Courts for Inaugural NBA In-Season Tourney

Via frequent contributor Matt Rachmiel, the inaugural NBA in-season tournament will feature special court designs that follow the same general scheme for all 30 teams, but with colors and other features unique to each team. This ESPN.com article includes thumbnail images of all 30 courts, with larger images of several of them. 

The NBA's aim is to make it immediately clear to television viewers that they are watching an in-season tournament game rather than an ordinary regular-season game (although all tournament games except the final will count in the regular-season standings). I suspect the new floor designs will succeed spectacularly in that regard, as they are unlike any courts I've ever seen.

I created the following schematic to explain the design. First, the courts will consist entirely of solid colors, with no natural wood showing. Second, there will be a large stripe through the middle of the court, taking in the keys.

Some may find the design visually overwhelming, but for its limited purpose, I think it will work nicely.

Northern Illinois Unveils Color-Asymmetric Court

Via the usual sources, Northern Illinois University has a new court. As seen at this link, at one end of the court the key and most of the out-of-bounds area are painted red, whereas at the other end, the key and most of the out-of-bounds area are painted black. For lack of a better term, I'm calling this a "color-asymmetric" court. I've probably seen one or two of these on television over the years, but NIU's is the first I'm aware of for an NCAA Division I program. The court also features an Illinois state-shape and the initials NIU at center court, based on different shades of shellac. The different shades are very subtle -- perhaps too subtle -- however.