The NBA unveiled its 2024-25 City Edition jerseys Thursday, marking the eighth year of the league’s partnership with Nike.
That means it’s time to rank them!
Rankings will be based on a combination of factors:
- Design
- Color Scheme
- Font
- Overall connection to the city (most important)
Let's get to the list:
30. Indiana Pacers
“This year’s story focuses on the Indiana Pacers’ breakout in the 2023-24 NBA in-season tournament.”
You lost to the Lakers ... You’re celebrating second place in the in-season tournament. This has to be a mean joke. Did the Lakers design this jersey?
29. Chicago Bulls
The team is celebrating the United Center’s 30th anniversary. Great. I didn’t realize concrete slabs were colorful. It’s because they aren’t. Boring colors. Boring design.
28. Miami Heat
Heat Culture this. Heat Culture that. Blah Blah Blah.
Pat Riley apparently established a “blood-red” mentality when he joined the Heat in 1995. No one else around the country has heard of it. And the jerseys pay no homage to the actual city. Better luck next time.
27. Boston Celtics
As someone from Boston, I have no idea what the Celtics are trying to do here. I don’t see a single nod to the city. Try again.
26. Houston Rockets
H-Town ... Didn’t the Texans already do that first?
25. LA Clippers
The color is “Pacific Blue” ... OK, you’re one of how many cities along the Pacific Ocean.
What else can we add here? You’re in Los Angeles ... not exactly the most boring city. And that’s what these jerseys are. Bland.
These jerseys are ... busy. Very busy.
They’re “vibrant," per the team, just like the city. Let’s dig a little deeper next time.
23. Atlanta Hawks
The jerseys are supposed to look like they’re taking flight, celebrating the “lift as we fly” slogan.
The blue coloring in the jerseys is a nod to the 1968 season, the Hawks’ first season in Atlanta.
There’s just a lot going on here, and it isn’t obvious.
22. Detroit Pistons
The look is certainly better than some of the teams above it on this list.
But the jersey honors the “Bad Boy” Pistons, but not the actual city. And it’s not like Detroit has a shortage of history and culture to celebrate.
21. Orlando Magic
The uniform is designed to look like a suit of armor, defending the “kingdom on the rise."
I’m not sure anyone besides Magic fans have heard the team called the "kingdom on the rise." Who knows whether Magic fans even know that?
Maybe it’s a celebration of Disney. Who knows?
20. Brooklyn Nets
In collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist KAWS, this jersey is certainly the most abstract.
The shading behind the lettering is Brooklyn at its core, but the rest of the uniform looks as abstract as abstract gets. I have no idea what’s going on.
The design is interesting and the uniform pays homage to the Bay, specifically through the Golden Gate Bridge.
But they also look strikingly similar to the Nuggets’ Mile High City jerseys.
The jerseys are mint green, because there used to be a national mint in Charlotte.
Did you know that? I didn’t.
My suggestion would be to do something more based around Charlotte being the “Queen City.” It’s more recognizable.
There’s a lot of originality here with drop shadows on the numbers and letters to mimic Spanish architecture in the area.
There’s also a celebration of the Hemisfair, a park in San Antonio.
The bones lining the jersey are an interesting tidbit in New Orleans’ long history of mysticism, but the colors just don’t make much sense.
An easy fix would be to make the jersey purple, green and yellow, the official colors of the city.
Playing into plaid being very popular in Oregon, funny.
Including Mt. Hood on the shorts, very cool.
Doing “Rip City” again. Unoriginal.
14. Sacramento Kings
The colors are great. The design is simple on the front and back, with crowns down the sides, and it is an ode to the Cincinnati Royals of the 1960s.
Maybe let’s honor some of Sacramento next time and not just Cincinnati.
Lake Show is the same as Heat Culture. Congratulations on having zero originality. That said, in terms of pure looks, these jerseys are top-three material.
12. Phoenix Suns
The Valley of the Sun is probably the most obvious city/state branding of any team on here, which is hugely important.
But the design just isn’t that great. The colors are good, but my attention immediately goes to the star on the numbers, and it simply isn’t aesthetically pleasing.
The soft blue in honor of the Potomac River and the ripples in the design are one of the league’s better color schemes.
And the “District” script works well.
But adding “Of Columbia” underneath is just unnecessary and takes away from the rest of the uniform.
10. Toronto Raptors
Purely on nostalgia and aesthetics, these are the best.
But there is simply zero connection to the city. If there was ANY, this would be No. 1.
Any time a team breaks out the baby blue, it pops.
Connecting to the city’s Museum of Art, with graphics down the sides of the jerseys is really cool, and one of the better actual city connections of any team to a piece of the city’s history.
The front is just tough to read.
8. Utah Jazz
The jersey is a nod to the teams of the 1990s, when they rocked the iconic mountain uniforms, one of the best in league history.
This design brought a retro feel with more of a modern look while staying true to the state’s nature. The key drawback here is the design is extremely similar to those classic uniforms.
The city so nice they named it twice.
Having the double font on the jerseys in honor of this nickname is a really unique aspect of the jersey that I’m not sure everyone would figure out just upon initially seeing it. But it’s a really neat tribute to New York.
The salutes to the city aren’t as obvious on this jersey. You certainly have to look for them, which is why this isn’t in the top five — but the actual messaging is.
The letters of “Mavs” on the front are shaped like music notes, celebrating the city’s history of R&B, and there are paisley-patterned guitar strings dressing the sides of the jersey.
Plus there is a “belt buckle” on the shorts in the shape of the state. I think these would be much easier to identify if the jersey wasn’t white.
This design would be higher if the team didn’t copy the main part of the jerseys from last year, with the 5280 on the front, a tribute to Denver being the “Mile-High City.”
The color scheme is great, with an odd to the rainbow colors of the 1990s. And it’s tough to tell, but the rainbow within the 5280 on the front actually forms a mountain.
It’s really well done. It’s just not super original.
The jerseys pay homage to the Spectrum era, between 1967-1996.
The retro font is a nice touch as well as the colors dipping down the side as a reminder of the City of Brotherly Love, which is written near the bottom of the uniforms. Clean, easily identifiable. Nice job.
The Bucks do probably the best job overall of celebrating the city and the state.
The blue shade is “Great Lakes Blue," while also having the outline of the Wisconsin state border. It just isn’t as flashy as the top two.
The team did a great job celebrating the ABA Memphis Sounds as well as linking to Beale Street.
This ranking would be higher if the numbers had a different drop-shadow than the team name. The numbers are simply hard to read.
The design and color scheme combine the icy winters of the state with the fame of the home of 10,000 lakes.
The graphics are sleek and the jerseys are locally made. Well done, T-Wolves.
Matt Liberman is a reporter and video producer for cllct.