Back in the day—say, the 1970s and 1980s—NBA teams had two jerseys. One for home games and one for away games. The home games were always white, to distinguish on television and in person who was the home team, and the away games were darker and more colorful. That’s just the way it was.
But starting in the mid-to-late 1980s, the NBA, which had once been a fledgling league, became big business. You can thank Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers for that one. Then came the biggest cash cow of them all: Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls.
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Soon, league officials saw dollar signs as often as they saw dunks. One of the ways they cashed in on the growing passion and attention for the NBA was through jersey sales. Today, teams make tens of millions of dollars from jersey sales and sponsorships. Those mesh tank tops are big business.
So, what did the NBA do to increase sales? They created alternate jerseys. Now not only did teams have white home jerseys and dark away jerseys, but they had alternate offerings. The Bulls, for example, had their white home ones and red away ones but they also had black jerseys with red pinstripes. And boy did those sell like hotcakes!
Here below, we wanted to take a look at the best of the best—the cream of the crop when it came to NBA jerseys from the 1990s. And while teams continue to change logos, colors and jerseys today, it’s those from the 90s when the league was exploding in popularity that still resonate with nostalgic, hoops-loving fans.
Last Place: Utah Jazz
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Utah Jazz had sublime uniforms. While we don’t have to talk about why a team from Utah is called the Jazz (okay, the team was originally founded in New Orleans), their original deep purple unis with the yellow team name and musical note for the “J” was just incredible. But then in the late 90s, things went to hell in a hand-basket. The color scheme got tweaked and the team focused in on some mountain range that looked just silly. It’s too bad they had to wear them in the NBA Finals two years in a row. Blech.
5. Detroit Pistons
Young NBA fans today don’t really understand. But Grant Hill was the guy. When he came out of Duke University and was selected third in the 1994 NBA draft, he set the world on fire. Giant dunks in the All-Star games. Smooth play on the court. And it was his aura that helped elevate the already cool Detroit Pistons uniforms of the late 1990s. With snarling horse rising up from the team name, complete with the flaming exhaust pipe, it was just fashion victory.
4. Phoenix Suns
There is something mesmerizing about the 1990s Phoenix Suns jerseys. The bright purple, the giant basketball sunspot. It’s hard to put a finger on why, exactly, the whole thing works. Maybe it’s the simplicity. Maybe it’s the bright colors. Maybe it’s just that the designer understood the assignment—like, hmmm, let’s put a giant Sun to indicate the Phoenix Suns… bingo! Either way, it’s as classic as classic gets.
3. Chicago Bulls
You can’t beat a color scheme that is rooted in red and black. And when it came to the 1990s Chicago Bulls uniforms, they practically looked like tuxedos when worn by the model handsome Michael Jordan. He could have made a bib look good on the court. But even on the other players like Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, the jerseys looked stunning. The white ones were great, so were the red ones. But the black ones the team began to use in the latter half of the decade—well, they were just stunning.
Between March 24 – April 14 1989, Michael Jordan was shifted to the point guard position.
Jordan dropped a triple-double 10 out of those 11 games for the #Bulls 😳 pic.twitter.com/pHqwbzS8fT
— Die-Hard Chicago Bulls Fans (@DieHardCBfans) May 31, 2023
2. Seattle SuperSonics
The Seattle SuperSonics are one of the rare teams to have multiple iconic jerseys from the 1990s. While most teams boasted several different looks, not all of them worked (see: Jazz, Utah). But the Sonics forest green jerseys worked just as well as their emerald green ones. But for our purposes here, let’s focus on the unis the team wore in the latter half of the decade. The Pacific Northwest is known for its proximity to nature and the Sonics leaned into this with their pine tree-themed uniforms. They wore them in the 1996 Finals and may never have looked better.
10. Gary Payton/Shawn Kemp
Los maravillosos Supersonics de los '90 se toparon con Michael Jordan en 1996. Y quizás por eso no conquistaron un título.
De todos modos, Payton y Kemp sí conquistaron nuestros corazones: fueron un dúo electrizante e inolvidable.
Un equipo de culto. pic.twitter.com/6ZnmTyIFBE
— Bruno Altieri (@altieribruno) May 24, 2024
1. Charlotte Hornets
Okay, no need to mess around anymore. While all the jerseys on this top-5 list rock, let’s get to the winner of the whole thing. The Charlotte Hornets. Their uniforms were so cool that anything that bore their color scheme was must-have. Ask anyone who wanted a Starter jacket from that era. It was all about the Hornets—everything else was second place. Indeed, the teal pinstripe Hornets jerseys of the Muggsy Bogues era in Charlotte were the stuff kids’ dreams were made of.
Photo by David Liam Kyle /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images