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Portland Trail Blazers

KEEP PORTLAND PLAID Uniform Pays Homage to Legendary Championship-Winning Coach Jack “Dr. Jack” Ramsay

PORTLAND, Ore. (November 2, 2023) – The Portland Trail Blazers have unveiled the 2023-24 Nike NBA City Edition uniform, paying homage to a World Championship Coach, Naismith Hall-of-Famer, and 1970’s fashionista Jack “Dr. Jack” Ramsay. The jersey blends Dr. Jack’s iconic plaid-patterned fashions with modern aesthetics and a nod to Trail Blazers founding broadcaster Bill Schonely with the popular retro ‘Rip City’ wordmark across the chest. For a full photo gallery of the Trail Blazers 2023-24 Nike NBA City Edition uniform, click HERE and visit nba.com/blazers/city for more info.

The city of Portland is known for its uniquely bold attitude, always willing to push the boundaries of self-expression and receive inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. Utilizing the bold attitude of the city and Coach Ramsay’s trendsetting and bold plaid-patterned fashions that he confidently wore courtside; this year’s City Edition uniform is sure to turn heads and make a statement – Keep Portland Plaid.

The uniform base features the Trail Blazers primary black team color, adorned with bold “Dr. Jack Plaid” patterned accent wings, waistband and ‘Rip City’ wordmark. A tone-on-tone black plaid pattern drapes down the sides of the jersey and shorts as a nod to our original plaid City Edition uniform design. Additional uniform elements include retro off-white number set with red accent trim, a replica Dr. Jack tribute patch on the waistband, a touch of modern flare with the primary pinwheel logo on the shorts, and Jack Ramsay’s hand-written signature on the jocktag as one more tribute to the legendary coach. &nbsp;

Fans have surely noticed the organization has spent recent days “Plaid-ifying” the city – with the iconic “Keep Portland Weird” sign rebranded to “Keep Portland Plaid”, an all-plaid restaurant takeover at local restaurant Taqueria Los Punales, a plaid flash-mob at a recent High School football game, and more!

As part of the organization’s Keep Portland Plaid campaign, the Trail Blazers organization encourages all fans to wear their plaid to tomorrow night’s game vs. Memphis for the first-ever Portland “Plaid-Out”. Wear your best plaid gear, as you root for the Trail Blazers in their inaugural In-Season Tournament game. Additionally, Moda Center will feature a special court for all in-season tournament games that also features design elements from the City Edition uniform, check out the court design HERE and for more info on the In-Season tournament click HERE.

Fans can purchase the City Edition uniform and apparel collection today at ripcityclothing.com or in-person at Rip City Clothing in Moda Center (Open 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday).

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Portland Trail Blazers Unveil 2023-24 Nike NBA City Edition Uniform 

Casey Holdahl

Let's state the obvious: the sleeved jerseys options that the NBA and adidas introduced a few seasons ago have not been well-received among the league's players. Though one wouldn't necessarily think that adding of a few inches of fabric on each side of a traditional basketball jersey would be all that controversial, that relatively small change has been roundly disapproved by most of the NBA's rank and file. Whether it's Lebron James trying to rip off his uniform mid-game or Robin Lopez tweeting that they should be put on a pyre and burned, reaction to the sleeves from the players has mostly been negative, so much so that it's possible the jerseys get scrapped when Nike takes over the NBA uniform contract next season.

But you can count the Portland Trail Blazers as supporters of the sleeves, so much so that they've asked to wear their sleeve "pride" uniforms, better known as their "Rip City" alternates, for the remainder of their home games in the second round, and for good reason. The Trail Blazers are undefeated in their "Rip City" sleeve jerseys this season, a streak that has expended to the three playoff games in which they wore said uniforms in the first round.

"We haven’t lost in ‘em," said Damian Lillard of the "Rip City" sleeve jerseys. "We typically play well in those uniforms, but I’ve always been a fan of the 'Rip City' jerseys, even before we added sleeves to them. It’s one of my favorite uniforms. Now that they put the sleeves on them, that’s just what it is. I like the look, it’s different."

The NBA would typically prefer that teams wear their sleeved jerseys no more than four times throughout the course of the playoffs, which would make the next time the Trail Blazers wear their "Rip City" jerseys, as they plan to do in Game Three Saturday night at the Moda Center, the final appearance of the sleeves in the postseason.

But fear not, you lovers of sleeves and Trail Blazers victories, as the NBA will allow the team to wear their "Rip City" jerseys for at least the remainder of the second round. It didn't take any haggling, just a simple request, which the league approved without incident.

"I reached out to the league and told them what jerseys we were going to wear for the second round and they said 'Ok,'" said Trail Blazers equipment manager Eric Hallman, who is in charge of all things uniform for the team, via email. "There was no back and forth about if we could or could not wear the 'Rip City' jerseys."

Hallman typically asks Lillard, as the captain of the team, what uniform he wants to wear when the choice is up for debate. And both due to affinity for the jerseys and the notion of not fixing what isn't broke, Lillard has asked that the Trail Blazers wear the "Rip City" jerseys whenever possible. That decision has been supported by the entirety of the team, as they are all aware of their 8-0 record between the regular and postseason when wearing their sleeve option. After all, when going up against a formidable opponent like Warriors, nothing can be left to chance.

"I ain’t superstitious, but maybe we shoot better (in the 'Rip City' jerseys)," said Lillard. "We play in sleeves in practice every day. Every day you got sleeves on, so maybe that has something to do with it. We haven’t lost in them, so we’re going to take our chances."

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NBA Allows Blazers To Wear 'Rip City' Jersey At Home For Remainder Of Second Round

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