Thunder forced to change uniforms at halftime after ugly color clash with Hawks

Tom Gatto

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Thunder forced to change uniforms at halftime after ugly color clash with Hawks image

The first half of Hawks-Thunder on Friday was one of the worst uniform matchups you'll ever see: bright red (Hawks) on orange (Thunder).

Not an exaggeration. It was this bad:

"You could definitely tell playing on the court," the Thunder's Kenrich Williams said, per The Associated Press. "Just kind of just -- you see somebody, and it’s like, 'Oh. That’s not my teammate.'"

There eventually was an explanation for why it happened. According to the Thunder, the Hawks wore the wrong outfits.

The NBA reportedly requested a uniform change during the first half, but because the Hawks have just one set of uniform for their six-day, four-game road trip, the Thunder had to change.

"I certainly didn’t notice it or even think about it, to be honest with you," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said, per the AP. "It was a league mandate that we just reacted to. They made me aware of it at halftime. When I went into the locker room, the guys were in white uniforms."

The Fox Sports report above said the Thunder chose in advance to wear their sunset orange (or Statement) uniforms, but the NBA's uniform matchup site, LockerVision, had the Thunder scheduled to wear their Association (white) uniforms and the Hawks their Icon uniforms (red) for this game.

OKC-uni-022621-NBA-FTR.jpg

So were the Thunder actually wearing the wrong jerseys?

Either way, thanks, Thunder, for saving everyone's eyes and changing into your home whites. 

It turned out the wardrobe change didn't faze OKC on the court. It rolled to a 118-109 win.

This article has been updated with quotes and edited to change "jerseys" to "uniforms" and "outfits."

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.