Open letter to the Knicks ownership

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Do you think the team's consistent crappiness is not bad enough that you feel the need to embark on a decades-long mission to erase the soul of the organisation?

First it was the demolition of the MSG 2.0 (OK, different ownership, maybe, so I'll let you off the hook on that one), then the defacing of the uniforms. What are those V-necks all about? And since then are black and orange classic Knicks colors?

Yes, I knowe about William of Orange and all that, but you don't see the Yankees wearing orange, do you? Don't you think 5 different colors in one single uniform (count them) is not a bit too much?

This is what a Knicks uniform should look like (Ok, minus the adidas logo):



And this is the real Knicks logo



not this



Oh and all that St. Patrick's Day green uniform malarkey needs to go to. You had your chance to celebrate NYC's Irish heritage by picking the Celtics nickname after the Original Celtics. You didn't. Boston did. That's all good. So forget about green. Green is not a Knicks color. Especially not when combined with orange, black and God know what else.

Was that too ganja?

[linus]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

Whoah, that original logo is really sharp. I guess the jersey colors are related to the blue, white and orange NYC flag, so you can't change them. But I'd imagine that an orange shirt with blue trim would look good and also still be appropriate given that it's their other color (based on that classic shirt above), so where's the harm in that? Orange is sort of the new teal, it's a popular color right now, but for the Knicks it doesn't sound inappropriate.

I don't follow the NBA, (I had no idea what the Knicks' colors where), what did the new shirts look like?

[The Exploding Vole]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

The NBA has a long and glorious history of risibly "trendy" uniforms. Here be two:

[ursus arctos]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

Actually, the "token" logo with the NYK only dates from the mid-90s. The "roundball" logo that IWUN decries is an "update" of one that has been around since the mid 60s.

The original Knicks logo actually looks like this:



I'm also a bit confused about the reference to MSG 2.0. The current arena is the fourth with that name.

Oh yeah, they actually changed their colours to navy, red and white in the early 80s.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

ursus, will you please stop fiddling with my sketchy memories?

Yes, that was supposed to be 3.0. I know about the logo, but that doesn't stop it from looking like something thr Raptors would come up with, I'm sorry.

I didn't know they wore orange back in the day. From the images of that era I always thought it was actually red. But the point remains you can't have 5 colours in one uniform. It's either otange or red, but not both.

As for the Nuggets, that rainbow uniform was great in an 80's retro kind of way. They should bring them back.

linus, this is the road uniform I was talking about:



It used to be worse, though:



The St Patrick's Day uniform:



I was first aware of the Knicks during the 80's so that's the canonic uniform in my mind.

[ursus arctos]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

It's "only" four colours (three in the home whites), and always orange (not red). For some reason it photographs as red under certain light conditions, but they haven't actually used red since that ill-advised early 80s Yankee-ripoff era that I linked to above.

Your position on the green uniforms is inassailable, as is the greatness of the token logo, which really should be their primary visual identity.

And, just in case someone out there doesn't get its origins:

[ursus arctos]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

And BTW, the Original Celtics were from New York.

[Reed John]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

I didn't know that the Knicks ever had red. I thought it was always orange and blue, like the Mets or the Broncos or Syracuse.

The token logo is kind of cool, but that one with just a basketball is the laziest piece of crap ever.

[Incandenza]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

ursus arctos wrote:

It's "only" four colours (three in the home whites), and always orange (not red). For some reason it photographs as red under certain light conditions

The lighting/photography issue happens with the Lakers...the purple (or, to Jack Kent Cooke, "Forum Blue") shows up as blue on TV often.

[ursus arctos]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

The token logo is kind of cool, but that one with just a basketball is the laziest piece of crap ever.

Some would argue that its long-time predecessor is an even more deserving winner of that title, notwithstanding the fact that they won their only two championships with this logo:


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[Reed John]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

The only defense of that is that back in the old days, the NBA wasn't nearly as popular as it is now, so there was a need to show that the Knicks were a basketball club.

[ursus arctos]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

That's an interesting point.

I think that the Portland Trailblazers may have been the first NBA club not to feature a basketball in their logo.

[jason voorhees]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

So will this be the official 09-10 NBA thread ? If so, when the F did they make 3 divisions, or realign them ? I certainly don't remember the Hornets being in with Memphis.

[Incandenza]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

jason voorhees wrote:

So will this be the official 09-10 NBA thread ? If so, when the F did they make 3 divisions, or realign them ? I certainly don't remember the Hornets being in with Memphis.

Sorry JV, that's how it's been since 2004. Thins are awkward with the Sonics becoming the OKC Thunder, because the Thunder still play in the Northwest Division, even though Oklahoma City is far closer to all of the Texas teams than they are to, say, Portland. But if you put them in the Southwest, then one of the others has to move...Memphis could work in the Mountain Division, but definitely not perfectly.

[Reed John]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

The NBA would really be far more interesting if it eliminated about half it's teams, wouldn't it?

[Reed John]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

This seems like an ideal place for this.

Must be seen to be believed

[linus]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

College hoops is one billion times more interesting than the NBA, on so many levels.

[jason voorhees]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

Basketball on a whole was much better in the 80s/90s on both levels. It's still trying to find a groove that it never seems to sustain for long. No gravitas at all.

I'm actually a lot more partial to the NBA these days. In college you always had a few teams/players to look forward to the next year, and now it's what One-and-Done Freshman is going to take his team through the tournament. Sorry, don't give a shit about that shit.

It's as if March Madness is all that matters, whereas in years past there actually was a reason to watch the Hurley/Laitner Puke teams during the regular season or the Big East wars of the 80s. As meaningless as the NBA regular season is, the college season has almost been rendered completely obsolete.

At least in the pros, I have some interest in what LeBron can do from year to year (much like MJ's long 7 year trek to the title,) only he's missing a nemesis like Jordan's Pistons.

There was a time I could name every college champ from 1980-97, and the players on those teams. Now I'm hard pressed to even remember who won a few months ago, much less any other team this decade. (I mean, I'm still shocked UConn ended up winning not once, but a few times. When ?)

The NBA I can pretty much remember most of the champs; Lakers in the early part, Spurs later on, the Pistons once, the Heat once, then the Celts and Lakers again.

[jason voorhees]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

And John Tesh is a Beast.

He, Kenny G, and Mannheim Steamroller need to start a Monsters of Schlock tour.

[Incandenza]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

This seems like an ideal place for this.

Must be seen to be believed

Thanks Reed, that made my day. I could hear Marv Albert, Bill Walton, and Snapper Jones in my head. Does Red Rocks ever have normal rock concerts, or only new age guys like Tesh and Yanni?

It cracked me up that when the WNBA started, NBC just used the same song, except played on an electric guitar with an absurd amount of whammy bar.

[Reed John]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

The college season is fairly meaningless for the the dominant programs that make the tournament every year, and neutral fans and the media focus a lot on just those teams. But for most teams, the tournament is hard to make and winning the conference is a big deal.

I don't think the NCAA tournament damages the regular season nearly as much as the stupid confernce tournaments. Because only the conference tournament winner gets an automatic bid, the regular season title feels completely meaningless.

[jason voorhees]

Open letter to the Knicks ownership

That too.