On Monday, the NBA released the regular season schedules all 30 teams, so we now know the 41 dates in which the Portland Trail Blazers will host opponents at the Moda Center during the course of their 2019-20 campaign. We also now know what the court on which those 41 games will be played will look like.
As a part of the team’s celebration of their 50th anniversary, the Trail Blazers unveiled their new court for the 2019-20 season Monday night during the Trail Blazers X MARTK’D sneaker design competition at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum.
While the court features a retro look in reference to the team’s first season back in 1970, the court includes small design elements celebrate all five decades of the team’s existence.
The font on the baseline “Portland” and “Trail Blazers” logos, which previously featured the standard wordmark, have been “updated” with lower case throwback font. “Established 1970” has been added to the “Rip City, Oregon” word mark on the sideline opposite the bench.
There are also some stark changes, most of which pertain to the colors utilized on the court. The hardwood is now one color, whereas the previous court had a lighter woodgrain within the three-point line and a darker grain everywhere else. They key is now off white rather than red, while the half circle at the top of the key is now red rather than wood. And the border around the court has been changed from red to black.
Even though neither the internet nor Twitter/Instagram existed in 1970, the team’s website address and social media username still adorn the “new” court, along with Moda Center wordmarks.
The 50th anniversary court is actually just last year’s court sanded and repainted, perhaps as a nod to the team’s sustainability efforts, so it’s safe to assume the team will create a new court for the 2020-21 season as well.
The court for the 50th anniversary season will make it’s game debut Portland’s 2019 preseason opener versus the Denver Nuggets at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum on October 8.
