New trends emerging, others coming back around on the court

It’s been 30 years since my teammates and I loaded up and headed to the Sports Shoppe in McCook to pick out our basketball shoes for what was my senior season. Most of us followed a new trend and came home with black shoes.
After all this time I can still hear the horror in my dad’s voice.
“Black shoes! The refs are going to be staring at your feet and you’re all going to get called for traveling!”
Thankfully he was wrong.
These days my parents don’t go to many basketball games. It’s probably for the best. He’d be horrified by some of the shoes he’d see today.
From patterns to colors, basketball courts are full of players showing off their individuality.
As someone who followed a shoe trend back in the day, I, for the most part, enjoy it. But as someone bothered by something as simple as mismatched socks, I’ve got to admit that non-matching shoes freak me out.
Another trend I’ve noticed is uniforms getting tighter and shorts getting shorter.
In the early 90’s my teammates and I would stick two basketballs in our shorts to try to stretch them out before we put them on.
When we got new uniforms in 1991 we thought we were hot stuff, but at state basketball we still had a reputation as the team with short shorts.
While at a Bridgeport game last year I was visiting with a college friend.
He pointed to the Bridgeport bench.
“Look at these kids! Rolling up their shorts,” he scoffed.
I was immediately 17 again listening to my dad rant about black shoes.
As college students we were well entrenched in the long, baggy shorts trend started by Michigan’s Fab Five in 1991.
I’ve been at the paper for 11 years now and have seen a lot of basketball. While the styles stayed fairly consistent over the years, it is interesting to see new uniforms evolve—or is it devolve?—back to something familiar to some parents now watching their kids play.
I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!