NBA Makes Team Change Uniforms At Halftime

The only second-half change the Oklahoma City Thunder really needed to make was a uniform swap during their Friday night win over the Atlanta Hawks at home.

The Thunder started the game wearing their “sunset orange” uniforms with blue lettering outlined in white, while the Hawks wore red threads with white lettering outlined in yellow — it made the two teams difficult to tell apart.

.@okcthunder maybe y'all should change? 🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/Wf4KrQ5gxJ

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 27, 2021

The Thunder said in a statement that the Hawks wore the incorrect uniform color and that the league should have caught the error.

Oklahoma City said it was asked by the league to change at the half because the Hawks only brought one set of uniforms on their away trip — the Thunder changed to white for the second half.

Wardrobe change at halftime.

Sound 🆙 to hear @nickgallo22 explain it all on @FOXSportsOK pic.twitter.com/xWrRENmChd

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) February 27, 2021

Oklahoma City’s Kenrich Williams told ESPN the color combination was noticeable at times and made it hard to distinguish between teammates.

“You could definitely tell playing on the court,” he said. “Just kind of just — you see somebody, and it’s like, ‘Oh. That’s not my teammate.’”

While some players seemed to notice the color combination, the coaches didn’t seem to.

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault and Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce both said they didn’t necessarily notice the uniform similarity in the first half.

“I certainly didn’t notice it or even think about it, to be honest with you, then it was a league mandate that we just reacted to,” Daigneault said after the game. “They made me aware of it at halftime when we went into the locker rooms that guys were in white uniforms, and then we went out and played the second half.”