NEW YORK — The NBA unveiled special ABA-era uniforms and courts for the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers and Spurs this week, accidentally reminding everyone that professional basketball used to be much better at looking cool.
The league is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the NBA-ABA merger by bringing back classic designs for the four surviving ABA franchises, complete with retro uniforms, throwback courts and enough red, white and blue to make modern branding departments visibly nervous.
Fans immediately praised the looks, forcing several teams to confront an uncomfortable possibility: the people designing uniforms in the 1970s may have solved this already.
League officials stressed that the throwbacks are intended as a historical celebration and not as a referendum on decades of increasingly complicated alternate jerseys.
Unfortunately, the internet began the referendum anyway.
Within hours, supporters were asking why the Nets ever moved away from their old aesthetic, why Denver doesn’t permanently look like this, and whether Indiana is legally required to return to an era when every basketball logo looked like it belonged on a pinball machine.
San Antonio’s retro look also drew praise, despite violating the franchise’s longstanding commitment to making everything black, silver and emotionally restrained.
Executives reportedly insisted the designs are temporary.
Fans reportedly heard, “Please begin demanding these full-time.”
At press time, several NBA creative departments were said to be studying old ABA photos and quietly wondering if the next great branding innovation might be copying something from 1976.
