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Key to a Deep Spurs Playoff Run May Be the Power of Coordinated Outfits

You look good, you play good.
Stephen Douglas|
The Spurs had their fans in colorful t-shirts for their first playoff game in seven seasons.
The Spurs had their fans in colorful t-shirts for their first playoff game in seven seasons. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

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San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs made a fashionable return to the NBA playoffs on Sunday. The entire team showed up to the arena wearing matching suits before they thoroughly defeated the Trail Blazers, 111–98. Victor Wembanyama led San Antonio with 35 points in his playoff debut and he did it in front of a crowd wearing colorful shirts.

While playoff crowds wearing matching shirts is nothing new, the Spurs leaned into Fiesta San Antonio putting different sections in different colors to celebrate the Battle of the Alamo and Battle of San Jacinto. The teal, pink and orange colors were also featured on the team's City Edition uniforms as well as the court.

Between the colors and Spurs performance, it was a delightful viewing experience, but not everyone was immediately sold. Before the game started the Spurs in-house entertainment partially consisted of putting fans on the jumbotron who weren't wearing the shirts with the caption “PUT ON YOUR SHIRT.” The public shaming appeared to work in most cases.

Tim Duncan, David Robinson and Manu Ginobili were among the Spurs greats who were in attendance and wearing the shirts. As for the current great, Wembanyama liked both the look of the shirts and the arena calling out the fans who weren't wearing them.

“It’s great to see this many people wear the shirts,” Wembanyama said during his press conference. “I love the animation when it says wear your shirt. You should absolutely wear your shirt if you're coming to the game.”

Once they were on, everyone seemed to love the shirts with one major exception. On the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, the eponymous host, Ringer founder and Celtics fan spoke out against not just the Spurs' shirts, but the t-shirt gimmick general.

“You've won five titles as a franchise,” Simmons told Zach Lowe. “It's not the time for gimmicks. Act like you've been there before.”

“I felt like I was at a parade,” he continued. “Every section was a different color. It’s been seven years. They won five titles. They had Tim Duncan. They have one of the ten best players of all-time. Who was there, at the game, probably wondering why everybody was in a different section wearing a different t-shirt.”

While Lowe didn’t note that Duncan was one of the fans wearing a shirt, he did tell Simmons it was a horrible take before Simmons admitted it wasn’t just the Spurs shirts he disliked. “I don't put the t-shirt on. I hate the t-shirts. I don't understand the t-shirts. I don’t like when the Celtics do them. I just like old school basketball. I don’t want to be dressed like everyone else in my section. We’ve lost our minds.”

So while not everyone is excited about a free t-shirt, everyone can certainly agree that the Spurs looked good getting off the bus.

As noted on the Peacock broadcast, they all arrived wearing matching black suits which were paid for by veteran Kelly Olynyk. After the game Julian Champagnie said it was good for team chemistry, noting that he had not worn a suit to any games this season and that everyone looked good.

This is a scary team led by a scary player and they appear to be bonding over shared fashion choices. If the Spurs and their fans can continue to coordinate like this they should be in for a deep playoff run.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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