"Thumbs Up To Thunder Unis"

[TruColor]

I like the Thunder home unis a lot, and like the color scheme, too. The roads don't look like the Knicks as much as the teal-era Pistons to me.

I put this together a while back as a comparison to the original Warriors, Teal Pistons, and current Thunder unis:

[koizim]

For the record: when the city (rightfully) balked at Howard Schultz wanting $250+ million in public funds for a new arena a mere 10 years after opening KeyArena, in 2006 he sold the team to Clay Bennett, who misrepresented his intentions regarding negotiating in good faith, and "asked" for a $500 MILLION arena. Stern fined the Sonics $250,000 after co-owner Aubrey McClendon admitted to the press they had no intention of staying in Seattle, and Bennett's e-mails to Stern conflicted with those he wrote to his own investors, but Stern still did nothing to discourage the move.

I hope they all die in some kind of thresher accident.

Except KeyArena hasn't been a new facility since the 1960's! Even when the renovations were completed in 1995, the arena still lagged significantly behind other arenas that were being introduced at the same (ex. TD Garden, Wachovia Center, United Center, Quicken Loans Arena, Rose Garden Arena). KeyArena's renovation put it on par with the Target Center prior to its 2004 remodeling, ARCO Arena (one of the worst venues in the NBA), and Oracle Arena before it was rebuilt in 1997. Even though KeyArena was renovated in 1995, the updates only brought the stadium from a '60's facility to a mid-'80s one. Schultz's $250 million dollar renovation was what the Sonics should have back in '95, but the city was too cheap, a trend they continued until the team left for OKC.

Basically the city wanted to keep its team, but not pay the necessary costs to do so, which, as we all know, is a ridiculous idea.

[The_Admiral]

Too bad Seattle never got into the NHL; maybe having two indoor teams would've justified building a new joint. Tulsa built a state-of-the-art arena for nobody. Still blows my mind.

Is Arco Arena even built for hockey? It looks like it can't be.

[FiddySicks]

Too bad Seattle never got into the NHL; maybe having two indoor teams would've justified building a new joint. Tulsa built a state-of-the-art arena for nobody. Still blows my mind.

Is Arco Arena even built for hockey? It looks like it can't be.

No it's not. Something having to do with the way the floor is laid out for basketball makes it impossible to have a hockey team there as well. Or so I've heard. Plus that place is a dump and hockey has literally ZERO following in Sacramento.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Except KeyArena hasn't been a new facility since the 1960's! Even when the renovations were completed in 1995, the arena still lagged significantly behind other arenas that were being introduced at the same (ex. TD Garden, Wachovia Center, United Center, Quicken Loans Arena, Rose Garden Arena). KeyArena's renovation put it on par with the Target Center prior to its 2004 remodeling, ARCO Arena (one of the worst venues in the NBA), and Oracle Arena before it was rebuilt in 1997. Even though KeyArena was renovated in 1995, the updates only brought the stadium from a '60's facility to a mid-'80s one. Schultz's $250 million dollar renovation was what the Sonics should have back in '95, but the city was too cheap, a trend they continued until the team left for OKC.

Basically the city wanted to keep its team, but not pay the necessary costs to do so, which, as we all know, is a ridiculous idea.

Between 1995 and 2002, Seattle bought and paid for a renewed KeyArena, plus brand new Safeco Field and Qwest Field. That's three new big-time arenas -- opinions on KeyArena aside -- within seven years. The idea that the city would open its pockets for yet another arena just five years later was simply never going to happen.

We can say that Seattle failed to keep the Sonics, but that's operating under the impression that there was ever a legitimate or financially responsible way to do that. In 2007, when a failing economy was on the radar of reasonable people, it would have been stupid for the city to buy yet another stadium. Seattle knew that, and so did Clay Bennett. He bought the team to move it -- Seattle never had any reasonable chance to keep it.

Of course to say, that's not to say the city and state couldn't have handled the break-up better. The Washington State Legislature left $30 million on the table from Clay Bennett (partly because the state capital hates Seattle), and everyone from city leadership ended up looking pretty bad after the Sonics left. However, the choice between held hostage for half a billion from a disingenuous basketball team owner and letting the team walk is no choice at all.

I will say, however, that as someone who regularly walks by KeyArena (it's in the same complex as the Space Needle and as close to Seattle has as a Central Park), the site of that building sitting empty nearly every night is pretty depressing. I can only imagine how rotten the folks in Tulsa, Kansas City and other "we'll build it and they'll come" cities must feel.

[The_Admiral]

1. Non-local ownership shouldn't have been approved by Schultz

2. Non-local ownership shouldn't have been approved by the league

It was like the ivory dealer in "Bart Gets an Elephant." What did they think he was gonna do.

[CubsFanBudMan]

I like the Thunder home unis a lot, and like the color scheme, too. The roads don't look like the Knicks as much as the teal-era Pistons to me.

I put this together a while back as a comparison to the original Warriors, Teal Pistons, and current Thunder unis:

Thanks for this. While I can certainly see why the Thunder echoed the Pistons for me, seeing them side-by-side makes me realize how different they are. I knew the teal/blue was different, and I guess the red-yellow on the Pistons combining to look like the Thunder orange-yellow makes sense, too. And then the Thunder trim is navy while the Pistons road had black, correct?

EDIT: Added the Thunder yellow reference.

[BBTV]

I still can't believe that era of Pistons uniforms actually happened.

[okiebrave]

The people here in Oklahoma City feel like the name was crappy when first announced... but over time it has grown on us!

If it were me, I would have "OKC" on the road uni's instead of "Oklahoma City". These debates are fun but it's more of what the local fan base think and want from the organization. The people here overall like the name, uniforms, and colors. We are slowly building a tradition here and tinkering with stuff doesn't help in my opinion. If there is a change it needs to be done quickly and then left alone for good...

Just my two cents...

[BBTV]

"liking it" and "used to it" or "accepting of it" aren't the same things.

Do you really like it, or is it just that it's your team and you see it all of the time?

[rams80]

This is an agree to disagree thing I suppose.

All that being said, at least the majority agree that the OKC uni and name are horrible. Let's hope the curse on OKC is as strong as that of Sterling and the Clippers after what they did to San Diego.

That franchise was snakebit long before Sterling got his mismanaging hands on it.

Although, to be honest the San Diego Sports Arena is kind of a hole, and the market has had trouble supporting pro basketball prior to the Clippers coming to town.

[Sodboy13]

That franchise was snakebit long before Sterling got his mismanaging hands on it.

Although, to be honest the San Diego Sports Arena is kind of a hole, and the market has had trouble supporting pro basketball prior to the Clippers coming to town.

Ahh, yes.

Quick history lesson for the youngsters: they used to be the San Diego Rockets.

I still can't believe that era of Pistons uniforms actually happened.

The late '90s were one weird-ass time for sports uniforms. Right up there with the late '70s.

/Peach as a tertiary color?

//And a maroon alternate?!?

[CubsFanBudMan]

It wasn't until I saw this picture in today's paper that I realized I wasn't losing my mind -- the Thunder unis do have a thin yellow stripe (and taking a second look at ColorWerx's comparison pic confirms it). My '90s Pistons thoughts weren't that far off after all.

The road looks that inspired my original comments (after seeing Thunder @ Bulls live, from a distance):

[DustDevil61]

Wow. Funny how things that go around, come (back) around. That shade of blue, at least in the lighting on Grant Hill, almost looks the same as the OKC Thunder uniform.

I still stand by my view that the OKC needs to drop their yellow-gold and navy; it's taken a lot of people here on these boards this long to notice that OKC has yellow-gold in their color scheme, and navy is overused, as well.

Red-orange, light blue, and slate gray would make some relevance to the state of Oklahoma (red-orange: mix between OU/OSU [or so Clay said], light blue: color of OK state flag, and slate gray: well, it reminds one of a storm, and that's where we hear thunder).

[infrared41]

The Sonics had a long storied history, plenty of major corporate sponsorship in the region, huge very loyal fan base and an arena that IS second to none in terms of actual fan/viewing experience (Stern himself said so).

The fact that the team was stolen from the region should be a warning to fans everywhere that it doesn't matter how much history or how much support a team has, they can be taken on a whim and a vendetta. Very sad and oh too true.

Sounds familiar.

[TruColor]

Wow. Funny how things that go around, come (back) around. That shade of blue, at least in the lighting on Grant Hill, almost looks the same as the OKC Thunder uniform.

You acknowledge that the lighting is bad in that pic...well, it's REALLY bad:

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[BBM]

I still can't get over a team that is called the THUNDER essentially wears SKY BLUE.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM. They could have gone with striking gray or a deep graphite but no.