On Tuesday night, the Phoenix Suns hosted an event to unveil a brand new alternate uniform. Modeled by Eric Bledsoe, the jersey turned out to be Phoenix's first black jersey ever since the Charles Barkley days. This jersey is almost all black, with the letters "PHX" outlined in white, and the collar of the jersey being purple and orange. This jersey will be worn 13 times throughout the season, including opening night against the Dallas Mavericks.
The Phoenix Suns also tweaked their orange alternate uniforms, which went sleeveless. The sleeved orange jerseys, which the Suns wore every Friday home game last season, remained exactly the same but with the sleeves chopped off. Most view this as an upgrade since the sleeved jerseys haven't exactly been a hit since debuting in the NBA.
The Suns ended up keeping their gray sleeved jerseys, though. They still will wear the 'Los Suns" jerseys when that time of the NBA season rolls around. And of course they still have their home whites and road purples.
The brand new black alternate jerseys were expected, as they were being promoted by the Suns weeks in advance. The orange sleeveless ones came as a bit of a surprise. However, the biggest surprise of the night came when Phoenix unleashed a brand new court design. The Suns kept the orange and black, but went retro. They brought back the old logo of the basketball/sun combination which will now be at center court instead of the word "Suns." This brand new home court is a mix of new era Suns basketball and the older era of Suns basketball.
"WE ARE PHX" is also presented along the sideline of this new court, as Phoenix has been pushing that new slogan ever since the end of last season. Its purpose is to connect the fans and team with the city of Phoenix. Another interesting tidbit is that there will be purple seats with the slogan "WE ARE PHX" around the city of Phoenix, and if you as fans see them around and take pictures with them, you have a chance to get free tickets to a Suns game.
It was nice for fans to see this event as usually beginning of September is not exactly "primetime" for NBA news. Seeing Brandon Knight, Eric Bledsoe, P.J. Tucker, Devin Booker, Archie Goodwin, and Jon Leuer model these uniforms along with a brand new home court was like a breath of fresh air. Now the Suns can only hope these changes can push the team back into the playoffs, where they have experienced a five-year drought.