The Heat yesterday became the latest NBA team to unveil a new throwback, as they announced the revival of their inaugural white uniform for the upcoming 2022-23 season. The front of the jersey is shown above, and here’s how it’ll look from the back:
Miami wore this design as their home uniform from their 1988 founding through the 1998-99 season. Here’s how it looked back in the day:
As unveilings go, this one was very spare — just a few photos of the jersey, no sign of the shorts, very little info or hype. The throwback jersey photos don’t even include the Heat’s usual ad patch (which I don’t think indicates anything for on-court — it just means they used a retail jersey for the photos).
By my count, the Heat are the ninth NBA team to announce a throwback for 2022-23. (The other eight are the Rockets, Nets, Suns, Bucks, Wizards, Lakers, Warriors, and Pistons.) I’m not sure if that’s a record, but it certainly suggests that this will be a very retro-flavored NBA season.
1998-99 season, not 1988
Thanks. Fixed.
The triple border on the numbers seems excessive.
Love this uniform but true about the numbers. Always thought too many layers to them. Fix the numbers up on the white jersey and Heat should really go back to their original uniforms as their primary look.
I love this multi-layer look for the numbers. Would be even better if they could figure out how to squeeze in a fifth layer somewhere!!!
I wonder if the original jerseys had four full layers of twill? Would be heavy but the mesh was pretty thick and basketball numbers are pretty small so maybe it wasn’t an issue.
This was the thing I remember most about them when the Heat franchise was founded. Traditional number font, but four layers. Were they the first major American sports team to have four layers?
What a way to celebrate the 76th season. All these throwbacks should have been last season.
Oh, also bring back the Sonics (Not as a OKC throwback either).
The NBA celebrated its 50th anniversary in the 1996-97 season, so it’s par for the course for that league. Though I feel they really shortchange the NBL, considering it preceded the BAA by nine years, and only three founding BAA teams are still active while there are still five teams active that came from the NBL (though three of them did jump to the BAA the year before the merger).
I think that this was a paper merger; the BAA and its big city-arena-centric business model simply changed names and absorbed the NBL teams. The problem is that many of the NBL jumpers over time did find bigger cities, but five of the early big-city BAA teams failed after the merger. So maybe a problem of finding the right major markets.
You mean the 77th season. The league celebrated the 75th a year late due to the pandemic.
Even the Jock tags have their own jock tags.
So meta
Some of my favorite unis in NBA history. Glad to see them back.
One of the most original and best jerseys in recent NBA history. Always loved these for the Heat.
The Heat should always keep these in circulation. They are classics.
I prefer the black version but this one is also nice.