J-Speaks: New Dudes for NBA Teams Celebrating Anniversaries in 2018-19

For the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers, Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic, the 2017-18 season was a tough one as they missed out on making the postseason. They hope to be amongst the postseason this spring, while the Timberwolves and Jazz hope to make it back in consecutive seasons in the loaded Western Conference as they will be dawning new on-court threads as they honor their past in 2018-19. 

Each of these eight squads in one degree or another unveiled new-look Classic Edition uniforms, while also unveiling their logos and court designs for the 2018-19 NBA campaign. 

For the Lakers, who hope to end their longest playoff drought in franchise history at five with the addition of four-time Kia MVP LeBron James, they will do so it in uniforms that pay homage to the franchise’s “Showtime” era from the 1980s—led by Hall of Fame lead guard and now President of Basketball Operations Earvin “Magic” Johnson, with fellow Hall of Famers James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Byron Scott, Michael Cooper and Mychal Thompson and head coach Pat Riley, now President of the Miami Heat made eight appearance in the NBA Finals and won five Larry O’Brien trophies. 

The uniforms will feature updated numbers, which will have a vertical drop shadow, along with a neckline that will be rounded with the colors of purple, white and gold for their icon uniforms. 

Their Association uniforms will be in white with the team’s nickname name and jersey numbers in purple and gold with the Nike insignia and team’s sponsor “Wish” being in purple on the left and right chest plate respectably and the neckline being in white, purple, and gold. 

The team’s purple Statement jerseys will feature the addition of a black side panel, with the team’s nickname and the player’s jersey number in gold and the Nike insignia and “Wish” symbol in white.  

The Grizzlies’ newly re-designed jerseys and floor design at the FedEX Forum was inspired from the city’s famous Beale Street. 

The team’s Icon uniforms will be Beale Street midnight blue with a Beale Street blue v-shaped neckline. Two Beale Street blue side panels lines with a Beale Street midnight blue line in the middle gold line on the side. The team’s nickname and the player’s jersey number in Beale Street blue, with the Nike insignia in white and the team’s sponsor FedEx in white and orange on the left and right side of the jersey chest plate respectably.

The Grizzlies’ Association uniforms will be in white, with the city’s name in Beale Street Blue with a coating of midnight blue on the outside. The player’s jersey number in midnight blue with inside coating of Beale Street blue. The V-Neck coloring in midnight blue and the side panels also in midnight blue, with a line of Beale Street blue on the outside. The Nike insignia will be in midnight blue, with the team’s sponsor in purple and orange on the left and right chest plate. 

The Statement Edition uniforms will be in Beale Street blue with the nickname and jersey number being a midnight blue with inside being Beale Street blue. The V-Neck will be a combination of Beale Street and midnight blue with gold on the outside. The Nike insignia in midnight blue and the team sponsor being in clear white for “Fed” and the “Ex” being in chalk line white on the left and right chest plate.   

In a statement from Grizzlies.com, “The evolved wordmark and numbering system represents a more progressive and modernized take on its predecessor, while maintain and deepening the connection to the Beale Street neon-inspired inline.”

In celebration of their 50^th season in “The Association,” the Nuggets will pay homage to their past while looking ahead to their future as they try for their first appearance in the postseason in a handful of years. 

The team’s switched from their team colors from baby blue and sunshine yellow that marked the team since 2003-04 to a midnight blue, sunshine yellow, Flatiron red and skyline blue color scheme. That scheme beside representing their new logo will represent their new uniforms, which were unveiled on June 6, while also revealing that their home court at Pepsi Center which Nuggets’ president Josh Kroenke describe the unveiling is “Evolve.”

He added, “And I think that’s what we’re doing as a franchise. I think we’re evolving into something new and something exciting. I think our younger players in particular, this is something they can build and call their own, this type of identity.” 

The Nuggets said goodbye to their baby blue and sunshine yellow color scheme that they have dawned since the 2003-04 campaigned and replaced it with the scheme of midnight blue, sunshine yellow and Flatirons red, and skyline blue. 

The Icon uniforms will be in midnight blue, with the city name in sunshine yellow, with a Flatiron red coating. The players jersey number will be in white with a Flatiron red coating. The Nike insignia and the company sponsor Western Union will be in sunshine yellow. The shorts will be in midnight blue with the waistband in white and midnight blue, with the team symbol of two axe picks and a basketball in a combination of midnight blue and white. 

The Association jerseys for the Nuggets will be in white with the team’s nickname in burgundy with a sunshine yellow outside coating. The player’s jersey number will be in midnight blue with a sunshine yellow outside trim. The Nike insignia will be burgundy and the Western Union insignia in midnight blue on the left and right chest plate. 

The Nuggets’ Statement uniforms for 2018-19 in honoring the “Mile High City” with the city of Colorado’s nickname being right in the center of the jersey. The player’s number in sunshine yellow. The collar being in circular burgundy. The Nike insignia in white and the team’s sponsor in sunshine yellow on the left and right of the chest plate of the jersey. 

In honor of their 30^th season, the Orlando Magic will be bringing back the pinstriped light blue jerseys that turned heads during their heyday back in the middle of the 1990s for select games during this season. 

The team will celebrate their 30^th season with a new logo that pays homage to co-founders Pat Williams and Jimmy Hewitt who convinced the NBA expansion committee to award Orlando, FL an expansion franchise. That dream became a reality on Apr. 22, 1987. 

Since Orlando, FL was granted their expansion franchise on Apr. 22, 1987, the Magic have won five division title; reached the playoffs 14 times, making three Eastern Conference Finals appearances, two appearances in The Finals (1995, 2009) and watched the likes of O’Neal, Hardaway, Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady, and Howard leave their mark for the “Blue and White.” 

Over the years, numerous print and electronic news articles and blogs tabbed the Magic’s alternate road uniforms that they dawned from 1994-98 as some of the most fashionable in sports’ history.

During that two-year period when they were led by Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway; sharp shooters Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott and power forward Horace Grant. 

Having Magic legends such as the previously mentioned O’Neal, Hardaway, Anderson, Grant, Scott, and Darrell Armstrong wearing them played a role as well. 

The Magic in the first two seasons of where they dawned those alternate road threads authored the third highest and best mark for wins in a single regular season with 57 and 60 games respectably in the 1994-95 and 1995-96 regular season. They reached The Finals in 1995, where the Houston Rockets, led by Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler swept them 4-0. 

One year later, they reached the Eastern Conference Finals where they were also given the broom by the Chicago Bulls and the Hall of Fame quartet Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman and head coach Phil Jackson 4-0.  

“The Orlando Magic are thrilled to celebrate 30 years of Pure Magic with all our fans and the great City of Orlando,” CEO Alex Martins said on Aug. 8. 

“The team’s history and identity is deeply rooted in this city and the Central Florida region. We want to thank all our fans for all of their support and making all these great Magic memories and moments possible. We look to sharing this celebration with them.” 

The Classic Edition jerseys has a few modern changes like the “Orlando” script on the front features a silver star in place of the “a.” Unlike 24 years ago, these classic jerseys will feature the Nike and Disney logos on the right and left sides of the chest plate respectably, and the classic “Magic” logo with the “a” being replaced as well with a silver star will be splashed in the middle of the waistband of the shorts, that will also feature that eye catching same silver star on each side of the player’s shorts. 

Like the Magic, the Timberwolves entered the NBA on Apr. 22, 1987 but did not officially begin playing until the 1989-90 season. 

To celebrate their 30^th season as a franchise, the teams that calls the “Twin Cities” home will be bringing back an updated version of the black road uniforms from their glory days when they were a perennial playoff participant from the late 1990s to the early-to-mid 2000s. 

The memories of future Hall of Famer, and current NBA on TNT analyst via “Area 21” Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury, Latrell Sprewell, Madison Square Garden network studio analyst for the New York Knicks Wally Szczerbiak, Sam Cassell, NBATV studio analyst Sam Mitchell, and others will sure return for that team’s fans of the squads longest-tenured uniform that was dawned from 1996-2008. 

The T’Wolves made the postseason eight straight seasons, winning 50-plus games on four occasions, including a franchise record 58 in 2003-04. They made their only appearance in the Western Conference Finals that year where they lost to the Lakers in six games. It also represented their last postseason appearance prior to last spring where they ended the longest active playoff drought at 13.  

The primary color of those uniforms were black, with the team’s nickname and player’s jersey number proudly across the chest in white, with a blue and gray coating on the outside. The uniform was also complimented with the symbol to the environment of Minnesota green trees on the waistband of the shorts; the outline of the left and right sleeves, the neckline of the jersey.  

The updated version will this time around feature the Nike symbol on both the left chest plate of the jersey and on the left side of the shorts, and the symbol of the team’s sponsor of Fitbit on the right chest plate of the jersey. The left side of the shorts will have the face of the team’s old logo the Timberwolf with the front of the right side having in capital letters combined with a T and M with a outside covering of gray. 

To pay homage to their fifth decade in the “ATL,” the Atlanta, who moved from St. Louis, MO after the 1968-69 season Hawks will be wearing a new Hardwood Classics uniform, a powdered blue and red-trimmed ones that was famously worn by Lou Hudson for only one season in 1968. 

The Hawks will also feature two new home-court floor designs that were a part of the $192.5 million renovation of the newly named State Farm Arena. 

The formerly named Georgia Dome will feature the first continuous 360-degreee video screen in the league A re-designed concourse that will have up-to-date sightlines, a barbershop overlooking the court, a courtside bar and much more.

The State Farm Arena will feature an NBA first, Fan-Friendly Concessions Pricing, where through the use of technology and new design features fans attending Hawks games, concerts and other shows will be able to enjoy fresh food like hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, bottled water, pizza for at very low prices of $1.00 to $5.00. 

Also, new concessions menu will feature menu items that range from exclusive creations from Executive Chief Joe Schafer and other local partners to fan favorites. 

These new amenities and attractions will be a welcome sight for Hawks fans as their front office of general manager Travis Schlenk and principal owner Antony Ressler rebuild the product on the hardwood that had their streak of 10 straight playoff appearances snapped a season ago.

“At the core of the transformation of Philips Arena has always been creating a state-of-the-art venue that allows us to listen and serve our fans with an amazing experienced tailored to their lifestyle and means,” Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club and Philips CEO Steve Koonin said back in July or bringing the kind of experience Atlanta Braves fans have at their ball park Mercedes-Benz Stadium. 

“The undeniable success of Fan First pricing at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the incredible experience of The Masters set terrific precedents and built demand from our fan to add value menu pricing that compliments the wide assortment of premium food options introduced by our Executive Chef Joe Schafer. We are thrilled to respond to our fans in this way and will continue listening to the fans to enhance their experience.” 

The Jazz have called Salt Lake City, UT home since the 1979-80 season after spending the previous five seasons in New Orleans, LA. Since their move, the Jazz have become one of the most stable franchise in the league reaching the playoffs 27 times in their first 40 seasons, including 20 straight from 1983-2003. 

To celebrate these great 40 decades of hitting the right tune from the mid-1980s and early 1990s, the team will be sporting their purple uniforms from the squads led by the Hall of Fame duo of John Stockton/Karl Malone and their Hall of Fame head coach Jerry Sloan squads that were amongst the best in the Western Conference, winning 50-plus games in the regular season seven times in an eight-year stretch from 1989-96. 

Those Classic Edition road uniforms that featured the original team logo in gold and white on the front chest of the jersey and the original J-Note logo placed on the front left leg of the shorts. 

What will be different about these throwback uniforms is they will have the Nike insignia on the left chest plate of the jersey and the left upper part of the shorts and the team’s sponsor 5 For the Fight on the right chest plate of the jersey.

“These classic jerseys are an instant visual connection to our rich and storied past in the state of Utah,” Jazz senior vice president of marketing Bart Sharp said in a statement earlier this month. “Our 40^th season celebration is a natural time to reflect on the past and all we have shared together with the fans of Utah, but it’s also an opportunity to look ahead to what is undoubtedly an exciting time for this franchise and the entire state.” 

A future that will led by last season’s Kia Rookie of the Year runner-up and future star Donovan Mitchell; reigning Kia Defensive Player of the Year in center Rudy Gobert; No. 1 draft choice Grayson Allen and ever improving lead guard in Ricky Rubio. 

It was three decades ago that the city of Charlotte, NC was introduced to NBA basketball. In dedication to their 30^th season, the Hornets will celebrate by bringing back a new white edition to their classic uniforms for eight home games this season. 

Like the teal versions they wore a few times during the 2017-18 season, this new uniform throws back to the original style dawned by the Hornets from 1988-97. 

The Hornets will sport these throw backs uniforms during their series of “Classic Nights” at Spectrum Center during the 2018-19 season where the team will honor past franchise greats like Glen Rice, Larry Johnson, and Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues some of the greats to that dawned the “White and Teal,” while also giving away bobbleheads and T-Shirts during those nights. The team will also celebrate longtime play-by-play man Steve Martin.

Another part of the celebration will be the busting out of their classic court for those “Classic Night” games during the 2018-19 season. The design of the court used at the former Charlotte Coliseum from 1995-97, featuring the classic Hornets logo, basketballs at the foul line and a teal pattern within the paint. 

“There’s going to be a lot of nostalgia,” Hornets president, vice chairman, alternate governor and minority owner Fred Whitfield said on Wednesday night. “Looking back on the last 30 years of the Hornets organization. All the great things that the prior organization did in our community both on the court and out in the community.” 

“It’s just going to be fun to bring a lot of the former players back. Celebrate their legacies… It’s just going to be a lot of fun to look back at the history but also to look ahead.” 

The 2018-19 NBA season shaped up to be one that we will all remember and the chance for the fans the Lakers, Hornets, Jazz, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Nuggets, Magic, and Hawks to give their fans a chance to celebrate the great legacies and the players that authored treasurable memories, while also looking forward to the future will make it even more memorable.  

Information and quotations are courtesy of 8/8/18 https://www.nba.com/magic story, “Orlando Magic Unveil 30 Years of Pure Magic,” by John Denton; 10/11/18 www.nba.com story “Lakers, Grizzlies, Nuggets Boast New Duds for 2018-19,” by Jeff Case; 10/11/18 www.nba.com story “NBA Arena, Court Updates for 2018-19,” by Jon Hartzell; 10/17/18 6:30 p.m. edition of FOX Sports’ “Hornets Live,” presented by Momentum Mazda with Ashley Shahahmadi, Stephanie Ready, Eric Collins and Dell Curry; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Nuggets; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Minnesota_Timberwolves_seasons; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Utah_Jazz_seasons; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Grizzlies