The 2023 Uni Watch NBA Season Preview
The 2023 Uni Watch NBA Season Preview
Everything you need to know about this season’s new uniforms, logos, court designs, and more.
Three of the Big Four pro leagues begin their seasons in September or October, which means this is always a hectic time of year here at Uni Watch HQ. We’ve already covered the NFL and the NHL, and now it’s time for the NBA, whose season begins on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
The big NBA news this year, as you’ve probably heard, is that the league is experimenting for the first time with something called the NBA In-Season Tournament, which is designed to create some drama and excitement for the early part of the season. Commish Adam Silver said back in April that the players “will be wearing different uniforms” for the tourney, which led many observers (including this one) to assume that Nike would be creating yet another uniform “edition” for each team.
But that doesn’t appear to be the case. In the half-year or so since Silver issued that statement, there’s been no further talk of special uniforms for the In-Season Tournament. Instead, it looks like this year’s batch of City Edition uniforms will be used for the tourney. There’s been no official announcement about that, but the City uniforms are due to be unveiled on Nov. 2 (although over a dozen of them have already leaked) and the tournament begins on Nov. 3. Those seem like pretty easy tea leaves to read.
It’s not clear if Silver’s original quote about about teams wearing “different uniforms” for the tourney was just imprecise wording on his part, or if they really did plan to produce tourney-specific uni designs and then had to abandon that idea for whatever reason. Either way, the league is already uni-overpopulated, with many teams’ City and Statement designs scraping the bottom of the creative barrel, so it’s probably for the best that they’re not rolling out yet another new design for each team (at least for now).
Important update, Monday afternoon: All 30 City Edition jerseys (and some of the shorts) have just leaked. Many of these designs had already leaked, and those earlier leaks are included in this article. I’ve tacked the newly leaked designs onto the end of each team’s entry, under the heading “Late-breaking City Edition leaks,” even when the new leaks just confirm what we already knew.
With all of that in mind, and with the season set to tip off on Tuesday night, here’s our annual team-by-team rundown of what you can expect to see on the hardcourt this season.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Atlantic Division
Boston Celtics
The Celtics’ City Edition design leaked this week (see above) and then was quickly confirmed by the team. One of the better City designs, which isn’t saying much, but still. Additional photos and info here.
This City uniform will probably have its own court design, because the notes for an NBA 2K24 video game patch refer to the Celtics having an “alternate” court. Stay tuned for more details on that.
Speaking of court designs: The arena name on the Celtics’ primary court, which used to appear along the baselines, has been moved to a spot near center court, with the team name now appearing on the baseline:
Meanwhile, on the uni-numerical front: At present, the Celtics’ roster includes a No. 77 (forward Lamar Stevens) and a No. 88 (center Neemias Queta):
If they were to play together in a regular season game, that would apparently be an NBA first.
Late-breaking City Edition leaks:
