History of NBA All-Star jerseys
Since the first All-Star Game in 1951, 60 years of NBA All-Star history have passed. So let’s take a look at how NBA All-Star jerseys have changed over the 60 years.
In 1951, the first NBA All-Star Game was held. It was only 2 years after BAA merged with NBL, and there were only 11 teams in the league, as the Washington Capitol went bankrupt earlier that year. At that time, basketball was not popular in America. The favorite games of the Americans were the NFL (National Football League), MLB (Major League Baseball) and NHL (National Hockey League). So the NBA league kept a pretty low profile. Even in the All-Star game, which was aimed at pleasing the fans, the NBA jerseys were quite conservative. From 1951 to 1970, the NBA All-Star jerseys were extremely regular and stiff. The main colors were always red, white and blue, which symbolized the league, and there were no large letters or “NBA” logos on the jersey. Only “EAST” or “WEST” was displayed on the chest, along with the giant number. Also, no two numbers can be the same on a team. For example, if Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan were on the WEST All-star team, one of them couldn’t wear the number 21 and had to choose another number that no one else had used. In addition to these rigid rules, the most unacceptable thing is that the NBA’s Jersey Design Department believed that now that it was an all-star game, everyone’s jersey should have stars and the stars should be pure colored five-pointed stars. Therefore, in the 20 years, every NBA All-Star jersey had been full of stars and the stars had somehow become the main role in the game. It was said that there was even a repertory at the opening ceremony where all the All-Star players would be holding hands singing “we are the stars” or something like that.
After entering the 1980s, the situation changed a bit. The league realized that the rigid, regular rules would not be favored by the youngsters who had taken a significant part in the NBA consumer market. Although the league still had a cautious attitude against the design of the jerseys, they had started to let some creative designs appear. Since then, NBA All-Star jerseys have tended to diversify. Some animated designs had been shown on the jerseys of the NBA stars. For example, on the 1975 Phoenix stars’ jerseys, there was a rising sun on the pants. On the 1979 Detroit All-Star jerseys, the slanted letters and numbers created a great visual impact. And for whatever reason, in 1982, many people adopted the design with stars around the sleeve and hem of the shirt. And this style of shirt was continued until 1987 with very little change. In this period, the main feature was that the NBA logo was displayed in the most obvious place on the jersey, which means that the NBA league had finally started to emphasize building its brand. Of course, this obvious advertising activity was resisted by consumers first, but then people soon accepted it. After all, marketing had already been done around the world.
When the hip-hop culture that broke the boundaries of the human races became a very popular element throughout the society of Europe and America, the liberation of the personality became the motto of all. And very exotic, elegant, strange and clever pullover designs were created in this period. For example, the Denver Nuggets Rainbow jerseys in the 1980s were considered a masterpiece ahead of its time even from today’s perspective. Additionally, the league first granted the authority to the host city to design and manufacture All-Star jerseys. The boring All-Star jersey was developing on the path of personalization.
But if customization had gone too far, it wouldn’t be good either. It was obvious that all the host cities had placed so much emphasis on applying the elements of the home team jersey that they had ignored the tastes of the entire American public. At the 1995 Phoenix All-Star Games, the design of this city had always been too beautiful or too terrible, they put a giant cactus that looked like the fork of dung on top of a grotesque orange / yellow star on the jersey. The deadliest part was the manure fork with this color. The city was quite proud of it, but this style of NBA All-Star jersey was almost the best-selling of all time. Maybe by design it wasn’t that bad, but obviously not everyone would love the desert and cacti.
In 1996, the situation seemed worse. The league hoped that low-key, honest San Antonio could find an acceptable NBA jersey to get it back on the right track. However, no one could imagine that those mint colored T-shirts with little peppers would appear on Jordan’s body. ABC was interviewing an audience who left the game early and simply said, “Sorry, but I really am allergic to peppermint.”
In 1997, the league finally regained authority over the design of the NBA All-Star jersey. But the replacement plan seemed even worse. Each player must wear their own team’s jersey in the All-Star Game. Those various NBA jerseys made it look like all the players were fighting alone. And because of the color distinction problem, turnovers, such as passing the ball to the wrong teammate, had affected the game. The game was not that wonderful. This situation changed in 2003. In 2003, the league finally unified all NBA All-Star jerseys again and revived the 1988 All-Star jersey style.