Fansided ranks original Orlando Magic pinstripes 6th best jersey
The Orlando Magic pinstripes are one of the iconic looks of the 1990s NBA. And they remain a popular design in rankings of NBA jerseys.
It is definitely the doldrums of the NBA calendar.
Free agency is done. The schedule is out. Players are waiting for training camp — unless they have international duty to attend to.
There is a lot of (somewhat) nonsense going on in the conversation. We just do not have anything to talk about.
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Earlier this month, Phil Hecken of UniWatch suggested the Magic were due for a jersey redesign when the uniform deal switches over to Nike in a few years.
The overwhelming response to that post was: Why did the Magic ever go away from the original pinstripe uniforms to being with?
That is a good question. One without a good answer — marketing, distancing from Shaquille O’Neal and his departure. The Magic’s current uniforms are a more modern design that calls back to the Magic’s original pinstripe design.
Still, the Magic’s original pinstripe design has a cult following among NBA jersey heads. They are still extremely popular when the Magic wear throwback uniforms and the team still sells old uniforms featuring Anfernee Hardaway and O’Neal.
Fansided’s Josh Hill ranked the 30 best uniforms in NBA history, and he placed the Magic’s original black pinstripe uniforms at No. 6:
"When the Orlando Magic started to pop in the 1990s, they had one of the coolest looks in the NBA. It’s hard to pull off the pinstripe look, mainly thanks to the Yankees iconic baseball threads, but the Magic simply took that idea and flipped it inside out.The results were the black pinstripe uniforms that are still, to this day, cooler than what the team is currently wearing.Everything about these uniforms screams 90s, from the logo to the font to the fact that the back and white pinstripes work so well. You can’t look at these and not instantly think of Shaq, Penny or any of those great teams the Magic had during the decade that were never able to make it to the top, but were damned if they didn’t try."
No matter who you seem to talk to, the Magic have become somewhat married to pinstripes. They are one of the few teams to pull it off — not an easy thing to do with such huge bodies wearing them. It seems that pinstripes have to be part of every future Magic jersey design.
Fans still lament the team went away from the original uniforms, even if the design might be outdated for the current logo and branding and current trends.
Among the jerseys ranked ahead of the Magic’s original pinstripes are two more jerseys that featured pinstripes — the early-2000s Pacers uniforms and the original Raptors’ uniforms (the one with the cartoon Raptor).
His top jersey is the early-1990s Sonics jerseys — a simplistic and iconic design for sure.
Obviously this is one writer’s opinion. He certainly seems to like jerseys that have a unique look to them. The Magic’s original pinstripes certainly fits that bill.
Where would you rank the Magic’s jerseys in the pantheon of NBA uniforms?
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