Wizards release new City Edition jerseys showing elements of their early and recent franchise history

On Monday, the Washington Wizards released their new City Edition jerseys. They are one of the NBA’s 30 “Moments Mixtape” uniforms, that incorporate elements of various jerseys the Wizards have worn in the past. Pusha T narrated a video of the release earlier this morning.

At first glance, the jersey looks like the 1970s version when the Bullets won the championship, with the current “Washington” wordmark along with numbering from the jerseys from the late 90s and 2000s, the first time the Wizards have reintroduced elements of the “Teal and Gold” or the Gilbert Arens era since changing the color scheme to red, white and blue.

In another release by Jackson Wilyo of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the process to make the jersey took about two years between the Wizards, the NBA and NIke, according to MSE Chief Marketing Officer Hunter Lochmann.

Here are some of the additional elements of past uniforms on this one:

• A patch of franchise great Wes Unseld’s whose signature, number and year of his All-Star selections is on the bottom of the jersey. The words ROY and MVP are on the vents of each side of the shorts, in honor of the 1968-69 season when he won the NBA Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in the same season.
• There is a DMV logo on the left side of the shorts that is reminiscent of the Gilbert Arenas Era. On the right, the “DC hands” logo is on, but with a look closer to the Bullets of the 1960s and 1970s.
• The outline of the jerseys is in gold and white trim, most reminiscent of the Arenas Era.
• The Monumental ball logo on the front belt of the shorts is redesigned to make it look more retro.

There also seems to be a couple of things apparent with the Wizards’ approach to its most recent franchise players before Bradley Beal, namely Arenas and John Wall.

The Wizards have generally never mentioned Arenas by name and have minimized his presence on marketing materials since he was traded in Oct. 2020, likely because of his involvement in a 2009 locker room incident where he brought guns in the room in an incident with Javaris Crittenton. Arenas went on to play for another couple of NBA teams, has played in the BIG2 and is now a podcaster, while Crittenton is now in prison on an unrelated murder charge.

All of that said, Arenas was mentioned by name in the team’s press release and he is also in the PUSHA T narration video. Perhaps the Wizards are warming up to him again.

As for Wall, he wasn’t in the video at all. Some were quick to note that on social media.

It is true that Wall left the team in a trade for Russell Westbrook on less than ideal terms, not long after an unflattering video of him making gang signs. And it’s apparent that Wall was left out by design.

But Beal was the only current NBA player featured in the video. Wall is still an active player for the Houston Rockets, though he isn’t playing games and is waiting to get traded or waived due to their situation. So I’m not rushing to judgment here.

Let us know your thoughts on the CIty Edition jersey in the comments below.