Sacramento Kings New (But Also Old) Uniforms Leaked

On Wednesday night somebody on Reddit (link leads to a news article instead because of the slightly inappropriate nature of Reddit in general) posted what appears to be a leaked sheet that contains a bunch of new alternate jerseys to be used for the 2015-16 NBA season.

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This is noteworthy for Sacramento Kings fans because one of the leaked uniforms was in fact a Kings jersey that looked to be a throwback to the 1985-89 uniforms used by the Kings in their first four years in Sacramento, as seen here.

I have two problems with these supposed new alternates. The first problem is the presence of sleeves. Basketball jerseys with sleeves just feel wrong. At this point I’d honestly rather see advertisements on the uniforms than sleeves on them.

At least the ads can sort of look good. There are some pretty damn cool soccer kits out there that manage to look smooth despite sometimes-large ads on the front. I’m not saying I want advertisements as much as I’m saying I really don’t like the sleeves, however. If we end up with both at some point it’s going to look like we’re watching NBA teams dressed up as Premier League players for Halloween every game, which would be entertaining, but in a sad way.

Anyway, back to the Kings potentially new uniforms and my second problem with them. The colors don’t actually match the ’85 jersey they’re supposedly a throwback to. Unless there’s another jersey that used that powder blue color that I’m just not finding at the moment, it appears that the actual 1985 Kings road jersey featured white lettering outlined by red over the powder blue background.

The leak shows white lettering with no outline, and then a fairly atrocious, hard to read “Kings” written in purple above it. I’m really hoping this leak is just some sort of a hoax or fake, because the Kings kind of got hosed if it’s the real deal.

Aside from the sleeves and nonsensical “throwback” color scheme that if anything is a throwback to a few random Kings uniforms stitched together by some sort of NBA Frankenstein, the Kings alternates are also just so plain. There’s no special nickname like “NOLA” or “Clutch City” like the Pelicans and Rockets got, and no cool design like the Wizards got.

Those are the three uniforms showcased alongside the new Kings design, and they all have some sort of special, distinctive features. The Kings jersey has a few purple rings up by the arms and what appears to be a white stripe on either side, but nothing on the front aside from the number and Kings logo, which isn’t even the ’85 logo.

They’re just bad, in my opinion. Throwback uniforms have the right to be ugly, as long as they’re aggressively ugly. If you’re going to do a throwback, go all out like these Bucks jerseys with actual deer on them. It’s all part of having team history. Just look at these horrendous Pittsburgh Steelers “bumblebee” uniforms.

But these new Kings jerseys aren’t crazy or eye-catching, they’re just plain and dull. And they have sleeves, which is just an extra knock on any NBA jersey. Let’s hope this leak is wrong, at least about the new throwback Kings alternates.

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