I’m old, so I made my kids help me rank this year’s NBA City Edition jerseys

The new NBA City Edition jerseys are out, with 28 new looks heading to the hardwood while the Jazz and Suns run it back with last season’s getups. Last year, Deadspin ranked Utah’s at No. 8 among the City Editions, and Phoenix at No. 23. Maybe it was the run to the NBA Finals, but those Suns “Valley” jerseys really grew on me the more I got to see them.

At least, looking at this year’s City Editions, the Suns are one of the more enjoyable ones. But I’m not going to rank them again. Instead, this time around, I’m enlisting some help, and changing the format of the City Edition review, because it’s not just about what I think. These jerseys should have broader appeal than some 40-year-old dude in New York who’s not going to wear any of them.

So, we’re bringing in the kids. Alice is 8, Sean is 6, and together with their 40-year-old dad, we’ve drafted the best… and worst of the 2021-22 City Edition jerseys.

As the youngest, Sean gets first pick.

I like the sunset on it. I really like how they wrote the lettering on the sunset. I give it a five-star review!

It looks like there are fireworks on it, and the lettering has those stars.

Growing up, the Spectrum’s center court was my favorite one to see on TV, although most memorably for a college game — Duke-Kentucky and the Laettner Game. I love the homage here.

It has a very pretty sunset like the other one, the Suns.

The jersey looks like it’s gently fading. I like the pattern at the top.

It looks like a lot of Celtics jerseys, which it should, but with a throwback vibe, and the use of white to make the drop shadow is excellent.

I like how their colors look like the Dolphins.

I like the purplieness. The number is sort of 3D.

I can’t believe I’m getting this over the dinosaur lovers, but Alice thinks it should be a brachiosaurus instead of a raptor, even though they’re not the Toronto Brachiosauruses. “Brachiosauruses are always better,” she says.

I like how those stripes look like flames and the hawk is carrying a basketball and how it changes over the hawk and under the hawk.

The lettering looks cool. It’s kind of 3D and they’re all different colors.

Maybe I just like rainbows? Well, I love the old rainbow Nuggets jerseys, and this is worlds better than last year’s Jazz knockoffs, plus the classic Nuggets font is so much better than their usual.

I like the streak on the side. I did not think this would end up in mine. I thought Alice would take it for the purple. I like the Bucks.

I very much like the color scheme.

As much as I liked last year’s sky blues, these are a step forward, with the inclusion of the red stripe and stars as an homage to the excellent old-school New Jersey uniforms, while keeping the latter-day Nets font.

Moving on to the worst of the bunch...

It’s just plain white. They should’ve put rainbow on it. And lightning bolts. And seven unicorns. Or anything.

It’s too white. Meh.

Yes, they evoke Michael Jordan’s rookie year uniform. The thing about those is, they always looked like they came from the back of a truck on Madison Street, and this follows in that tradition, right down to the awful spacing between the too-small script and the number.

I don’t think red and blue go well together. It would’ve been better with bubbling cauldrons, for the Wizards. This, for the Wizards? Whee.

It’s too much black. Otherwise, it’s just a regular professional basketball jersey.

I get what they’re going for here with the throwback font and the pattern evoking a racetrack, but it comes off looking very mid-1990s Cleveland Cavaliers.

Super boring. I’m like, “This? For fighting? Couldn’t you put more Warriors kind of stuff on it?”

Again, too much black!

That logo is way too intricate to be on a jersey. Logos don’t really look great on basketball jerseys to begin with. Put it on a hoodie.

There should be a wolf howling there. Or a wolf chasing down a rabbit.

Too much navy blue and nothing else. It’s boring.

Do we really need to try to make Rip City happen so often on these jerseys? The clash between the old school font and the more modern numbering doesn’t work.

I don’t like stripes.

Too much white.

This feels like it makes sense as the last pick because it’s not terrible, and not good. It’s a pretty normal jersey, just a color flip from the Pistons as we normally know them. It’s fine.