The Wizards "will be getting a new basketball court this season, which is scheduled to be in place in time for the team’s preseason home opener on Oct. 12," according to Dan Steinberg of the WASHINGTON POST. The new design "has several noticeable changes" from the previous version, which debuted in '11. The lanes "change colors from mostly blue to all red, a color that hadn’t been well-represented on the playing surface since the team’s colors changed." The three-point line "will also change from blue to red." The logo at mid-court "changes from 'wizards' to 'dc,' capitalizing on the dcRising theme that the team used throughout its playoff run last spring." The court also "has a different inter-locking mechanism, which is intended to make the conversion" easier for Capitals or Georgetown basketball games (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 9/10). Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Dan McCarney reported the Spurs have a new court design that "eschews the team name in favor of the iconic spur logo at center court." It is "absolutely gigantic at that -- a whopping 25 feet long and 20 feet wide, the largest of any NBA midcourt logo" (MYSANANTONIO.com, 9/10).
COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION: GRANTLAND's Zach Lowe ranked the 30 NBA court designs, which are "perhaps the closest thing the NBA has to large-scale works of art." Lowe: "We are entering a phase of high art in the court design space; every redesign for this season, save one, is an emphatic upgrade." No. 1 is the Lakers' court at Staples Center, where the centerpiece "has always been perfect -- the tasteful L.A. logo, with a star for each of the franchise’s 16 championships." The alternate "L" logo in two corners is a "recent addition, and it adds some spice." Ranking No. 2 is the Celtics' court at TD Garden, where the parquet "looks nice even without the history." However, one mark "against the Celtics" is that they are the only team that uses "precious baseline real estate to tout the name of the arena, and not the name of the city or team." No. 3 on the list is the Hornets' court, which is painted in a "deep purple-blue that sings without college lane markings, and the teal is obviously a callback" to the original Charlotte Hornets. But the "pièce de résistance" is the Hornets' new hexagonal honeycombed pattern on the floor boarding. Ranking last on the list is the Cavaliers' court, despite an "improvement over the court" the team "used three seasons ago, which shaded the entire circle around the foul line in that brownish 'wine' shade and featured two-toned wood on the bulk of the court." The Cavs' color scheme "can be hard to digest in big slices, and though they keep changing the center-court logo, they seem determined to make it as large as possible" (GRANTLAND.com, 9/9).
