The NBA has been interested in tinkering with its jerseys in one form or another in recent seasons, and while some of the plans for the upcoming year aren’t as drastic as they’ve been in the recent past, we can expect some additional tweaks nonetheless.
One of them will be the appearance of gold patches on the backs of jerseys, which is intended to commemorate championship seasons.
It actually seems like a cool idea -- until you realize that the plan is to have it in place for every team that has ever won a championship in NBA history.
[Photo via Ben Golliver, SI.com]
This is a look at the jersey for the Pistons, which features the Larry O’Brien trophy along with a 3X designation for each the team’s historical titles.
Once it becomes clear that there are more franchises that have won NBA titles than those that have not, however, the idea becomes far less interesting.
A good use of this patch would be to include it on the jerseys of the 15 players who were on the roster of the previous year’s championship team each season, regardless of whether or not they switch teams via trade or free agency the following year. (For example, Mike Miller would have had one on his Memphis Grizzlies jersey last season, thanks to being a part of the Heat’s title team in 2013.)
Simply putting the patch on the jerseys of the reigning champs each year would seem odd for the players who were newcomers, and didn’t contribute to the championship effort of the previous season -- like Greg Oden in Miami, for instance.
Either way, a patch like this should commemorate something special and unique. Since it will be displayed by more than half of the teams in the league next season, its overall effect will be minimized.
