RANKED: Top 7 NBA Legends in Wrong Uniforms

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The Last Dance has inspired all manner of discussion, from the nature of competition to other potential documentaries to whether or not Toni Kukoc deserved more than three talking heads in the 10 hours. But the big point from the doc that lingered with me was the nature in which legends leave the game. Some do it at their peak like Michael Jordan, some fade away but still end with a bang like Kobe Bryant, but most stick around just a little too long. And inevitably with that comes different, strange uniforms that we never envisioned their names emblazoning.

Here are the seven strangest examples of NBA legends donning an incorrect jersey late in their careers.

7. Michael Jordan — Washington Wizards — 2001-2003

He went out on top twice, but the “maddening” end to his Bulls run meant Jordan needed a little more closure. And what better way than with the fresh-faced Wizards, am I right?

At the time, this was probably the weirdest of the weird, but the perpetuity of M.J. in our lives and the relatively common discussion about his second non-retirement makes this vision of him somewhat familiar now. He was a Wizard — we all know it. It was kind of fun and a lot of sad, produced some highlights but not enough to justify it being our actual last memory of him. He earns a spot on this list for the sheer magnitude of this brief Wizards run, but no higher than No. 7 because it’s been discussed to death.

6. Pete Maravich — Boston Celtics — 1979-1980

It was honestly shocking to learn that Pistol Pete played a random 35 games for the Celtics in his final year in 1980. I do not know why I never even heard about this because Maravich played not totally insignificant minutes for Boston — 11 a game off the bench in the playoffs. Unfortunately, his knee troubles shortened his career dramatically and he never really got to experience Larry Bird as Maravich’s teammate during the prime Celtics years. Imagine that championship team the next year with a healthy Pistol Pete manning the offense with Bird, Tiny Archibald and Cornbread Maxwell running with him.

5. Robert Parish — Chicago Bulls — 1996-97

Technically, Parish came out better than his Celtics running mates, Bird and McHale, because he vultured a fourth ring in 1997, the sonuvabitch. That was year 3 of Parish being a single-digit-scoring, sub-20-minute bench player, so he was either in the mode of chasing rings for the sake of it, or was trying to put some distance on his record for total games played. Either way, his impact on the Bulls that year was minimal, playing 43 games and nine minutes per, plus 18 total minutes in the postseason.

4. George Gervin — Chicago Bulls — 1985-86

George Gervin and Michael Jordan were teammates for one year in 1985-86. Granted, Jordan missed most of that season with a broken foot and the two reportedly did not gel at all, but hey, teammates are teammates. It was Gervin’s only NBA season somewhere other than San Antonio and he fell off a cliff production-wise in what would ultimately be his final season. He trailed only Orlando Woolridge in scoring for Chicago, averaging 16 a game, but prior to that year, Gervin was a perrennial scoring champ with at least 20 every season going back to his time in the ABA. His plunge was swift and steep, and come playoff time, with M.J. back, Gervin played 11 total minutes and did not record a single point.

3. Patrick Ewing — Orlando Magic — 2001-02

Ewing had two WTF runs in his final two season, but to be honest, he sort of looked right at home in a Sonics uniform. He was old and out-of-date, not unlike the cartoonish logos on the weird green jerseys Seattle sported at that time. It was a match made in heaven.

The Orlando look was much more disconcerting. Those were young men’s uniforms, built for a young Shaq or a soon-to-be-incoming Dwight Howard. And the 39-year-old Ewing averaged six and four in 65 games and looked seconds away from collapsing every time he had to lumber down the court. It was a far cry from the uber-athletic Knicks version of Ewing, and the sleek jerseys did not help the illusion that he was still worth his $2 million salary.

2. Dwyane Wade — Cleveland Cavaliers — 2017-18

Wade is a Miami lifer with the strangest 100-game blip stuck right near the end of his career. After being the face of the Heat from 2003 to 2016, Wade decided to get the paycheck from his hometown Bulls — a fanbase that was not far removed from viewing him as Isiah Thomas 2.0 — and had a decent 18.3 points in 60 games for a rebuilding-but-not-at-all-rebuilding Chicago team. That was weird, but it paled in comparison to the next season when Wade joined up again with LeBron, this time in Cleveland. For 46 games. Wade was clearly washed and title chasing (or just trying to rekindle his partnership with his buddy), and he came off the bench for most of his Cavs run. The fit never made sense and Wade simply did not look right as a sixth man. In February, Cleveland sent Wade back to Miami — where he never should have left to begin with — and he got the proper Heat send-off he deserved.

1. Hakeem Olajuwon — Toronto Raptors — 2001-02

I have never met or even talked to anyone with memories of Hakeem Olajuwon in a Raptors uniform. Sure, you may have seen pictures of it. Perhaps you’ve even mistakenly filled in gaps of memory with those pictures, thanking you actually watched it happen. But do you actually recall Hakeem Olajuwon — the Houston Rockets personified, maybe the second-best player of the ’90s — sharing the ball with Vince Carter for 6o-some odd games in 2001-02? That’s not even 20 years ago, and it is remembered the same way Joe Fulks is remembered for dropping 63 pre-shot clock in 1949. That too was an insane anomaly that only gets quizzical looks if you bring it up over dinner.

Hakeem was still a pretty capable defensive force too, so it is not like he was not a stiff or anything. He averaged 7.1, 6.0 and 1.5 blocks a game that year. But it never happened and all tapes of its existence have been erased.

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