Timberwolves' "It's Cold" City Edition Court

City Edition uniforms (used in the NBA and MLB) and court designs (for the NBA) appear occasionally during the season to illustrate a connection between a team and the city in which it plays. Some teams' logos already incorporate aspects of the home city (for example, the Warriors' use of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges). Others do so to a lesser degree, if at all.

This season, the Minnesota Timberwolves are invoking a very basic idea in their City Edition imagery, namely that Minnesota is cold! As illustrated in this screenshot from the Wolves' website, especially in the court's keys, "The striking white and black aesthetic captures the contrast of winter landscapes, reflecting the elegance of snow-covered lakes under a moonlit sky."

I like this court. It's something different, without overwhelming the viewer.

New Courts for Second Annual NBA Cup

This Yahoo! Sports article presents illustrations of all 30 team courts for the second annual NBA Cup (in-season tournament). All the courts feature large, colorful concentric circles -- which kind of remind me of Olympic-style wrestling mats -- with large images of the NBA Cup trophy in the keys and at center-court. The only court I really like is Boston's, with its pretend parquet squares painted onto the court.

Oregon Tones Down the Forest, Adds Green Out-of-Bounds Area

I finally caught a telecast from the University of Oregon, featuring the Ducks' new court that Matt Rachmiel had e-mailed me about. This link shows the old and new courts side by side. The two main changes, in my view, are the toning down of the forest motif with fewer trees and the solid green out-of-bounds area. I like both of these changes, especially the greater emphasis given to UO's school colors (the added green area and the slogans "MIGHTY OREGON" and "FIGHTING DUCKS" in yellow, one slogan along each baseline). 

Jackson State's Double Parquet

Frequent contributor Matt Rachmiel writes in with an observation about the court at Jackson State University. Says Matt, "I don’t know how new its court is, but it’s very unusual, and I believe the only Division [I] court that has two different parquet shades: the parquet of most of the court is one shade, but the parquet of the 'two point' area (excluding the key) is a parquet of a different shade."

Full-game video of a recent game at Jackson State is available here.