The Los Angeles Lakers have always embodied Hollywood. They are glitz and glamour, celebrities and championships, swimming pools and movie stars. And part of the gig of being Hollywood’s best, from Magic to Wilt To Shaq to Kobe, has been being on fashion’s cutting edge, all the time. From classic suits to workout gear to casual wear (including, yep, suspenders!), part of being among the Lakers’ starring cast has always meant embracing the styles on the cutting edge. No matter how they look in retrospect.
What’s your favorite look of all-time? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to continue the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #NBAStyle…
While the NBA is a League that has always had its share of individuals, the one unifying feature of all players is that everyone wears uniforms. But that doesn’t make them uniform. Some franchises have opted for simple jerseys with their team name in a stylized font, such as the Knicks or the Minneapolis Lakers, other teams have gone for more interesting expressions. Check out, for instance, the New Jersey Nets, with a red/white/blue stars and stripes motif; All-Star Game jerseys, with stars literally all over them; a Toronto Raptor jersey featuring an enormous cartoon raptor. Sometimes it’s in the details, like with the trim on the throwback Syracuse Nationals jersey. And then sometimes we’re drawn to the colors, like with the gorgeous baby blue and red of the old Sacramento Kings jerseys.
Whatever you like, for many of us uniforms can be much more than just a statement of which team we’re cheering for. We picked some pics in the gallery below of uniforms that caught our eye.
What is your favorite uniform of all-time? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to continue the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #NBAStyle… -
You may have noticed it’s the offseason, which means we have plenty of time to sit around and think about many of the things that make it fun to be an NBA fan. Here at All Ball, we’ll be passing the time until the start of the season with a new series, the Fave Five. Each week will count down a list of the five best, or worst … somethings. We’ll try to get creative with it. Plus we’re taking requests! If you have a suggestion for a Fave Five post, give us a shout and you may see it appear in this space over the next several weeks.
Remember last year when the Nets had four Williams on their team? Crazy right? Maybe not, actually. As it turns out, Williams is the most populous last name in professional basketball history, with 69 players.
Williams is the most popular surname — but is it the best? For this week’s Fave Five, we took a look at the history books to pull out the five best teams by last name.
A couple quick notes: This list is entirely subjective, but there was a little method to the madness. First off, given the sheer mass of players who have competed over the years in the NBA and ABA, we narrowed the list to last names with at least 10 players listed in the Basketball Reference database.
Then, to help whittle down the contenders even more, we used Win Shares (if you are unfamiliar with them, here’s a brief description) as a baseline for judging performance. With a few exceptions, the five players we chose for each team had the most career Win Shares within each last name. To help further guide our hand, we then averaged the win share totals per starting five. I’m sure anyone with basic skills in statistical analysis could poke any number of holes in this methodology, but like I say, this list is ultimately subjective. So too bad.
Also — we used statistics to help frame the debate, but ultimately the rankings came down to answering this question: If these teams played each other head to head, with each player in their individual primes, who would win?
Here we go!
5. Miller
Total Millers: 16 (including 2012 Draft picks Quincy and Darius) Starting Five:Reggie Miller (174.4), Andre Miller (90.1), Brad Miller (76.5), Mike Miller (53.5), Oliver Miller (21.1) Hall of Famers: One, as of Friday Average career WS of starting five: 83.1
The Miller name is pretty top heavy. Reggie, making his way into the Hall of Fame this weekend, is 15th on the all-time list in Win Shares, while Oliver has the least amount of any starter in the top five. In fact, only one other Miller (Larry, a G/F who played seven seasons in the ABA from 1968-75), has put up even double-digit career WS totals*.
*Quincy and Darius, you have your work cut out for you.
This isn’t the flashiest bunch of players, Reggie aside, but the rest of this lineup put together a fine collection of NBA careers in their time. And yeah, Oliver is the weak link here, but the dude — when he was fit enough, which perhaps wasn’t so often — could ball.
Magic Johnson and Larry Bird appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman Wednesday night to promote “Magic/Bird”, the new play starting on Broadway that chronicles their world-famous rivalry throughout the years. Here’s a little taste:
I could spend hours listening to the two of them talk about basketball and their relationship. Next time I’m in New York, it’s The Book of Mormon, then Magic/Bird, then, I dunno, maybe Rock of Ages or Once or something.
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Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan at 1997 All-Star Weekend in Cleveland
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images
Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain Walter Iooss Jr.
In light of a pretty sweet single-serving Tumblr making the rounds this week entitled “Awesome People Hanging Out Together“, I wondered if you could do a similar, even more narrowly-drawn listing of the same concept but applying solely to basketball players.
It’s easy to find shots of NBA players together on the court, but are there enough of them at leisure, so to speak, to sustain the concept?
If you have any suggestions for additions to the gallery, let us know.
Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know viaemail or Twitter.
Catch up on every single game-winning buzzer beater during the season and see how it rates on the Horry Scale.
