New Orleans Pelicans: Ranking the NBA’s city edition uniforms

The city edition jersey for the New Orleans Pelicans has divided the fans online. How does the new look compare to that of other teams?

Basketball is back and brought a new city edition jersey for the New Orleans Pelicans.

When Nike unveiled the city edition jerseys four years ago fans jumped at the chance to buy a different jersey that would be tied to one specific season.

Now that all teams have released their jerseys and I’ve stopped being lazy let’s take a look at which one reigns supreme going into the season. Hint: it ain’t the  New Orleans Pelicans. 

How will that be decided? Simple, I came up with four criteria to grade the jerseys on, and the highest score wins.

These four are fairly straightforward and will be scored on a points system so the most points at the end wins. Onto the categories:

Pop Factor (1-10 points) – this quantifies how each jersey hit me the first time I saw it.

Difference Factor (1-3 points) – the city editions shouldn’t be too similar to the regular uniforms.

Story Behind (1-3 points) – did the team come up with a good explanation as to why they went the way they did.

Colors (1-3 points) – somewhat related to the Difference Factor in that I’d like to see teams try out new colors for the jerseys or at least use their existing colors in new ways.

Add that up and the highest possible score a team can get is 19 points, which was only achieved by a fake team. Let’s get into it.

Honorable Mention. Tampa Raptors – 19 points

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1333874690876649472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1333874690876649472%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdknation.draftkings.com%2Fnba%2F2020%2F12%2F1%2F21826097%2Ftoronto-raptors-jerseys-tampa-leaked-design-rumors-pink-pastel-amalie-arena-omg-i-want-one-right-now

Pop – 10 points, Difference – 3 points, Story – 3 points, Colors – 3 points.

These are absolutely stunning and boatloads of fun. Having the raptor wear sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt like you imagine tourists doing is just perfect and very on the nose in the context of this season. If this was a real jersey, Toronto would have won this going away.

Now there are a couple of slight knocks here but ultimately nothing that amounted to much. The colors are a little too close to Miami but baby blue is always a great place to start with a jersey.

It’s a little fitting in a year that’s been so bad for the world at large, one city in Florida could have a very good sports year.

Ok, onto the real teams. How do the New Orleans Pelicans stack up?