I always thought it would have made more sense for team’s road unis to be used for home games. Realistically, the away jersey is the true identity of a franchise, the teams primary colour is the dominant colour of the jersey and other colours from their palette make up the accent colours and design of the jersey. Compare this to the traditional home jersey, it is a fully white jersey apart from the 1/2 colours used to make up the name and number set. The home jersey always seemed like a ‘washed out’ version of a team’s identity.

For example, some of the most iconic jerseys in NBA history include Boston’s green jersey, Chicago’s red jersey and New York’s blue & orange strip. In my opinion it’s surreal that the above jerseys were only ever worn away from their home court. The green jersey of Boston never stepped foot on the famous parquet floor, every highlight of MJ in a red jersey was always taken in front of an opposition crowd.

I acknowledge the NBA has ditched the tradition of home and away jerseys since Nike began supplying the jerseys, which has lead to an even bigger issue of teams wearing whatever jersey they want when they want. If they had stuck with the original idea of home & away jerseys, but merely swapped the colours of them I think it would have made for great viewing. Green jerseys in Boston, red in Chicago, purple in Sacramento etc.

The Lakers had the perfect setup IMO, iconic yellow jersey worn at home, purple jersey worn away, white jersey worn periodically at home. The Lakers yellow uniform is probably the most recognizable uniform in the league, and it is tied with many historical moments on their home court. Matchups always look much more vibrant on court when it’s colour vs. colour, thinking about Lakers Celtics in the finals, Lakers Bulls on Christmas day, it’s a much more vivid memory compared to white jerseys.