The Celtics New NBA Cup Court Has Been Leaked And Unlike Last Year It's Not A Complete Disaster
In the nearly 10 years (holy shit) that I've had the privilege of blogging for this incredible website, I've certainly had my fair share of takes in regards to the Boston Celtics. Some aged wonderfully, some crashed and burned in my face, but I say with full confidence that one take I've had that has universal agreement (or at the very least should) is how complete dogshit the 2024-25 Celtics City Edition jerseys look. If we're to believe the leak from a few days ago, it's a complete and utter disaster and is beyond disrespectful to not just the NBA Champions, but to anyone with functioning eyes
Well, the leaks roll on, this time giving us our first look at the new NBA Cup floor. You'll remember what a disaster last year's court was at the Garden. Adam Silver and the NBA became public enemy #1 by denying the Celtics' request to include parque in their floor. You know, who gives a shit that the greatest franchise in the league has never, ever, had a court with zero parque included, Adam Silver told the team to get bent, instead forcing them to use this monstrosity
Why they couldn't have just done parque down the middle strip of that floor still makes no sense to me, because that court WAS NOT it. I'm not even one of those people who hates the colored courts and thinks the NBA is stupid for doing it. I'm all for them as long as they're done right. There are plenty of NBA Cup courts that weren't awful, but the Garden was certainly not one of those courts.
Enter the 2024-25 NBA Cup season. The leaks are rolling out and the Celts court…..isn't a disaster?!?!?!
Ok, let the initial shock wear off. I'll give you a second or two
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My initial thoughts
- It looks like a MUCH better and more accurate green, I think that was my second biggest gripe with last year's version. It was like we were watching a Bucks game or something. Awful color. But this looks much more along the lines of what it should be and I think it goes a LONG way
- This green parque looks like the compromise between the team and league. It's not the real thing, but it's good enough I think. They had to find a way to incorporate it after last year's issues, and I think this is a good solution. It also removes that very stupid strip down the center of the floor which I think everyone will agree is a much cleaner look.
- I like the change from "Boston" in the middle of the court to "Celtics". The spacing felt weird in the previous version, and again that change looks much cleaner.
- It would have been nice to have some sort of nod to being the defending champs, but I get it. New season blah blah blah.
- The black border works, because I'm pretty sure the Celts will be able to wear their black alternates in these NBA Cup games, so that plays (at least in theory, we'll see what it looks like in reality)
Overall Score: 8.1/10
If you hate the colored courts, you'll probably hate this, too. I can't help you there. But once you accept that they are not going anywhere and will be part of our lives moving forward, at least this version is better than what we had last year, and to me, that's called progress.
At the end of the day, the NBA is still facing an uphill battle when it comes to getting people to give two shits about the NBA Cup. As I've blogged before, it's just hard for me to give a shit about this tournament as long as the NBA title exists. That's the only thing that matters to my and many others' brains. It may not be like that 20 years from now, but at this moment in time, all I care about when it comes to these games is everyone staying healthy.
But at least it looks like the NBA is upgrading the courts in Year 2, which isn't the worst thing in the world.