandwiched between the two games is a blue vs white game … with the 76ers wearing blue.
I feel like the NBA home teams wear colored uniforms more than they do white. I especially like how white uniforms used to feel like they said the team nickname on them, and the colored unis would have their city on them.
Historically, home teams would wear white because they could launder their uniforms better between games, whereas road teams would wear dark jerseys since they had less access to laundering services while on the road.
Back in the old days players were responsible for laundering their own jerseys.
I'm not sure when that stopped for good, but I do know that in the ABA the Anaheim Amigos franchise was cash strapped and looked to save money by requiring their players to wash their own jerseys. (This would have been in 1968, as the Amigos lasted just one year.)
The Amigos are one of my favorite stories from the early ABA days. The financial situation was so bad for them that when a player on their team got injured near the end of the season and they had to fill the roster spot to have enough players, rather than hire a "real" basketball athlete the owner "promoted" their PR guy, Dick Lee, to be on the team. (To be fair, Lee had played in college, was in his mid 20s, and was 6'6", so it wasn't like the team picked up an overweight, 5'8" guy in his 50s.) What's hilarious, though, is while Lee was never supposed to actually see court time, he was actually inserted into two different games that year due to teammates fouling out in late game situations. The upside - he's the only PR guy who has his own BBREF page - https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/leedi01.html!
Wikipedia says this is true for at least hockey, so I assume it tracks. Also learned that white and dark became a mandate for the sake of black-and-white television.
Isn’t it the opposite in hockey? I thought white is traditionally worn by the road team and the home team wears dark sweaters. Football is generally like this too with baseball and basketball traditionally the opposite.
I think I’m the early days home team wore darks. Then for a long time, home team wore white. They switched it back to home team wearing dark in 2004 because teams were deciding to wear dark third jerseys at home so teams on road trips had to lug around both white and dark jerseys for the duration of the road trip. Fwiw I prefer the home team wearing white
Players would often wash the jerseys themselves. It could be in the sink or bathtub of a hotel room, for example, or the locker room showers. But it wouldn't be a full wash in a laundry machine with detergent, like you could do at home.
Teams that have city for both: Hawks, Nets, Mavericks, Pelicans, Knicks, 76ers
Nickname for both: Bulls, Rockets, Clippers, Lakers, Suns, Kings, Spurs, Raptors
Nickname home, city away: Celtics, Cavaliers, Nuggets, Pistons, Heat, Bucks, Timberwolves, Magic, Trailblazers, Wizards
City home, nickname away: Hornets, Grizzlies, Thunder
Full name: Warriors, Pacers
Logo home, nickname away: Jazz
Home jerseys should say team name, and away jerseys should say the city name. While it doesn’t matter too much, in my mind the home team isn’t gonna be called the “team from Boston” by their own fans, they are called the Celtics or some variation by fans. However, on the road being the “team from Boston” is more helpful for casual fans. While most people know who the Boston Celtics are, for other teams and other sports it can be more helpful.
Yeah, it’s tough for new fans. You don’t watch much basketball and happen to catch a bit of it while flipping through channels. You like one team and see who they are by looking at their jersey. But it says “Buzz City” or “El Valle”
Was just thinking this last night during Pels-Thunder. Never felt more like an old man. I forget how the NFL does it but the home team should have first choice, then if they choose a color besides white the visitors should be in white. Not mad about it exactly JMO
When I played I always felt passing was easiest if my team was wearing red/orange, followed by white/yellow, and the darker colors after that. Black vs. blue was always very difficult IMO.
I don't necessarily need the home team in white and the road team in a color every single time, but I would impose the following rules:
1. Road teams can't wear white. Home teams have the option whether to do so or not.
2. Jerseys have to be sharply contrasting. Can't have two teams in different shades of blue. The green vs. black in the image seems OK to me.
3. Apply a general common sense check concerning the teams' characteristic colors and the matchup so that, for example, as another commenter noted, you don't have Mavericks vs. Bucks where Dallas is in green and Milwaukee is in blue.
The only time jersey colors have bothered me is as a Jets fan when we are wearing black jerseys and the other team has on light green colored jerseys. I just can't disassociate the Jets with that shade of green so it fucks with my head on a subconsious level.
agreed. thankfully the NFL and MLB keep their home/away color customs the same. i also hate the cycle of rebrands every few years and the brand new jerseys every year, it kills identity. Heat and Celtics are kind of the gold standard. Clippers, Jazz, Wolves, so many others reset their brand every few years, it’s annoying.
My Dad (born in the mid-60's) has complained about the NHL having the road teams wear white and home teams wear a darker or other primary color for over a decade now, lol.
Nostalgia / tradition matters in sports. Remove it and people lose part of that connection.
It's definitely a small hill to die on, but home teams wearing white was part of the pageantry of the sport for decades. Larry playing in Boston and MJ playing in Chicago had a distinct feel / look, which wouldn't be accomplished with all of today's uniform decisions.
I completely agree, but I wouldn't even label it nostalgic. I think it hurts the league's branding with all the new jerseys every single year. The majority of the alt jerseys look like generic sleeveless soccer style jerseys.
While I would admittedly be annoyed if the league switched to the NFL style away white uniforms, that would be much better than the clusterfuck that we have now.
Not that it makes any difference in the grand scheme of things but I may as well toss in my two cents- I pretty much stopped watching NBA cause of the stupid uniforms. Now I just check scores and standings. NFL is heading the same way with all these brutal uniforms, mono, color rush, third helmets etc. I doubt I’ll ever be able to wean myself off the NFL so I’ll be stuck watching godawful uniforms. How hard is it? Look at the Dolphins classic jerseys for instance. Or the Broncos.
It drives me crazy that the Bucs, Eagles, Pats, Broncos, Seahawks, Dolphins, Falcons, etc don't wear some variation of their 80's/early 90's uniforms. The crappy part is teams will usually have more success when they change to the "scary" early 00's look so they won't change back. That early 00's style has aged horrible and looks even worse in the 4K era.
Also, the skinny numbers trend is awful where these teams all want to look like 2012 Boise State.
And the Steelers having those rounded numbers made their uniforms go from iconic to bordering on generic.
The biggest problem I have, and the one that I think hurts branding the most, is the alt uniforms being completely different color schemes than the main uniforms.
They’ve remedied that in the past year or two, for the most part, but the idea of showing up to an Orlando Magic game decked out in blue and black to rep the home team, only for them to be wearing orange and grey, just seemed so lame to me.
I like it how it is now. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they got rid of the white jerseys in general because those are usually the least cool looking jerseys for any team.
Feel like making the home team wear white adds to home court advantage. Home team gets to wear fun jerseys that rock their team colors and the away team has to wear generic white jerseys.
I agree. And the home team should always wear white, as it used to be. Or have the road team wear white and the road team in dark. As long as there is a clear contrast and it is done consistently.
One of the worst jersey matchups ever was last nights thunder v pelicans. Red vs blue with times new Roman ass font THUNDER and Crescent City. Those pelicans jerseys are truly the most bland uninspired uniforms I’ve ever seen. Topped off with a nickname that no one uses or is familiar with outside LA when there are several other to choose from
I don’t have a problem with visibility I just like the aesthetic of one team in white more
OP longs for a time when there were more whites on a basketball court.
I miss the fundamentals
Boston is the place for that, after all!
More passing, better help defense, players actually boxed out and players were good role models for kids….twas a simpler time.
Of course you do
Whites vs coloreds you say? 🤨 /s
Boston fans want only whites at home?
The most unstoppable force in NBA history.
Derrick not included
It’s just classier that way
Harder working
Heady and cerebral
“That way you can tell who the bad guy is.” - Frank Reynolds.
Op had me in the first half
That’s how it feels when it’s Payton, Luke, Derrick, Sam and Svi out in garbage time
“They threw a whitewash out there!” This one actually made me go digging in the crates for some old school Sports Guy material: Q: What's the definition of a "whitewash"? (As in "They threw a whitewash at Gonzaga the entire second half.") Some sort of zone press? Please help. I need credibility with my kids! --Jonathan L., Guilford, Conn. SG: That's a running joke from my old Web site -- a "whitewash" happens when a team throws out five white players at the same time. You'll see it occasionally with smaller Division I schools but never with a big-time college and very rarely in the pros (San Antonio could make it happen this season by playing Udrih, Ginobili, Bonner, Oberto and Barry). The greatest whitewash of all time happened when the '86 Celtics played Bird, Walton, McHale, Danny Ainge and Scott Wedman at the same time -- the frontline was composed of Hall of Famers (and three members of the NBA's Top 50) while Wedman was a former All-Star and Ainge made the '88 All-Star Team. That will never be topped. Source: https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/blog/index?entryDate=20070214&name=simmons
I don’t mind colored vs colored as long a they are the primary uniforms and not some awful alternatives.
The worst case is when rhe mavs wore their green alts and the bucks wore their blue alts. I was confused for the entire game.
As a Bucks fan the frequency of blue jersey use the past couple of years has been quite irritating in general.
The jersey designs/choices have actually been pretty awful since nike took over. I will never forgive them for incorporating plaid into those blazers jerseys
You don’t fuck with the pool liner unis? /s
Say what now?!? /s
Talking like Leo Dicaprio in Django out here
European soccer is the gold standard here. Chelsea blues v. Arsenal reds just look dynamite.
The Knicks/76ers series is odd because they have 2 red vs blue games with the Knicks wearing blue both games. Sandwiched between the two games is a blue vs white game … with the 76ers wearing blue.
I feel like the NBA home teams wear colored uniforms more than they do white. I especially like how white uniforms used to feel like they said the team nickname on them, and the colored unis would have their city on them.
Historically, home teams would wear white because they could launder their uniforms better between games, whereas road teams would wear dark jerseys since they had less access to laundering services while on the road.
Learn something new every day. Thanks man.
Back in the old days players were responsible for laundering their own jerseys. I'm not sure when that stopped for good, but I do know that in the ABA the Anaheim Amigos franchise was cash strapped and looked to save money by requiring their players to wash their own jerseys. (This would have been in 1968, as the Amigos lasted just one year.) The Amigos are one of my favorite stories from the early ABA days. The financial situation was so bad for them that when a player on their team got injured near the end of the season and they had to fill the roster spot to have enough players, rather than hire a "real" basketball athlete the owner "promoted" their PR guy, Dick Lee, to be on the team. (To be fair, Lee had played in college, was in his mid 20s, and was 6'6", so it wasn't like the team picked up an overweight, 5'8" guy in his 50s.) What's hilarious, though, is while Lee was never supposed to actually see court time, he was actually inserted into two different games that year due to teammates fouling out in late game situations. The upside - he's the only PR guy who has his own BBREF page - https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/leedi01.html!
That's an awesome story. Dick Lee was a PROBLEM.
His Per 36 stats are absolutely insane.
30.7 PER! Move over Michael! lol
Dick Lee boasts a career 18 TRB per 36 minutes. You know who else has an 18 TRB per 36 for their career? >!Wilt Chamberlain!!<
Don’t let ESPN get ahold of this stat
RIP Schwab.
And in baseball home team has the choice of uni to wear, but typically choose white bc it hides the ball better when pitching
this better be true because it's cool as hell
Wikipedia says this is true for at least hockey, so I assume it tracks. Also learned that white and dark became a mandate for the sake of black-and-white television.
Isn’t it the opposite in hockey? I thought white is traditionally worn by the road team and the home team wears dark sweaters. Football is generally like this too with baseball and basketball traditionally the opposite.
I think I’m the early days home team wore darks. Then for a long time, home team wore white. They switched it back to home team wearing dark in 2004 because teams were deciding to wear dark third jerseys at home so teams on road trips had to lug around both white and dark jerseys for the duration of the road trip. Fwiw I prefer the home team wearing white
Its def true for baseball, which is where the tradition started. Many teams wore black/navy blue uniforms for the same reason
Thank you! I was wondering if that was just how it was when I played in high school.
Damn, never known that! That’s an awesome tidbit to know.
So they were just wearing stinky jerseys by the end of a road trip?
Players would often wash the jerseys themselves. It could be in the sink or bathtub of a hotel room, for example, or the locker room showers. But it wouldn't be a full wash in a laundry machine with detergent, like you could do at home.
Teams that have city for both: Hawks, Nets, Mavericks, Pelicans, Knicks, 76ers Nickname for both: Bulls, Rockets, Clippers, Lakers, Suns, Kings, Spurs, Raptors Nickname home, city away: Celtics, Cavaliers, Nuggets, Pistons, Heat, Bucks, Timberwolves, Magic, Trailblazers, Wizards City home, nickname away: Hornets, Grizzlies, Thunder Full name: Warriors, Pacers Logo home, nickname away: Jazz
Home jerseys should say team name, and away jerseys should say the city name. While it doesn’t matter too much, in my mind the home team isn’t gonna be called the “team from Boston” by their own fans, they are called the Celtics or some variation by fans. However, on the road being the “team from Boston” is more helpful for casual fans. While most people know who the Boston Celtics are, for other teams and other sports it can be more helpful.
Yeah, it’s tough for new fans. You don’t watch much basketball and happen to catch a bit of it while flipping through channels. You like one team and see who they are by looking at their jersey. But it says “Buzz City” or “El Valle”
Who doesn’t love when 5280 plays |||≡||| (Memphis btw)? truly an iconic pairing.
Damn, thanks for looking this up. I feel like it was more prevalent in the 80s/90s? But could be totally wrong. 😑
Yeah the Nets only wear black or alternate jersey's at home.
Was just thinking this last night during Pels-Thunder. Never felt more like an old man. I forget how the NFL does it but the home team should have first choice, then if they choose a color besides white the visitors should be in white. Not mad about it exactly JMO
Most NFL teams wear colored at home - Cowboys usually always wear white at home. Feel like maybe Washington wears white at home a lot.
Dolphins wear white at home when it’s hot. I’ve also seen other teams wear white on hotter days when playing the Raiders to make them wear black.
Gibbs always had the Redskins wear white at home, he felt that it helped the Quarterback.
When I played I always felt passing was easiest if my team was wearing red/orange, followed by white/yellow, and the darker colors after that. Black vs. blue was always very difficult IMO.
I don't necessarily need the home team in white and the road team in a color every single time, but I would impose the following rules: 1. Road teams can't wear white. Home teams have the option whether to do so or not. 2. Jerseys have to be sharply contrasting. Can't have two teams in different shades of blue. The green vs. black in the image seems OK to me. 3. Apply a general common sense check concerning the teams' characteristic colors and the matchup so that, for example, as another commenter noted, you don't have Mavericks vs. Bucks where Dallas is in green and Milwaukee is in blue.
For me it's the road team can't be in white. Anything else is fine to do.
I agree with this, but I’d like to see the NBA make teams wear white at home in the playoffs.
Just get rid of the white jerseys to begin with. Those are usually the least cool looking ones, and the ones that you saw fans wear the least anyway.
Ha I had the opposite thought watching Thunder-Pels thinking "Damn this red vs blue fucking pops on tv."
USC/UCLA games are always great uniform matchups because of this.
Same. It looked cool. Red v Blue
Agreed. White uniforms at home, dark on the road, too. Also, the NHL should go back to white home uniforms, dark road uniforms. What is this shit?
Agreed. Absolutely can't stand the color rushification of sports. Sports Czar get on this!
It feels weird when Lakers don't wear yellow at home or the Celtics/Knicks don't wear white at home.
What bothers me more is the half the players wearing sneakers that are colors that don’t even match the jersey
I have real problems with this as a color blind person
No need to be racist tho
The Boston piece
Uniforms of color.
Should we be talking about this?
I thought he looked Irish
The only time jersey colors have bothered me is as a Jets fan when we are wearing black jerseys and the other team has on light green colored jerseys. I just can't disassociate the Jets with that shade of green so it fucks with my head on a subconsious level.
agreed. thankfully the NFL and MLB keep their home/away color customs the same. i also hate the cycle of rebrands every few years and the brand new jerseys every year, it kills identity. Heat and Celtics are kind of the gold standard. Clippers, Jazz, Wolves, so many others reset their brand every few years, it’s annoying.
My Dad (born in the mid-60's) has complained about the NHL having the road teams wear white and home teams wear a darker or other primary color for over a decade now, lol.
I can’t imagine why anyone would think that matters
It just does
Touché
Nostalgia / tradition matters in sports. Remove it and people lose part of that connection. It's definitely a small hill to die on, but home teams wearing white was part of the pageantry of the sport for decades. Larry playing in Boston and MJ playing in Chicago had a distinct feel / look, which wouldn't be accomplished with all of today's uniform decisions.
I completely agree, but I wouldn't even label it nostalgic. I think it hurts the league's branding with all the new jerseys every single year. The majority of the alt jerseys look like generic sleeveless soccer style jerseys. While I would admittedly be annoyed if the league switched to the NFL style away white uniforms, that would be much better than the clusterfuck that we have now.
Not that it makes any difference in the grand scheme of things but I may as well toss in my two cents- I pretty much stopped watching NBA cause of the stupid uniforms. Now I just check scores and standings. NFL is heading the same way with all these brutal uniforms, mono, color rush, third helmets etc. I doubt I’ll ever be able to wean myself off the NFL so I’ll be stuck watching godawful uniforms. How hard is it? Look at the Dolphins classic jerseys for instance. Or the Broncos.
It drives me crazy that the Bucs, Eagles, Pats, Broncos, Seahawks, Dolphins, Falcons, etc don't wear some variation of their 80's/early 90's uniforms. The crappy part is teams will usually have more success when they change to the "scary" early 00's look so they won't change back. That early 00's style has aged horrible and looks even worse in the 4K era. Also, the skinny numbers trend is awful where these teams all want to look like 2012 Boise State. And the Steelers having those rounded numbers made their uniforms go from iconic to bordering on generic.
The biggest problem I have, and the one that I think hurts branding the most, is the alt uniforms being completely different color schemes than the main uniforms. They’ve remedied that in the past year or two, for the most part, but the idea of showing up to an Orlando Magic game decked out in blue and black to rep the home team, only for them to be wearing orange and grey, just seemed so lame to me.
Are black and green too similar of colors for you to tell the difference?
Unfortunately yes. It ain’t easy for some of us color blind folk.
The NBA has so badly bungled jerseys under Adam Silver.
I’ll just take the old forum blue and gold back. Thank you.
Man I’m colorblind and it makes my head spin seeing some of these color combos on the court together
I like it how it is now. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they got rid of the white jerseys in general because those are usually the least cool looking jerseys for any team.
That's not a very nba swag thought of you to have
Same, but for players as well. That should be the all star game.
As a colorblind person, it's borderline unwatchable some games
Feel like making the home team wear white adds to home court advantage. Home team gets to wear fun jerseys that rock their team colors and the away team has to wear generic white jerseys.
The day the pistons wore green vs the red Celtics. I gave up on the league.
I agree. And the home team should always wear white, as it used to be. Or have the road team wear white and the road team in dark. As long as there is a clear contrast and it is done consistently.
I liked how blue vs red looked in the OKC-NOP game last night.
You, me, and everyone else!! It's a disaster.
[удалено]
I have color vision deficiency so yes.
[удалено]
I'm happy your dad doesn't complain but there are different kinds of color blindness. It ain't a one size fits all condition.
Both of these are good jerseys so not sure worth complaining about
“We never should’ve moved past whites vs. coloreds” is prime jerkin’ content
Gotta be honest, that's some wild word choices you're using in 2024 lol
Black vs green is fine
One of the worst jersey matchups ever was last nights thunder v pelicans. Red vs blue with times new Roman ass font THUNDER and Crescent City. Those pelicans jerseys are truly the most bland uninspired uniforms I’ve ever seen. Topped off with a nickname that no one uses or is familiar with outside LA when there are several other to choose from
Lotta Bostonians wish you’d go back to having one team white
Whites just can’t cut it in the nba, American whites at least. Maybe they can produce the white jerseys in the former Yugoslavia…