The WNBA now has the best jerseys in basketball
Stranger Things, palm tree sparklers and a perfect blue for the Sky ... and an absurdly smart roll-out.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
This season will mark the 25th anniversary of the WNBA. So Nike and the league collaborated on a slew of new uniform designs. The reviews are extremely positive. The jerseys look fantastic. Nike’s website has the Rebel and Explorer lines for each team here. (I’m struggling to find the Heroine collection in a central place — it’s fine, the Rebel and Explorer editions are better.) Key details is that player numbers are on the front of the jersey again. Sponsor patches and logos are smaller.
Katie Barnes at espnW has the stories of the jerseys. Kellen Becoats at The Ringer has an exhaustive power ranking of the 24 Rebel and Explorer jerseys. Mike Sykes has his take on the jerseys at For the Win.
I’m going to do my top six combined collections. They’re all amazing, though.
6. Seattle Storm
The Storm is my preferred WNBA team, and the jerseys … they are good. Very clean but not boring.
5. Atlanta Dream
The Rebel edition is so good. Best use of crazy colors.
4. Washington Mystics
All three versions of the Mystics’ jerseys are unique, which is great. Mix it up a little! The Rebel edition was inspired by and designed in collaboration with the Women’s March and includes the 19th Amendment in the stitching. Crazy good concept and execution.
3. Indiana Fever
The most hyped jersey of them all is the Stranger Things inspired Indiana Fever jersey. My tween daughter has already asked how much it costs. This thing is going to outsell Indiana Pacers and Indiana Hoosiers jerseys this year. I mean, the jersey had the Indiana Fever trending on Twitter. You know how hard that is for a team that has gone 34-90 over the past four seasons?!
I actually really like Indiana’s Explorer jerseys as well. I hope the Fever are competitive this season.
2. Los Angeles Sparks
This is a great new direction for the Sparks, who might have the best Explorer edition in the league. Blending the palm tree and the sparkler — genius. Maybe the biggest upgrade from the previous look. Their black Rebel jersey is quite nice too, on par with the Las Vegas Aces and the No. 1 team on this list among all the black jerseys released.
1. Chicago Sky
Look, the Sky are gunning for the WNBA championship this season after bringing in Candace Parker to join Courtney Vandersloot, Gabby Williams, Allie Quigley and Diamond DeShields. Might as well do it in style, right?
Absurdly good. The blue is perfect, the pinstripes are perfect, the wordmarks are perfect. A+.
Dunk of the Year Candidates
Anthony Edwards still has the Dunk of the Year, in my estimation. But we have a couple of new candidates from Thursday’s action.
First: Moe Harkless, who is a member of the Sacramento Kings.
That is some violence.
Now, Kawhi Leonard:
Sheesh!
Scores
Bulls 122, Raptors 113 — Hey. You know, you might want to call this Raptors season “a failure” or “an unmitigated disaster” or “a total embarrassment to the nation of Canada.” But Chris Boucher put up 38 points and 19 rebounds in an NBA game against a decent team. If that isn’t the prize we’re all fighting for, what is?
The Raptors were +16 in Boucher’s 36 minutes and -25 in the 12 minutes he sat. Incredible.
Cavaliers 129, Thunder 102
Bucks 101, Mavericks 116 — No Giannis, but that’s still a great win for Dallas with strong games from Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. Milwaukee shot 38%. Mavs have won six of seven.
Blazers 103, Jazz 122 — Utah took control in the third quarter behind Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles and dominated from there. That’s 23 straight home wins for the Jazz.
Suns 103, Clippers 113 — Really competitive game, but the Suns looked absolutely gassed late. They showed energy, but the execution got sloppy and they couldn’t hit anything from deep. Paul George had no such trouble: he looked great. Rajon Rondo was playing like it was the playoffs, driving to the rim and hitting threes.
Meanwhile, I have no idea why Patrick Beverley was this frustrated in a game the Clippers were taking control of. He got tossed for this. So unnecessary.
Pistons 113, Kings 101 — Shout out to the Pistons for trying, something that often escapes the Kings.
Lakers Panic Room
L.A. falls to 4-6 without LeBron James. The Blazers lost too, so the Lakers maintain a one-game lead for No. 5 in the loss column. The hot Mavericks are two games behind L.A. in the loss column. And it might be time to worry a bit, dear Lakers fan friends, about the Grizzlies, who are smoking hot and three back in the loss column. That could be material if Anthony Davis isn’t back in a week (which is the current timeline) and if LeBron misses something like 10 more games.
League Pass Cupdate
Detroit making a run for the No. 11 spot in the League Pass Cup! You love to see it.
Schedule
College basketball is over but the NBA has only one national T.V. game (not including NBA TV) this weekend. Weird! All times Eastern. LP Cup games denoted with a 🏆.
FRIDAY
Pacers at Magic, 7
Timberwolves at Celtics, 7:30
Grizzlies at Knicks, 7:30, NBA TV
Bulls at Hawks, 8 🏆
Sixers at Pelicans, 8
Hornets at Bucks, 9
Spurs at Nuggets, 9
Wizards at Warriors, 10, NBA TV
Rockets at Clippers, 10
SATURDAY
Raptors at Cavaliers, 7:30
Lakers at Nets, 8:30, ABC
Sixers at Thunder, 9
Kings at Jazz, 9
Rockets at Warriors, 10
Wizards at Suns, 10
Pistons at Blazers, 10
SUNDAY
Hawks at Hornets, 1 🏆
Celtics at Nuggets, 3, NBA TV
Pelicans at Cavaliers, 7
Bucks at Magic, 7
Raptors at Knicks, 8
Spurs at Mavericks, 8
Pacers at Grizzlies, 8
Bulls at Timberwolves, 8 🏆
Pistons at Clippers, 10
Heat at Blazers, 10, NBA TV
Links
GOOD MORNING IT’S CHRIS BOUCHER.
Rick Welts is retiring as president of the Warriors at the end of the season. Here’s his conversation with Marc Spears on Welts’ journey as a leader in the NBA.
New ESPN Insider NBA mock draft from Jonathan Givony and the crew. ($)
WNBA mock draft from Mechelle Voepel. Eager to see how Dallas approaches having four of the top seven picks, including the top two.
Chris Herring in SI on the importance of Jalen Brunson to the Mavericks’ success.
Katie Heindl on Kevin Huerter’s important contributions to the Hawks.
It looks like Marc Gasol has swallowed whatever frustration he had about his role with the Lakers.
Have a wonderful weekend and be excellent to each other.