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.
I always thought it was weird that the nicer uniform was saved for the road. I think here in the NBL (Aus) it was the reverse.
From the persepctive of a local fan attending multiple games, it makes sense that the away team wears the more distinctive and differentiating kit. The home team’s color identity generally dominates the arena, so I think having the away team’s colors contrast with that is aesthetically better.
And as another commenter already stated, in the old days, the logistics of doing laundry on the road probably had something to do with it. I’ve heard that explanation for baseball’s traditional road greys at least.
I think you are just used to it. As primarily a football fan where the away team wears white, its always felt more natural to me for the home team to wear their primary colors.
While I see the validity of the argument to wearing colors while either home or away, I think the fact that teams now have up to a dozen different kits, the argument has become pointless. While some of the traditional teams only have one off-set (lakers and Celtics), teams like Philly, Phoenix, and Brooklyn (to name a few) seem to wear a different kit for almost every game. It usually takes a few weeks to a month to see a jersey repeated.
It makes it easier for casual fans to know which team to root for and also to know which team is the home team if you just tuned into the game.
Also IIRC, the team’s city used to be on the away jersey so teams would clearly be representing your city at away games, and the team’s nickname would be on the home jersey. But it wasn’t consistently done and now there’s no rhyme or reason to that.
It started when it was black and white tv, not for just basketball but any sport. Home was white so you knew who was who.
ummm racism?? hoe can you even ask this…
Idk I went to the Hornets Pacers game in Indy and Charlotte was in white. I was pissed cause Id never got to see them in that signature teal.
Tradition; it started with baseball that home teams wore white and away wore gray; supposedly because it was harder to do laundry and keep the white uniform looking clean on the road (which makes more sense in the 19th Century and playing baseball)
I agree with this take
Suns white unis are Away I’m pretty sure.
In any team sports in general the white is home vs “color” for away. I think it ha history in laundry not that aviable back in days, plus the color white or in general bright an clear color helped fans to identify as the “good” of the situations vs “enemy”, which are darker.
Moreover it is conventional. The Lakers weared yellow at home, except for Sunday games, for example. There are even some teams that plays in dark colours at home in other sports right now.