Winderman: NBA alternate uniform craze out of control

Finally, we have found the saving grace of this lockout-shortened season: The ratio between uniform combinations and games is drawing closer to a one-to-one basis.

Even before the Memphis TAMs took the court against the L.A. Stars on TNT on Thursday night, we had entered a world where we were facing video-game-like choices when it came to team apparel.

Remember the phrase, “Wearing your team’s colors”?

Can anyone actually afford it anymore?

It was one thing when a team had an alternate uniform. Singular.

But take the Heat as an example. Over a three-game span last week they wore three different uniforms at home. On Tuesday night against the Spurs there was the traditional home white. On Thursday night against the Lakers there was the limited-edition black-on-black variety. And on Saturday against the 76ers there was the ABA-throwback, Will Ferrell-inspired Miami Floridians look (and no, Eddy Curry and Dexter Pittman, these stripes definitely were not slimming).

Granted, no one is forcing parents to parade into the team store and purchase each variety (the Heat now had five that have been utilized this season: the aforementioned three, the road blacks and the road reds), but those spoiled kids do have a way of pressing the issue.

Soon enough, teams also will be pushing All-Star Game jerseys. By season’s end, 2012 Olympic varieties most assuredly will be made available. That’s seven potential combinations that all can feature “Wade” on the back.

So what?

Here’s what:

One of the more enjoyable elements of attending a game is being in a team’s colors . . . Knicks blue, Bulls red, Celtics green. It becomes a communal experience.

Except when someone next you is wearing white, the guy is the next row is wearing red, the couple seated above are in two varieties of black, and those hideous Floridians stripes are flowing across the way.

You might as well be seated alongside a bunch of Nets, Timberwolves and Pistons fans. It’s as if everyone is wearing those old Houston Astros rainbow editions.

In the wake of the lockout, there is nothing uniform about this season.

Or about the uniforms.

Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You can follow him on Twitter at @IraHeatBeat.