NBA's T'Wolves and Kings Get New Threads

For the NBA, the status quo of appearance calls for teams changing or adding new uniforms to the franchises' looks. What started as a way to really build on a franchise's long-term identity has become the equivalent of giving a team a new hair style every few years, with the phenomenon of the NBA uniforms. For the 2008-2009 season, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Sacramento Kings have totally changed their uniforms for a new look, with some positives and negatives that have been weighed by the new looks.

The Sacramento Kings' most recent away and home uniforms before the change was a more traditional V-neck, and jersey mesh combination using the team's primary hues of royal purple, black and white. With a baggier cut jersey and "Sacramento" across the chest of the road uniform, the change was less a matter of style and seems to be more of a change that is based in keeping up with the Joneses of the NBA. Armed with the now-common place dazzle mesh material (a staple of the Denver Nuggets and Chicago Bulls uniforms), the Kings now have a shinier aesthetic. Also like the Nuggets, the Kings have now employed the unique, one-color V-neck collar, with the addition of a more tapered waist in the jersey (seemingly to accentuate the players' body types). With "Kings" ablazoned across the shiny purple away jersey, the change to an update (while unnecessary) seems to fit nicely, and syncs right in with the "new direction" of the Kings roster, having traded Ron Artest away and in the mode of developing their best young prospects. Sacramento's change is more of a lateral move than anything, but is still pleasing to the eyes.

Minnesota, on the contrary, probably has some explaining to do about its choice of change. While the former duds were more classic in construction and used a more unique and aggressive font style for its letters and numbers, the new uniforms seem to confuse the old stylings with newer, puzzling design cues. Using the same Timberwolf blue, forest green, black, silver and white colors, the strangest thing about the jerseys themselves are the necklines. The jerseys employed a scoopneck collar, but somehow were constructed to simulate a V-neck, which has no structual importance whatsoever. What adds insult to the egregrious injury is that the letters and numbers were made smaller than the previous jerseys, which make the necklines seem more obvious. It was a true downgrade.