NBA Changes 2019-20

[Old School Fool]

1 hour ago, NicDB said:

 

The Nets brand is a nod to the 1970s NYC subway system.

 

 

At most, you could argue that nostalgia for the 70s was an influence on Brooklyn rappers in the 90s, but it's not hard to see what really inspired the Nets brand.

 

They were actually based on what Jay Z considered cool then once he left they started doing actual city based branding.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, upperV03 said:

The contract with Stance ended when Nike became the league’s apparel provider. In addition to the uniforms, the socks are all Nike now. Nike does actually make team-specific sock designs to go along with the City Editions, and as of this year the Classic Editions as well. Plus, the standard sock design is available in a bunch of different color ways, including some team-specific color ways.

IIRC Stance still had an NBA license when Nike took over (not sure if they still do) so they were still selling NBA branded socks, but just no longer worn on-court.

[Denver_The_Sinaloa]

1 hour ago, d11king said:

That’s not how things are working out here man lol. Lakers are the urban team. They are the boujee’s team. They are everything LA. 

why do the Lakers get to be both? I hope the Clippers succeed in making the Lakers the country club kids and the Clippers the urban city slickers

[MilSox]

31 minutes ago, Old School Fool said:

 

They were actually based on what Jay Z considered cool then once he left they started doing actual city based branding.

 

Look again at the fonts on the subway signs. Especially the one at the top. It's exactly what the Nets took their brand from.

 

Unless your argument is that's what Jay Z thinks is cool, I'm not sure what there is to debate here.

[upperV03]

7 hours ago, sayahh said:

IIRC Stance still had an NBA license when Nike took over (not sure if they still do) so they were still selling NBA branded socks, but just no longer worn on-court.

Yup, they do still sell NBA branded socks, just not the on-court versions. I should’ve been more specific there to say that the on-court sock deal ended when Nike came on board.

[MattMill]

White/light at home vs color in the preseason Is glorious. Everything is pretty much standardized for the majority of games.  I shouldn't get used to this but this is the NBA I grew up watching. 

[Digby]

9 hours ago, NicDB said:

 

The Nets brand is a nod to the 1970s NYC subway system.

 

 

 

At most, you could argue that nostalgia for the 70s was an influence on Brooklyn rappers in the 90s, but it's not hard to see what really inspired the Nets brand.

 

I posted basically this exact same thing a few months ago so forgive me, but it's still true: the smart thing about the Brooklyn brand is that they took enough influence from Old New York Brooklyn (as in that photo), Modern Hipster Design Brooklyn and Golden Age of Hip-Hop Brooklyn -- a little from each, without being too literal in any. Polarizing as it was/still is, in aesthetics, as a brand and for what the team was trying to do, I think it was very smart. (Of course the team being listless for most of its existence undermined most of that.) The new Brooklyn graffiti marker alternate goes right up to that line of corny-literal but turned out better than expected; that Brooklyn Bridge alternate went careening over the edge but fortunately is already gone.

 

I guess I can see where the Clippers would want to do a similar thing if they move to Inglewood. But I think it's less successful because a.) they're hitting you over the head with it, and b.) they haven't moved to Inglewood! 

 

12 hours ago, keynote said:

 

To clarify: the Clippers' alts aren't marketing to Compton; the Clippers are marketing "Compton" to their broader fan base. That is, they're marketing nostalgia for late '80s/early '90s Black/Latinx LA -- edgy enough to be cool; yet a distant enough memory to not represent a present threat. 

 

And that's fine. As a "little brother" team, they're looking for a brand differentiator. And they're not the first little brother team to dip into hip hop culture to do it. Cf. the White Sox's shift to the Black caps, just in time for hip hop heads and poseurs of the era to add it to their collection of Raiders caps.

 

And, of course, the Nets' entire brand is built around '90s Brooklyn hip-hop.

 

Bingo, and for sure the Nets have done the same thing. If we're honest their ideal consumer is probably a Brooklyn transplant who wants to listen to Biggie while eating at one of the arena Momofuku or Danny Meyer stands. Not sure the Clippers can thread that needle the same way. I can see it but it's too try-hard to me. 

 

Anyway we'll probably be stuck with it once they win the finals wearing them in 8 months.

[Weekend]

16 hours ago, d11king said:

I will say however, there is a generation of young kids who don’t know about the Lakers success and only know the Clippers being the better team. The Clippers are doing an excellent excellent job doing so much for the city of Los Angeles and the communities, and are essentially raising up a generation of fans for the future, it’s a long-game play the Clippers are doing right now. It’ll be a lotttttttttttttt of work because literally 90% of Los Angeles are Laker fans. The Clipper fans that now exist are previous Laker fans from the past millions of years who jumped shipped when they started losing and “Lob-City” was in effect. 

 

The first part of this is true, the Clips are doing good/smart things in the city. Refurbishing hundreds of basketball courts, sponsoring hundreds of "Little Clippers" youth teams. It will pay dividends in the future, especially if/when you combine it with a championship. 

 

But then you get to the typical Laker fan nonsense about Clipper fans being former Laker fans or whatever...

[Waffles]

The New York Liberty are moving from Westchester to Barclays Center, but will not change their name:

 

[IceCap]

8 hours ago, Denver_The_Sinaloa said:

why do the Lakers get to be both? I hope the Clippers succeed in making the Lakers the country club kids and the Clippers the urban city slickers

Why should the Compton and South Central LA crowds shift their likely Lakers loyalty to the Clippers? Because some Clippers marketing team told them to? Because some dudes on a niche internet message board long for an "inner city/Hollywood" NBA divide that never existed? 

 

@keynote was right. This is about the Clippers branding Compton to other people more so than it is the Clippers truly being Compton's team. Probably because after decades of irreverence? The former is far easier than the latter.  

[keynote]

13 hours ago, NicDB said:

 

The Nets brand is a nod to the 1970s NYC subway system.

 

 

At most, you could argue that nostalgia for the 70s was an influence on Brooklyn rappers in the 90s, but it's not hard to see what really inspired the Nets brand.

 

Oh, of course the visual identity, font choice, etc., was based on the subway. And the stark minimalism of the primary unis hearken to an era earlier than that. 

 

But the Nets' *brand* extends beyond its visual identity. And the music, marketing, vibe, in-game experience, social media presence, etc., merch, etc., have all been heavily influenced by '80s and '90s hip hop -- and has helped define how the visual identity is both used and received. Their introductory "Hello Brooklyn" tag comes from the Beastie Boys, as appropriated by Jay Z. Notable mixtape DJ J Period was (is?) the in-arena DJ. Games featured a heavy dose of hip hop -- and not just superstars like Biggie and Jay, but Brooklyn-based groups like Gangstarr who didn't really crossover to the pop charts. And, of course, we have the Coogi-inspired alts. 

 

Some of the initial reactions to the Nets rebrand was that it was *too* hip hop -- despite the fact that the visual identity and uniform was decidely classic. E.g., 

https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/the_brooklyn_nets_i_call_technical_foul.php

 

[CaliforniaGlowin]

13 hours ago, NicDB said:

 

The Nets brand is a nod to the 1970s NYC subway system.

 

 

At most, you could argue that nostalgia for the 70s was an influence on Brooklyn rappers in the 90s, but it's not hard to see what really inspired the Nets brand.

Huh.  Didn't know that.  Makes sense now.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

There's a difference between a team representing a city than just playing in it.  Maybe the Clippers are just waking up to that fact.

 

Yea this just feels like a throwback like the Nets did.

 

The LA Angels claim LA but they play in another county.  Doesn't sound like much difference.  The Clippers can't just go play in a Compton gym to be close to the city.

[kimball]

45 minutes ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

There's a difference between a team representing a city than just playing in it.  Maybe the Clippers are just waking up to that fact.

 

Yea this just feels like a throwback like the Nets did.

 

The LA Angels claim LA but they play in another county.  Doesn't sound like much difference.  The Clippers can't just go play in a Compton gym to be close to the city.

 

Well, and then there's ...

 

[Kevin W.]

46 minutes ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

The LA Angels claim LA but they play in another county.

Yeah, but they're in the LA metro area.

[d11king]

The Clippers-Lakers thing has almost reached a level where, if you’re not from Los Angeles, nor live there, how can you truly speak on the dynamics of how things are working out in Los Angeles??? 
 

The Clippers Los Angeles font might not have anything to do with Compton or the urban, inner city neighborhoods, it just might be something they thought was unique, who knows. The Lakers because of their history and tradition, probably wouldn’t be able to pull off what the Clippers just did with that gawd awful uniform, but the Clippers are trying to create their own identity, and all the power to them. As I stated in a previous post, I think it’s really hard for the Clippers to draw inspiration about how to represent the city, since the city itself, doesn’t really rock with the Clippers. This isn’t a sports town, it’s a Lakers town & that is facts. So to come on here from wherever y’all live & say the Lakers represent this and Clippers represent that, kill that noise lol. 

 

The Clippers PLAY in LA, but the majority of the city could care less about the Clippers. The Angels play in Anaheim, which is some 30-40 minutes from DTLA, and while I’m an Angels fan, the majority of LA despises the Angels. We’re still trying to figure out why they brought the Chargers here, if you’ve never watched a Chargers home game, look at how it’s a road game for them every week. The Clippers/Angels/Chargers are almost synonymous with one another. They play in LA, but no one cares about them

[VandyDelphia Mike]

4 hours ago, Waffles said:

The New York Liberty are moving from Westchester to Barclays Center, but will not change their name:

 

Though that does undo the strangeness of the Liberty being owned by Joe Tsai (owner of the Nets) yet playing in the Knicks' G-league barn.

 

Maybe less Knick color in logos/uniforms to further distance the Liberty from previous Knick connections?

[ror1997]

16 hours ago, NicDB said:

 

The Nets brand is a nod to the 1970s NYC subway system.

 

 

At most, you could argue that nostalgia for the 70s was an influence on Brooklyn rappers in the 90s, but it's not hard to see what really inspired the Nets brand.

They use the subway font and they have recently added subway tiles to the court. But no, they aren’t based off the 1970’s subway, and their incorporations of MTA tributes are reflect on the current subway system. 

[Old School Fool]

19 minutes ago, VandyDelphia Mike said:

Though that does undo the strangeness of the Liberty being owned by Joe Tsai (owner of the Nets) yet playing in the Knicks' G-league barn.

 

Maybe less Knick color in logos/uniforms to further distance the Liberty from previous Knick connections?

 

They ditched the Knicks colors awhile back for the uniforms so they shouldn't seem too out of place in the Barclays Center.

 

 

 

 

[dont care]

Except the logos still predominantly show blue and orange of the knicks. They should

Really drop those.