Welcome in for another installment of the NBA uniform matchup ranking. I wish I could say February is opening with a bang, but it just isn’t. There are only four games to rank today, and they all range from mid to good. No outright terrible games, but also nothing I would call must see. The benefit of fewer games is that I can give more insight into the matchups, but I’d love to do that with better looking games. Anyways, without further ado, here is the ranking for today’s NBA matchups. As always, all image credits go to Lockervision.
4-Lakers at Celtics
Before I saw what this matchup was, I figured it would be in the top spot. Both the Celtics in green vs the Lakers in Yellow and the Celtics in white vs the Lakers in purple are iconic matchups that harken back to the peak of this rivalry. Seeing the Celtics in white gave me hope that we would get a classic matchup, but that hope was dashed when I saw what the Lakers had done. Why? In the words of Orson Krennic from Rogue One, “we were on the verge of greatness. We were this close.” As it stands, it’s not even a bad matchup, but it is at the bottom of today’s ranking.
3-Cavaliers at Grizzlies
You might think this game would be right up my alley. Traditional home vs away uniforms is usually a big plus from me. But this game just screams my biggest issue with modern uniforms: they are too simple. I feel like both of these uniforms, but especially Memphis’, are something I could come up with when I am in a hurry on NBA 2K. They feel like rough drafts of better uniforms almost. The reason I singled out Memphis is that I actually like these Cavs uniforms, even if just for the color scheme. Memphis is simple and in a boring color scheme. Together, they don’t make a bad matchup, but it’s not good either.
2-76ers at Jazz
We move into the tier of matchups I would call good. That feels weird to say when talking about the Jazz in 2024, but this white jersey is far less offensive than the Icon jersey they have seemingly retired. It’s still not good, but that’s why Philly is here. With one of my favorite current NBA uniforms, Philly is able to carry almost anyone to a spot near the top of the ranking. Even if that team seemingly put zero effort into their uniform design. Philadelphia can only carry Utah so far, but I’d say number two is a huge accomplishment for Utah this season.
1-Pacers at Knicks
Sometimes all it takes to have the top spot is to simply not mess it up. In the earlier matchups, I don’t like the Lakers’ uniform, I don’t like the Grizzlies’ uniform, and I don’t like the Jazz’ uniform. So, instead of one of these teams wearing a dud of a uniform, they both decided to wear really good ones. That really is all you need sometimes. There’s nothing outstanding here, but the Pacers always look really good in yellow, and the Knicks set is really hard to mess up. Out of the two, I’d say Indiana has the better uniform (I love the mixture of eras). This game could have been really close to great tier if New York had worn their Icon blues or if this was a traditional home vs away matchup, but it ranks at number one regardless.
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