{"id":626582,"date":"2026-04-24T23:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/626582\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:39:14","slug":"wnba-throws-it-back-to-1997-with-retro-ball-trio-of-jerseys-to-mark-30th-season-sportslogos-net-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/626582\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Throws It Back to 1997 With Retro Ball, Trio of Jerseys to Mark 30th Season \u2013 SportsLogos.Net News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In celebration of its 30th season this year, the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association<\/a> and the three surviving franchises from its inaugural season are throwing it back to 1997 for select games.<\/p>\n

The WNBA announced its Court Origins program on Friday, April 24, which includes a retro-inspired basketball and jerseys for the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a>, the New York Liberty<\/a> and the Phoenix Mercury<\/a> that replicate their looks from the league\u2019s first season.<\/p>\n

The Court Origins Wilson EVO NXT basketball is the same model the WNBA uses today and still features alternating panels, but the lighter panels are more of a vintage white or cream color. Retro league logos<\/a> appear on two of the panels, while the WNBA\u2019s 30th season logo with the modern player silhouette sits on another panel.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The retro Court Origins ball (left) and a modern WNBA game ball (right). Photos courtesy Wilson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sparks\u2019 jersey is mostly yellow, with purple side panels that extend up to the shoulder and white panels over each shoulder. A retro Sparks wordmark with a teal-accented palm tree runs across the chest, with an offset purple number underneath.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Courtesy @WNBA<\/a> \/ Twitter and Los Angeles Sparks<\/a><\/p>\n

The Liberty\u2019s jersey is mostly black, with seafoam green side panels outlined in orange and silver over the shoulders. The team\u2019s original wordmark, with a torch replacing the I in \u201cLIBERTY,\u201d is arched across the chest.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Courtesy @WNBA<\/a> \/ Twitter and New York Liberty<\/a> \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

The Mercury, meanwhile, will sport a red jersey with purple side panels and yellow over the shoulders. A slanted wordmark sits on the chest, with a white number outlined in purple underneath. They\u2019ll also have a special court with their original logo and the name of every Mercury player in franchise history written in the keys.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Courtesy @WNBA<\/a> \/ Twitter and Phoenix Mercury<\/a>\"\"Courtesy Phoenix Mercury<\/a><\/p>\n

The Court Origins schedule that accompanied the WNBA\u2019s announcement of the program includes four regular season games featuring the three original franchises, as well as the Las Vegas Aces<\/a>, who can directly trace their lineage back to another team from 1997, the Utah Starzz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New York vs. Los Angeles \u2013 June 21New York vs. Phoenix \u2013 August 1Las Vegas vs. New York \u2013 August 9Los Angeles vs. Las Vegas \u2013 September 22<\/p>\n

Each team, however, is free to wear their Court Origins uniform in other games throughout the season. The Liberty, for example, will wear them in their home opener on May 8 and in other key matchups and theme nights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In celebration of its 30th season this year, the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association and the three surviving franchises…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-626582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}