The Whiteboard: Having a new NBA City uniform every year is too much

Too much of a good thing is bad, as evidenced by the new NBA City uniforms coming out every year.

While it’s not as important as on-court play or teambuilding, NBA teams aesthetics matter as well. That’s why the league’s switch to Nike from Adidas for their uniform needs was such a big deal, and Nike brought a sweeping array of changes to the old system.

Now instead of the standard homes and away jerseys plus an extra random option or two, each team has an Association, Icon, Statement, and City option. The first three are fine and cool, especially now that teams don’t have to wear white at home if they don’t want to.

Having the option for a fourth look is also a good idea, except the execution might be a little too radical. According to this article, and mentioned briefly in other places across the internet, the plan is for there to be a new City uniform every year during this Nike contract (eight in total).

That’s asking a lot from the various franchises. Take the Milwaukee Bucks for example. Milwaukee’s first City edition uniform was a solid enough look that really embraced the cream part of the Bucks’ new color scheme. The blue pops nicely, and the whole look is strong.

This time around, the Bucks did their usual thing of late and took the whole deal to the next level, making the jerseys reflect their classic Mecca court. The lines, angles and colors involved here are doing a lot, and it feels like there must have been an easier way to get this job done. There’s always a chance the shorts redeem the ensemble, but I’m not holding my breath.

If the plan is really to have a new jersey every single year, imagine what some teams could end up with in, like, year seven! Some unique designs will doubtlessly emerge, and some good ones will too, but a lot of teams are going to end up in some gnarly outfits.

Even worse, some of these fits are going to be terribly boring. The Phoenix Suns’ new City edition is in the same post with the Bucks option, and it’s a snorefest. Every time a team punts like that it’s even worse than some crazy Mecca jersey or whatever else the fun teams come up with.

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