Rare NBA Getty Images, Google & Internet Find

[MadmanLA]

 

Lakers vs. Celtics in another of their many Finals battles--1963 at the L.A. Sports Arena, although I can't find the actual date of this picture.  LASA hosted games 3, 4, and 6.

 

 

The Pontiac Silverdome, just prior to a Lakers-Pistons matchup in the 1980s

 

 

Another Pistons game at the Silverdome, this time in 1987 against Michael Jordan's Bulls.

 

 

Tip-off of the final NBA playoff game ever at Boston Garden in 1995, game four of the Celtics' first-round series against the eventual Eastern champ Magic.

[BShaw20]

On March 17, 2017 at 8:37 AM, pepis21 said:

 

That happens also before Champion, and this was because in pre-champion years Magic wordmarks is fully sewed, in champion era only stars were sewed and rest are painted onto jersey

Here are jerseys from sandknit:

Yep, I love those MacGregor jerseys but the logo is heavy on the front and it sort of sagged as the game went on

[Discogod]

I know it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but here's some pics of the 1991-92 Blazers' home unis with the black letters & numbers, before they switched to red midseason. I don't have the exact date they made the switch, but they were wearing the black numbers as late as 31 January 1992.

 

(Great shot of the Mavericks' one-year road unis there, too!)

 

Some other random stuff...

 

The Clippers' seldom-seen "Los Angeles" script unis from 1987-88:

 

 

In 1981-82, the Pacers introduced a new home uni (the road uni carried over from the previous year). This would only last a year before it was replaced.

 

 

For the 1983-84 season, this was replaced with a gold version:

 

 

When the Pacers overhauled their look in 1985, they introduced another uni set that would only last a year before being tweaked:

[kimball]

On 3/18/2017 at 0:31 PM, Discogod said:

I know it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but here's some pics of the 1991-92 Blazers' home unis with the black letters & numbers, before they switched to red midseason. I don't have the exact date they made the switch, but they were wearing the black numbers as late as 31 January 1992.

Is there a reasoning of the mid-season change? Are there any other examples of such a change?

 

I want to say there was back some 10-15 years ago? Was it the Wizards? I'll have to dig.

[Discogod]

17 hours ago, kimball said:

Is there a reasoning of the mid-season change? Are there any other examples of such a change?

 

I want to say there was back some 10-15 years ago? Was it the Wizards? I'll have to dig.

 

From what I recall, it was a mistake on Champion's part - the wordmark was smaller than it should have been, and there were legibility issues with the wordmark & numbers on the home uni. I'd always thought it was fixed after a couple of games and was quite surprised to discover they lasted until mid-season. I think there were various issues when Champion took over, ranging from material issues to tailoring & size problems. It was a good few years before they got all the kinks out. Indeed, some teams continued to use Sand-Knit unis for the 1990-91 season (and even into the following season). I've seen several Bucks game jerseys from the '91 season that were carried over from the previous season, some with the Sand Knit tags removed and Champion tags sewn on.

 

The Jazz & Bullets were a couple of other teams that suffered from incorrect number colours in the 90s, but AFAIK only in preseason games - I'm fairly sure their errors were sorted by the time of the regular season began.

[B-Rich]

A couple more from the old ABA New Orleans Buccaneers; found these from an old program when the New Orleans Hornets played in New Orleans Bucs throwbacks  back in 2008:

As the blurb at the bottom says, that's 1967-68 ABA All-Star game MVP ( later head NBA Coach) Larry Brown. ABA Commissioner George Mikan on the left, Rick Barry on the right.

 

Center fold out (sorry for the line and staples). Neat color-on color game vs. Houston Mavericks; would have been 1968-69 season as that's the only year Ron Franz ( no. 11 in the pic) played for the Bucs when the Houston Mavs existed.

[Old School Fool]

Fans would get the worst seats in the house just to see Minnesota's then-new NBA team at the Metrdome.

 

 

 

Apparently the Wolves returned to the Dome during the Garnett Era for a preseason game on October 26, 1996. They may have had more games.

 

[SCalderwood]

On 3/20/2017 at 7:48 PM, kimball said:

Is there a reasoning of the mid-season change? Are there any other examples of such a change?

 

I want to say there was back some 10-15 years ago? Was it the Wizards? I'll have to dig.

 

 

Prior to the start of the 2007-08 season, the Wizards officially switched from bronze to gold.  In order to more emphasize the gold, they changed the NOB letters on their away jersey from white to gold.  However, they also made the NOB smaller.  A small, gold NOB proved to be hard to read on a blue jersey, so a few weeks into into the season they changed back to the bigger NOB and outlined the NOB in white to help make it easier to read.

 

Here's a pic from WSH @ IND, opening night, 10/31/07:

 

 

 

Their next game, 11/2/07 @ BOS:

 

 

 

Their next game, 11/3/07 vs. ORL:

 

 

But these NOB's lasted for less than a month.

 

 

 

Here's a pic of them 11/21/07 @ CHA

 

 

And they continued to wear these bigger NOBs with outlines for the rest of the season, until 2010-11 when they made the NOBs smaller again but just changed them to white on the blue jerseys.

 

 

 

[Cujo]

This entire thread.

 

 

Carry on.

[kimball]

13 hours ago, SCalderwood said:

 

 

Prior to the start of the 2007-08 season, the Wizards officially switched from bronze to gold.  In order to more emphasize the gold, they changed the NOB letters on their away jersey from white to gold.  However, they also made the NOB smaller.  A small, gold NOB proved to be hard to read on a blue jersey, so a few weeks into into the season they changed back to the bigger NOB and outlined the NOB in white to help make it easier to read.

 

Here's a pic from WSH @ IND, opening night, 10/31/07:

 

 

 

Their next game, 11/2/07 @ BOS:

 

 

 

Their next game, 11/3/07 vs. ORL:

 

 

But these NOB's lasted for less than a month.

 

 

 

Here's a pic of them 11/21/07 @ CHA

 

 

And they continued to wear these bigger NOBs with outlines for the rest of the season, until 2010-11 when they made the NOBs smaller again but just changed them to white on the blue jerseys.

 

 

Thanks for that run down and research. The gold with white outline don't look much better. 

[kimball]

14 hours ago, Old School Fool said:

 

Yeah, I'm not sure why they played in the Metrodome in '96? Seems rather odd to roll out a whole court and stands for a pre-season game.

 

On a side note ... I think the NBA should and could do a special game in the same spirit of the NHL Stadium Series in markets with domed stadiums. You could do it on Christmas or after football season in February or March? 

[kimball]

I've found it interesting how many different -- slightly, but different -- jerseys the Bulls had before settling in the modern set that's remained the same (more or less) since 1985.

 

As you can tell there are many inconsistencies with spacing, number placement and material wise as well. I'm not even sure if I can create a solid timeline because some differences were midseason. 

 

[kimball]

And, here are some of the road jerseys ...

 

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, kimball said:

I've found it interesting how many different -- slightly, but different -- jerseys the Bulls had before settling in the modern set that's remained the same (more or less) since 1985.

 

As you can tell there are many inconsistencies with spacing, number placement and material wise as well. I'm not even sure if I can create a solid timeline because some differences were midseason. 

 

These wouldn't be half-bad if the numbers were centered.

[Discogod]

Sticking with the Bulls, here's a couple of team photos.

 

1981-82:

 

And 1974-75, showing a couple of styles of lettering - vertically arched and radially arched:

[Old School Fool]

35 minutes ago, Discogod said:

Sticking with the Bulls, here's a couple of team photos.

 

1981-82:

 

Benny the Bull isn't looking so good.

[ImmortalChef]

1 hour ago, Old School Fool said:

 

Benny the Bull isn't looking so good.

Meth. Not even once.

[The_Admiral]

Red Kerr! Art Wirtz as Bulls owner! SPORTS PHONE!!

[TVIXX]

Wow look at all those Bulls fans before jordan

[Ben in LA]

11 hours ago, TVIXX said:

Wow look at all those Bulls fans before jordan

I actually spit out my drink lol