The Boston Celtics already broke out their fully green parquet floor on Tuesday night against the Atlanta Hawks, and on Thursday morning the reigning NBA champions officially unveiled their 2024-25 “City Edition” uniforms.
Boston’s “Future of the Game” jerseys mark the latest of an annual rollout of eye-popping uniforms dropped each season. In the past, the iconic — and most winningest — basketball franchise has ridden the traditional route, paying homage to Bill Russell, the 18 title banners hanging on TD Garden’s rafters and the parquet floor. Those jerseys, while some bland, were generally acceptable and worthy of a thumbs-up.
This time, however… the Celtics were so off the entire franchise deserves a collective flagrant 2 foul for the eyesore that is their neon-filled atrocity.
To the untrained eye, Boston’s newest uniform might be confused with a Baylor Bears jersey — and that’s not a compliment. The Celtics introduced “Action Green” hits on a predominantly black jersey, which produced the 38-year-old Shaquille O’Neal Celtics version of basketball uniforms.
Here’s how Boston’s “City Edition” uniforms graded:
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Concept: bland as could be
The uniform itself doesn’t scream “Celtics basketball” at all. It doesn’t fit with all of Boston’s previous “City Edition” installments or any Celtics uniform ever created.
“While the previous season’s uniform celebrated the origin of the game in Springfield, MA, this year’s on-court collection was designed to highlight its evolution,” a press release from the Celtics read.
Not good enough.
Colors: bold, but poorly executed
Boston’s new “Action Green” could’ve worked, just not with this design.
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Using a black jersey is fine but adding a military green border makes zero sense. Together, the colors don’t flow, they aren’t aesthetically pleasing and most importantly, they don’t represent the Celtics. Plenty of middle-school-aged “NBA 2K” addicts are capable of designing this uniform in the blink of an eye, if not better.
Creativity: nonexistent
Let’s start with the font reading “Celtics” — it’s horrible.
It doesn’t suggest anything futuristic, it suggests the newest “Call of Duty” release is coming soon. There’s nothing wrong with taking risks and going with something new, as long as it works. In this case, not only did it not work, it produced arguably the worst “City Edition” uniform among all 30 releases in the NBA.
If the jersey didn’t say “Celtics” on the chest, it’d be incredibly difficult to determine which team’s uniform this disappointment belonged to.
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Final grade: D+
The Celtics will debut the jersey on Saturday night as they host the Toronto Raptors.
Featured image via Paul Rutherford/Imagn Images
