An impassioned plea to Houston Rockets management to bring back the team's classic logo scheme and uniforms | Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets
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Bring back the gold: an impassioned plea

28 Jun 2010 07:23 PM
by rahat huq

94rockets1 Bring back the gold: an impassioned plea

It’s been rare that I’ve been critical of this organization and this is with good reason – the Houston Rockets are one of the best managed teams in sports.

But there is one decision with which I must take issue and it pertains to the topic of those dreadful uniforms.

It was with reasonable intent that management made the switch following the second title.  They stood to capitalize at the register off the prior year’s success.  Unfortunately, the end-product was one of the most widely mocked outfits in league history, a regular atop lists of that sort.

In ’03, they tried to make amends, switching to the current threads, but still falling well short of acceptability.  (It should be noted that the current scheme’s stark similarity to that of the Chinese national team’s and the glaring omission of the word ‘Houston’, both decisions for one obvious marketing consideration, were widely taken as a bit of a slap in the face by long-time ticket holders.)

The storied franchises in our league maintain their original looks in reverence of tradition.  Change for the mere sake of reeks of vagrant insecurity and a lack of resolve in the timelessness of one’s own brand.

As one of just a handful of teams to have won a title in the last two decades, this franchise has tradition.  For it’s management’s innovative strategies, this is one of the most well-respected organizations in this sport.  It’s time the look reflected those realities.  It’s time to restore pride in a classic image.  It’s time to bring back the gold.

houston rockets 300x294 Bring back the gold: an impassioned plea

Should the Houston Rockets return to some variation of their classic uniforms and logo?

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  • Rockets fan from Saudi Arabia
    Maybe I'm alone on this, but I really liked the '96 - '02 uniforms.

    At the time, there wasn't any other team in the NBA that had as much detail and color, especially comparing Houston's away uniforms with the dark blue and silver stripes.

    Granted, I was only about 9 years old when they changed it to that, so in retrospect, I'll admit the rocket with the teeth on it was a little silly, but the orbit path around the basketball was a nice touch, and the font they used for the word "ROCKETS" on top of that was pretty kick-ass.

    The fact that the old logo never had a picture of a Rocket on it confused me, and I always thought the old one was a little bland.

    Maybe a design somewhere in-between both could be made?
  • Greg D
    Amen, rahat.
  • rahat huq
    Guys, I actually like the McDonald's alternates they wore that one time.... :-o
  • Anonymous


    RFWC: I think the old time unis are good for a game or two a year. It’s a bid drab after all these years.I think if signing Yao makes a 42 win team a 55 win team, there’s should be lots of interest. There are worse chances to take with $17M a year. Not to mention all the oversea sales and TV rights and the cash flow that comes with this economic crunch.  (reply with quote)  (reply w/out quote)


    Yao will be making more than any max player who doesn't sign with his original team
  • Charlie Boy
    time for an updated look no doubt, and please do away with the mustard and ketchup packet color scheme on the alternates, was that really the best 'ode' to the years of yore that they could come up with? YUCK.
  • Aussie Ric
    I'm not sure what all the fuss over the current uniform is about? I quite like it. Also, the alternates this year with the mustard and ketchup were pretty sweet, I plan on getting on of those once summer turns up.
  • RFWC
    I think the old time unis are good for a game or two a year. It's a bid drab after all these years.

    I think if signing Yao makes a 42 win team a 55 win team, there's should be lots of interest. There are worse chances to take with $17M a year. Not to mention all the oversea sales and TV rights and the cash flow that comes with this economic crunch.
  • Oscar Quintanilla
    the alternates should be the official uniforms
  • Jordan
    I agree that Yao coming back was big, but I do not think that many teams would have taken a chance on Yao. He was always coming back to Houston.

    Back to the uniforms...The alternate uniforms that we have are good, not great, but they are a huge step in the right direction.

    some of the best uniforms in the league are also the most simple. Bulls-red/white, Lakers-Purple/Gold, Spurs-black/silver, Celtics- green/white.

    We need to keep it simple stupid (the office, Dwight) KISS

    Red and White with less yellow then the alternates that we have now.
  • RFWC
    Yao agreeing to play for Rockets 2010-2011 for the last year of his contract is the most important move of the off-season so far. Rockets have managed to say and do the right things to convince Yao that the Rockets will be a winner this coming year.
  • Alituro
    The uniforms, and especially the roster pictured above bring back my fondest sports memories. While there is a place in my heart for the old logo, it really has nothing to do with actual Rockets. The current "R" does have a nice rocket theme, but the fact that "Houston" is no longer on our uniform is quite an abomination. I was especially glad to see the mustard back on last year and I think there should be a good offensive quantity of it on all uniforms used. It's ugly and in-your-face, especially when accented by red, all that a uniform should be about.

    Insurance companies say that people who drive red cars are more likely to speed, get in accidents and get tickets. I wonder if there are any psychological affects on the refs when we wear our reds. Especially compared to something like Denver's baby blues. Does it cause an illusion of aggressiveness?
  • Zen Monkey
    Nice picture. That was a quality starting five. I think what has stood out among the great Houston players was not skill or fame, but heart. Olajuwon, Elie, a young Horry, even crazy old Vernon Maxwell (and many others) played with a real determination that had nothing to do with jersey sales or statistics. I like that we've had some of that playing style in the last couple of years. I think someone like Landry would have been a good fit to back up Otis Thorpe or sit beside Carl Herrera.
  • Nobody is Better than Jordan
    Wait a second though, are we forgetting about Houston's new alternate jersey, ol' ketchup and mustard came back with HOUSTON on the jersey last year. The logo doesn't really need another overhaul. It's actually a pretty solid design, but if it were given an update it would still need to remain equally simplistic. As for uniform characteristics, I'd like them to start trending towards some of the college uniform styles from last year. Like Kentucky's uniform, snug fit jersey, loose fitting shorts, metalic accent on the bottom of the neck, something Houston could put an actual 14k gold piece with the R logo embossed on it. They could do something nice with that as a template.
  • Kevin
    I kind of like our white uniforms. The red just looks so incomplete. The cut is dreadful on both. I swear it scares away FAs.
  • They absolutely should. I would be interested in seeing the jersey figure sales since they introduced the throwback jerseys (which look nice but still aren't amazing. I honestly don't mind the colors and design of the current uniforms too much but the logo is horrendous. During the draft when they showed the logos for each team on the big board you could only tell who we were because we're the only team with a dime size icon surrounded by 3.4 miles of text. As you suggest, a return to the classic colors would be great though a redesign of the actual logo would be in order and should ABSOLUTELY include "Houston" in it.
  • jason b.
    well played and persuasive.
  • Anonymous
    I love the uniform but am meh about the logo.
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