Wayback Wednesday: The Rare Valentine’s Day Jersey

In this week's Wayback Wednesday, Andrew recalls the New Orleans Hornets' Valentine's Day jersey, and its rare video game appearances.

The post Wayback Wednesday: The Rare Valentine’s Day Jersey appeared first on NLSC.

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the New Orleans Hornets’ Valentine’s Day jersey, and its rare video game appearances.

Happy Valentine’s Day, basketball gamers! Obviously, today is generally all about spending time with a significant other rather than hitting the virtual hardwood, unless of course that’s an activity that you enjoy together! For the people in our community who are doing something romantic today, all the best wishes to you and your partner. For anyone who doesn’t have a special someone today – and would like one – chin up, and don’t stress! These things happen in their own time. In the meantime, if you don’t have any plans today, by all means indulge in one of your hobbies.

Basketball gaming is the hobby that we focus on in our community, but since this week’s Wayback Wednesday has fallen on Valentine’s Day, it’s only appropriate that I cover a topic that’s related to both. No, this isn’t a profile of Derrick Rose, Kevin Love, or even Denzel Valentine! As I said, I’m taking a look back at a special jersey that New Orleans once wore – albeit when they were the Hornets and briefly playing in another city entirely – that celebrated matters of the heart, in more ways than one. Let’s take a look back…way back…

On Valentine’s Day 2007, the New Orleans Hornets played host to the Sacramento Kings. Of course, due to Hurricane Katrina, the Hornets were temporarily playing their home games in Oklahoma City, and indeed the team was being referred to as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets at that time. In this particular Valentine’s Day game, the Hornets wore a special red alternate jersey with Oklahoma City on the front. The jerseys weren’t just a celebration of the metaphorical heart though, but also cardiovascular health. They were auctioned off after the game, raising $22,000 USD that was donated to the American Heart Association, and other Hornets charities.

Appropriately, the Hornets also won that game, soundly defeating the Kings 110-93. Desmond Mason and Metta World Peace (then still Ron Artest) led all scorers with 18 for their respective clubs, in a game that also featured Chris Paul, David West, Mike Bibby, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Tyson Chandler, Kevin Martin, John Salmons, and Bobby Jackson. If not for those Valentine’s Day jerseys, it’s a game that very likely wouldn’t be remembered. The Hornets were 24-28 entering the contest, while the Kings were 22-28. Neither team went on to make the Playoffs that year, though New Orleans shot up the standings the following season, going 56-26 to top their Division.

However, thanks to those red alternates only ever being worn in that Valentine’s Day 2007 game, it has indeed become a memorable contest. Not surprisingly, it’s also a rare jersey when it comes to the virtual hardwood. In that respect, it’s very similar to the Dallas Mavericks’ infamous “trash bag” alternate jersey that was likewise only ever worn once, and only appeared in NBA Live 2004. The difference is that the Hornets’ Valentine’s Day jersey is generally considered to be a much better design, and was only ever intended to be worn once, whereas the Mavericks’ alternate was meant to be worn in future games; an idea that was scrapped after its poor reception.

Ironically, despite being devised as a once-off, the Hornets’ red alternate jersey isn’t quite as rare when it comes to video games. As I noted, the Mavs’ silver uniform only officially appeared in NBA Live 2004, at least according to my research. To that point however, I must once again correct myself on a statement I made in a previous article, claiming that the Hornets’ Valentine’s Day jersey only officially appeared in NBA Live 10. In fact, it’s also available in the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 07, and NBA 07 for PlayStation 3; two games that were actually set during the 2007 season. As such, the jersey has at least three official appearances in basketball video games.

The catch here is that it was an unlockable jersey in both NBA Live 07 and NBA 07. As with other new alternate and special event jerseys, codes were released during the season, allowing them to be unlocked and used on the virtual hardwood as they were revealed in real life. This was a common practice during the 2000s, and actually lasted through to the early 2010s; basically, until official roster and art updates had become commonplace, and it made more sense to simply add them post-release. Before that, any jerseys that the NBA didn’t want to have available in games before they debuted in real life had to be included by default, hidden, and then unlocked using cheat codes.

This is how I came to erroneously make the claim that the Hornets’ Valentine’s Day jersey had only officially appeared in NBA Live 10 as a bonus throwback a couple of years later. As Ramiel pointed out though, it was indeed in NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360, and I later discovered that it was also in NBA 07 when I revisited that game to cover it for Wayback Wednesday. Unfortunately, I will sometimes make these errors and oversights in my research despite my best efforts, so I’m grateful that there are people in the community who will fact-check me. I also love that I’m not the only one that enjoys reflecting on the minute details and fun trivia about basketball games!

Of course, while the Hornets’ red OKC alternate wasn’t exclusive to NBA Live 10 as I previously claimed, I’d still suggest that its appearance in that game has gone a long way in helping it to be remembered. Not only was it immediately available without having to punch in a code, but NBA Live 10 is a far more highly-regarded game than NBA Live 07 or NBA 07! Nevertheless, between those three titles, this rare jersey undoubtedly made thousands more appearances on the virtual hardwood than in real life. Whenever a game includes a unique uniform, it’s almost impossible to pass up the opportunity to select it, even if you’re not actually aware of the story behind it.

Although we can only truly count the times that the Hornets Valentine’s Day jersey was available by default or unlocked via a code as its official appearances, it’s worth noting that it has been present as unused content. As Pep has pointed out, the jersey can be found among the files for NBA 2K9 through NBA 2K12, but it was unassigned and thus doesn’t appear in-game. Whether it was a directive from the NBA or perhaps a technical limitation – maybe a different jersey was considered more important to include in that slot – we don’t have an official answer as far as I’m aware. Still, hidden content is always fun to find, as it’s incredibly useful in our modding community.

Looking back at the real game that was played on February 14th 2007, it’s interesting how a couple of what were then odd sights have since become normalised. First of all, you’ve got the visiting team wearing white jerseys, which at the time were normally sported by the home team. Sometimes teams would buck that convention for special events – such as this one – but it was definitely rarer back then. Over the years, teams began wearing alternate and other special jerseys at home far more frequently, to the point where home and away jersey designation was discontinued when Nike took over the uniform contract in 2017. To be honest, I still miss the old approach to jerseys!

Secondly, aside from a couple of alternate jerseys, a team wearing a colour outside of their normal scheme was also highly unusual back in 2007. With the introduction of the City and Earned jerseys, several teams have taken the opportunity to experiment with other colours and creative designs. Your mileage may vary on how good these out-of-the-box designs actually are, but the point is that something like the Hornets’ red Valentine’s Day jersey probably wouldn’t seem as unique or unusual these days. Again, I miss the old approach as I feel that the overuse of unorthodox designs has made them less special, but it’s difficult to say that without sound old and grumpy!

Mind you, I don’t think it can be disputed that the rarity of New Orleans’ red OKC alternate does make it special, both in real life and in video games. On the virtual hardwood, it also adds to the interactive almanac aspect that I’ve spoken of so often and so fondly. Sure, the rosters in old video games capture a snapshot of the league at the time they were released, but so does the team branding. This particular jersey also captures a significant event in the history of New Orleans’ NBA franchise, namely its temporary displacement and relocation to Oklahoma City in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It also helped pave the way for the SuperSonics to become the Thunder.

That’s not necessarily a happy memory – especially for diehard Sonics fans in Seattle – but it’s an important event that shaped the NBA as we now know it. The same could be said of teams experimenting with special event jerseys, as well as eschewing norms and wearing their coloured jerseys at home while the visiting team wears white. I love how video games help preserve NBA history, and remind us of it whenever we revisit an old title. Once again, I believe the inclusion of the Hornets’ Valentine’s Day jersey in NBA Live 10 went a long way in reminding many of us of that game in 2007, and probably encouraged more than a couple of people to research the story behind it.

It’s why I enjoy looking at NBA history through the lens of basketball video games, and reflecting on those stories. As I said, I can’t help but be drawn to selecting unique jerseys whenever I’m revisiting a game that they’re found in! This has to be one of my all-time favourites, though. It made an otherwise unremarkable game between two lottery-bound teams memorable, it represents an often-overlooked but unquestionably important chapter in the history of the club and league, it’s a good design, and it was worn for a worthy cause. What’s not to like? If you play NBA Live 10, NBA Live 07, or NBA 07, and use the Hornets, make sure that you show this rare jersey some love.

The post Wayback Wednesday: The Rare Valentine’s Day Jersey appeared first on NLSC.