Rockets release 2022-23 Hardwood Classics jerseys

Today the Houston Rockets released images of their 22-23 Hardwood Classics jersey. The Hardwood Classic kit is meant to evoke the history of the team. Some of these attempts are more successful than others.

This year’s Houston Rockets Hardwood Classics is a callback to the short-lived San Diego Rockets (1967-71 - when the team was sold and immediately moved to Houston).

It’s an interesting bit of history that the evocation of the NASA space program, and the Johnson Space Center associated with a team like the Houston Astros, wasn’t intentional with the Houston Rockets. They started life as the San Diego Rockets (and drafted Rockets legend Elvin Hayes, of the U of H, number one in the 1967 draft). Few could argue, though, that the Rockets moniker isn’t a better fit in Space City.

What do we think of these jerseys, though?

Aesthetically I like them a lot. They look fresh, cool, and vintage all at the same time. They don’t look like they’re trying desperately to get you to like them. They look like they’d be fine going to a movie on their own.

They also look, a lot, like a Seattle Supersonics jersey. The Seattle Supersonics were founded the same year as the San Diego Rockets. Their founding color scheme was roughly the same, green and gold, and somewhat ironically, had a rocket graphic.

The Rockets Hardwood classic, however, doesn’t have the script font initially adopted by Seattle. The inaugural Sonics uniforms looked a good bit like they were trying to decide between Boston green, and script, and Laker yellow, sorry “gold”.

All that said, these are great looking uniforms, and they look like something the San Diego Rockets would indeed wear. Also, since the removal of the SuperSonics is in the top three of “Cynical and Awful Things David Stern Did”, it’s good to remind people of a city that always supported its team, but simply didn’t want to buy a private company a new building. No, you’ll never make me like the OKC Thunder.

As something interesting, different, and historical, I’d say this version of Rockets Hardwood Classics deserves a place in any collectors closet. Especially if you can get an Elvin Hayes jersey.

Here are the jerseys currently available for pre-order. No Elvin Hayes or Calvin Murphy at this point, but you can get a JaeSean Tate, or Eric Gordon shirt.

Also, San Diego seems a bad place to put a basketball team.