Milwaukee Bucks reveal a return to purple jerseys in 2022-23

On Thursday the Milwaukee Bucks revealed their second new jersey this summer, after announcing the new Fear the Deer Statement Edition jerseys, all black jerseys with white and blue trim and instead of stripes up the side, the jerseys feature antlers. Nike took over as the official jersey supplier of the NBA before the 2017-18 season and since then the Bucks have had some interesting jerseys. Cream City, the red, white and green jerseys that looked destined to be worn on Christmas and the interesting three shades of blue City Edition jerseys from a couple years ago.

Now the Milwaukee Bucks have announced their 2022-23 Classic Edition jerseys, nearly identical to the ones worn in the second half of the 1990s and the early 2000s. The Milwaukee Bucks went as far as recreating a retro video game menu to select the 1994-2006 option and reveal Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassell and then the new jerseys, with the top and bottom of the screen saying “Light it up!” The Milwaukee Bucks adopted a very retro classic jersey in 2018 when they wore yellow jerseys accented with red inspired by the floor at the Mecca.

The Milwaukee Bucks flirted with the concept of bringing purple back to their uniforms last season with the white jerseys that featured some purple accents, big chunks of purple on the side below the standard green, cream and blue stripes.

This season however, it appears that Nike and the Milwaukee Bucks are holding nothing back, fully going for purple the way Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson and others rocked the purple when the Bucks made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001.

The first jersey shown to announce the 2022-23 Classic Edition jerseys was #34, and admittedly, I thought it was a Ray Allen jersey, the man that made #34 a memorable one for me when I was a young Bucks fan. Then I noticed the Nike logo and Motorola logo, the new sponsor on the Milwaukee Bucks jerseys and was immediately overcome with excitement that the purple jerseys were indeed back.

It is so easy to remember fondly the days of the Milwaukee Bucks rocking purple and green, growing up watching the Bucks as a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s, the first jersey I ever had was a #34 Ray Allen, today #34 is worn by another franchise cornerstone, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Others that come to mind from the purple and green days are Bucks legend Big Dog, Glenn Robinson, player turned assistant, now Los Angeles Lakers’ head coach Darvin Ham, player turned Milwaukee Bucks’ assistant coach Vin Baker, another player turned Philadelphia 76ers’ assistant Sam Cassell and others like Tim Thomas.

#34 remains the same in 2022, now Darvin Ham’s #21 is worn by Jrue Holiday and while #13 made famous by Glenn Robinson is worn by Jordan Nwora, the new name brought up as the next best player to #34 is Khris Middleton and his #22 jersey. Another pair of players I’m excited to see rock the all purple uniforms are big men Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis

Hopefully the 2022-23 Milwaukee Bucks can take the new Classic Edition purple jerseys where the 2001 Bucks fell short, the NBA Finals. The thought of the Milwaukee Bucks raising another Larry O’Brien trophy wearing purple jerseys reminiscent of the Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson days.