JOTW: Kicking It Old School - Part 3
November 11,
2008 | Kevin
Zdancewicz
Throwback jerseys have
become a huge hit in sports
in recent
years, both on the court and in the streets where old school gear has
become a
major fashion trend. There are plentiful examples of retro uniforms
from all of
the major sports leagues and in the third installment of JOTW’s
Throwback
Series we take a look at basketball.
It would be irresponsible for me not to use
the
Golden State
Warriors’ “The City” throwback as the feature photo for this column.
The
franchise rocked the look when they were the San Francisco Warriors and
it depicts
the Golden Gate Bridge on the front with the player number inside the
circular
logo. It only got better on the back of the jersey, where the player
number was
placed inside
an cable car and the player name was placed below
the logo.
Add in the old San
Francisco logo on the shorts and the “Warriors” wordmark down the
side of
the shorts and you’ve got a really impressive throwback effort.
The NBA first started opening up to
throwbacks in
the
1996-97 season when the league was celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The
Warriors are one the first teams that comes to mind to really embrace
throwbacks.
In addition to the featured “The City” uniforms, the Warriors have
rocked some
really nice early
Golden State throwbacks complete with Warriors down the side
of the
shorts again and a blue
version of “The City” jerseys. The Lakers also have been big
throwback
proponents with blue,
script Los Angeles jerseys (with Lakers down the shorts) and a sky-blue,
star-spangled look. The Chicago Bulls paid tribute to the Chicago
Stags
with throwbacks
to the Stags’ late-1940s mismatched jersey and shorts look and the
Miami Heat based
some flashy,
garish throwback uniforms
on the Miami Floridians.
Overall, I think throwbacks translate really
well
to
basketball. Pro basketball styles in the past were for the most part
rather
plain, which is understandable since there was literally a lot less
material to
work with than in other sports. At the same time, every once in awhile
a more
eccentric or bizarre uniform style (like the Stags’ mismatched jersey
and
shorts or the Warriors’ “The City” jersey) would pop up. In either
case, a
throwback will end up looking pretty good, either highlighting the
progression
from simpler
uniforms past to current designs or showcasing a rare or unusual
jersey
from back in the day. Though that’s not to say that sometimes they can
go terribly,
terribly
wrong.
Photo Courtesy of Jamd.com
Jersey of the Week Archive
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