Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kenrich Williams was asked if changing jerseys at halftime because of a color mishap was the weirdest thing he’s experienced over his three-year NBA career.
“It’s corona and then changing uniforms,” he said with a laugh.
The story of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 118-109 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night was overshadowed by the jersey snafu that had the two teams wearing very similar colors.
The Thunder donned their orange sunset jerseys while the Hawks wore red, the only color they brought on their road trip. It was immediately clear that it should not be so when the teams stepped onto the court.
According to ESPN’s Royce Young, teams go through a process to select their uniforms for every game before the season begins. The home team picks before the road team.
After the teams select, the league goes through the LockerVision system to approve the combos. Friday night’s selection “slipped through the approval process,” Young wrote. The league told ESPN this is the first time it has happened since the system was established prior to the 2017-18 season.
It took some adjustment for the players.
“It looked weird at first, but it didn’t really have too much effect on me once I got going,” said Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Williams agreed.
“You could definitely tell playing on the court,” he said. “Just kind of just — you see somebody, and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s not my teammate.’”
Both head coaches, Mark Daigneault and Lloyd Pierce, said they didn’t realize there was an issue during the game. The NBA requested the Thunder to change to a white uniform at halftime.
“I certainly didn’t notice it or even think about it, to be honest with you. It was a league mandate that we just reacted to,” Daigneault said. “They made me aware of it at halftime when I went into the locker rooms. The guys were in white uniforms, and then we went out and played the second half.”
Gilgeous-Alexander said switching to white jerseys made it easier.
“It wasn’t really much to it,” he said. “I think it made it a little bit easier for our peripherals and stuff like that in the second half. But other than that, it was cool.”
In the end, it seemed to have minimal bearing on the Thunder. Oklahoma City had 31 assists, one shy of their season-high, and 10 turnovers, well below the season average.
Williams said it was one of the team’s best performances.
“I think this was our best game as far as getting everybody else involved and playing real team basketball,” Williams said.
