Digby

I think whoever ends up coming out of the Bucks/Celtics/Sixers scrap in the East will be our champion in a comfortable six game finals.

I don’t think they’ve said any rule changes will be in place; as the “group stage” will be shared games with the regular season standings, that seems untenable. (Although I’d hope for Elam ending overtimes at least.) I think this will end up being the grand return of “Earned Editions”. How many Pantone greens can we possibly get the Celtics in?

Their pinkish-red is kinda off-putting as the primary kit color, probably even worse monochrome, but I really like it as a trim color.

Way too much going on with all the logo stuff. A gothic TX, fine... but the "peagle" (ick)? The Spursy looking alt? The 4/21 thing, whatever that means? Like they're trying to inject extra brand confusion into the brand confusion.

I remember that one, and the baby-puke uniform I guess was arguably white and yellow stripes, in a way. But I want black and yellow!

Columbus were wearing the black shorts last night too, even though ostensibly yellow shorts would contrast better with New England's navy. Personally I'm unbothered by shorts clashes usually, so I don't care. Sharp look and the Crew always do well to avoid monochrome IMO. Still can't believe they've never done yellow/black stripes, hoops, or tesselated patterns, whatever.

17 years between playoff wins, damn. DeAaron Fox probs wasn’t even conscious at the time of the last one. Sloppy play at both ends at the end but it worked out, nice one Kings!

How does the Apple/MLS thing not have a halftime show? All the games are happening at the same time, feels like an obvious opportunity for a shared whip around. Instead I’m seeing 5 minutes of ads, 30 seconds of random stadium crowd shots and the announcer repeating the score and to stay tuned, then we do it all again.

When Nike first unveiled the City program I assumed this would be what the Celtics got (in jersey form, obviously).

I dunno, I'm kinda into these. Feels like a refinement of the rebrand... the wordmark sticks with the modern simplicity they set out for but isn't the total snoozer Neutra-style thing that I agree doesn't really fit the team -- the little M/V teeth is juuust cartoonish enough and somehow works. Charcoal and lime green is nicely distinctive too; I've always liked green and grey as a combination. (Though they probably do need some blue in there for this to be full-time.) The Wolves are probably one of those teams that'll always be tweaking and evolving and that's fine. Not everyone can or should stick with the same thing forever.

Congrats to the Wolves and thanks for giving us narrative in what will otherwise be a snoozer series. Don’t blame me, I was team OKC (Mark Daigneault! Holy Cross!)

More likely that the union will say "Ummm, it's bad but you didn't specifically negotiate in a nuclear-option-for-racists clause into the CBA, sooooo... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "

lol the NASCAR guy got a longer suspension for saying racist things. What incentive does MLS possibly have to not make an example of this dude? Shocking self-own here.

LockerVision lists tomorrow’s games as Heat in white vs Bulls in black in Miami (great), and Wolves in charcoal grey vs Thunder in orange in Minneapolis (kinda cool actually but weird for a playoff, or play-in, w/e). That site also still has Miami’s home court called FTX Arena, which is objectively funny.

Oop, one more. The OL Group is fully selling the NWSL Reign (please bring back the Seattle Reign branding yesterday, whomever buys them), and is also reportedly selling a majority stake of the Lyon women's team to Michele Kang who just bought the NWSL Washington Spirit. Kind of a weird, minor-league-baseball style realigning of parent/farm clubs if all that goes through. https://equalizersoccer.com/2023/04/12/ol-groupe-to-sell-reign-nwsl-michele-kang-washington-spirit-lyon-women-takeover/

Also, if you're still fascinated by the Berhalter/Reyna drama... the inside story of Gregg basically getting snookered by a cult of weirdo vapid MBA types for "leadership" reasons except they couldn't run a tight ship and left him out to dry. Hilarious in a sad late-capitalism way. https://sports.yahoo.com/gregg-berhalter-leadership-summit-reynas-usmnt-120053261.html

Somehow missed this -- did this make the Apple TV whiparound show, I wonder -- but the Red Bulls' hot new designated player allegedly used a racial slur toward Ebobisse causing a 20-minute stoppage/fracas. And their manager didn't take him out of the game! Wish I could read the lips of his teammate/keeper here: https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/new-york-red-bulls-blasted-for-handling-of-alleged-racial-slur-20230411-WST-427779.html

Quick hasty Photoshop job here but -- if that Suns design turns out to become real (big if), I think this is the better way to do it. And I say this as someone who thinks the Suns color scheme always looks good with black. (The sunburst lines should actually probably be white on the white jersey, not purple, to hit the wordmark outline nicely.)

The Kings court with the 3D/00s Photoshop grunge effect look was brutal. Looked like a renovated high school gym with more dollars than sense. Can't believe that slid through so close to the minimalist tidal wave. (Their later update has actually become one of my favorites.)

The basic structure has it right but the colors are wrong. A black sun looks wrong any way you slice it, and the white one it gets a bit lost. Make the streak orange on both jerseys and we might be in business. (But, I thought it had been reported that those leaked designs were tossed aside? Wasn't expecting those to see the light of day in any hypothetical new look.)

Black one looks way better than the red one so we’ll let it slide.

Not just more purple, any purple at all. As I recall they were trying to exorcise purple entirely, and even the purple alternate ended up being a last-minute addition to the set I think. That and the unfortunate Adidas Sleeves era made this one dead on arrival, even though I agree with you and thought there was potential here. My Suns preferences are diagonals/sunburst over Old West motifs, and black third color over grey. (I'd also accept a full set with normal wordmarks using the aesthetic of their "Valley" City jerseys but maybe that ship has already sailed.)

I like that nobody’s even entertaining the idea of either of the top two seeds in the West. Or three!

The Mavs tankapalooza is interesting because it wasn’t for lottery chances, but because of the pick protection and potentially owing the Knicks that pick. Obviously it’s hilarious that this was even in play due to their own crumminess the second half of the year. But the whole pick-protection thing has always seemed obnoxious and this was maybe the worst outcome of that technique yet.

I've always assumed that kinda is the case, with tour promoters and exclusivity deals -- isn't that part of the current consternation over Live Nation? But I don't know a ton about the live music industry and maybe Live Nation just winds up running them both or something. It's a good point that the most likely outcome would probably end up being the Sixers arena getting more of the other events, being a newer venue and centrally located. (Though I've thought the Sportsplex setup isn't THAT bad, at least it's still on a subway line, but hard to beat being on all the subway lines and the commuter rail too.) I'm no urban planner but a nice thing about the Boston Garden redeveloping the old Garden's footprint a couple years ago is that you've got street-level retail and restaurants on that strip 365 days a year, and on nights where nothing's going on in the arena, you don't even really notice it because doesn't take up any street frontage of note. But that's also rare because it feels like the market-to-arena size ratio is perfect for a steady diet of NBA, NHL, concerts and the occasional Disney on Ice long residency.