Emphasis on Timber
September 14,
2008 | Kevin
Zdancewicz
This
week’s featured jersey is in honor of the upcoming start to the NBA
season. The
Minnesota Timberwolves were one of a few teams to unveil new uniforms
this year
(others below). Minnesota loves to play up the timber aspect of its
name and
identity, as you can see if you look closely to the collar and
waistband of
their previous uniforms. While its incorporation of
trees into
the uniform in the past was somewhat subtly done, there is nothing
subtle about the trees in the new uni scheme. In fact, you
couldn’t miss
the timber motif in these jerseys if you tried. Maybe limiting the use
of the
tree design to only the bottom of the shorts would look better, but
right now
the recurrence of trees on the jersey and shorts is just a bit
overwhelming.
My
initial reaction when I saw these a few weeks ago was that they looked
like a
WNBA design. (An aside: WNBA uniforms are a mess with a terrible league-wide template
– something that I wrote a column about in another publication when it was
rumored
that the NHL was doing the same thing). The strange collars (zoom in on that photo) are
especially reminiscent
of ones used in the WNBA template and trying to do too much with the
jersey
side panel – almost like viewing the uni as a canvas, but getting paid
by how
much paint you use – is right up the WNBA’s alley.
I
don’t want to turn this into an NBA new-uniform preview column, but in
the
interest of fair coverage and to inform those unaware, the other teams
with new
looks this year are the Orlando
Magic, the New Orleans Hornets, and the team that was stolen from Seattle.
Photo
Courtesy of flickr.com
Jersey of the Week Archive
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