Earlier this week, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban – “The Cube” to us bros – announced on his blog that the Mavs were going to get a makeover. But because Cubes is a new man for a new era, always thinking and scheming, there’s a catch – he’ll only re-do the uniforms if someone presents him with a good enough design.

So he’s putting it on Mavs and NBA fans to present the franchise with creative, edgy ideas by posting them to the team’s site. The Mavs could select one or they might select none. It all depends on how great your designs are. And the greatest design will be rewarded with riches beyond the common man’s wildest expectations…

Who will own your design ? The minute you post it, the Mavs will. If you think its horrible that the Mavs own your design. Do not post. If you think its cool that the Mavs could possibly use your design and you will have eternal bragging rights , then post away. If we really like your design and you , I may even throw in some tickets. If we don’t use your design, it will still be here on this site for now and ever more for you to glance longingly at. If your design is close , if not identical to other designs and we pick one of the other designs, for whatever reason, then thats just the way it goes.

If we don’t choose any of the designs,including yours.then we don’t choose any of the designs. That is life in the big city. Move on.

Oh, sorry. I meant that you don’t win anything at all. Not even a free jersey with your name on it, not even a Dwight Howard or Chris Paul jersey when the Mavs eventually sign them both in free agency. Just bragging rights. But that’s still pretty cool, I guess.

Anyway, just like our friends at The Basketball Jones, who created an amazing denim uniform design, I wanted to offer my own design. Fingers crossed!

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Yesterday, we mentioned that Adidas was teasing NCAA men’s basketball fans on Twitter with small glimpses of some special new Adizero uniforms that eight teams would be wearing in the NCAA Tournament this year. Today, as you can see above, we know exactly what those uniforms now look like, as six teams’ new duds have been revealed.

Scrolling through Twitter, people are pretty torn on these strange camouflage and sleeved revelations, and I have to say that I’m firmly entrenched in the “The f*ck? Eh, whatever” camp. Short of setting players on fire, I don’t see what the big deal is with Adidas trying something new, even if the new unis look like someone raided a child’s Zubaz rack at Marshall’s.

I guess if I had to scorn any of these uniforms, I’d choose the Kansas and UCLA gear, because I feel like both of those programs have always had classic looks. At the same time, though, I think the Baylor uniform looks awesome. So it is what it is, I guess. I just think the real shame is not making Duke players wear pink jerseys with flashy sequins and shoes filled with broken glass. Let’s get to work on making that happen, Nike.

Last month, Adidas made basketball fans everywhere do a double take with a “What the what?” added for good measure, when it was announced that the Golden State Warriors would be wearing new alternate jerseys with sleeves. An act of outright blasphemy, with approval from only Darren Rovell, the jerseys were largely panned well before they even made their debut last week.

I did, however, argue that they might look kind of cool for the average fan to wear, because there’s really not much worse than a grown adult wearing a tank top in public. As our friend Trey Kerby at The Basketball Jones was able to investigate himself – because Adidas sends him free stuff, and yet my mailbox is empty – they do look all right if you get past the absurd length.

And this is important, why? Because Adidas is bringing the sleeves to the NCAA Tournament.

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Between Nike’s Employee of the Year Lebron James fawning over Oregon’s admittedly awesome uniforms and me declaring that the Seattle Seahawks uniforms don’t look that bad (our opinions are equal, naturally), it was really only a matter of time before a team somewhere at some level tried to emulate this new era of uni-swag and fail miserably. I’m a few days late on this, but ladies and gentlemen, I submit for your failure approval, the uniforms of the Atlantic High School Eagles.

To be fair to the kids, they don’t think these neon explosions are all that bad. According to the Palm Beach Post, the group that paid for and donated the uniforms are just trying to create buzz.

“We definitely don’t expect these to be loved by everybody,” said Lee Cohen, a Delray attorney and Delray Beach 21′s chairman. “That’s what they should do. Spark conversation. We want to bring these kids the attention they deserve. We want to draw attention and bring excitement to the program. We want to get people talking.”

And to take it one step further, I’ll add the thoughts of Internet newspaper commenter “Class of 79” who clearly studied debate at the nation’s top institutions:

“It something new don’t look at the uniform. Look at the coach that wat yours should be talking about is founding new coach atl coach suck”

That’s a hell of an argument right there. Does the team need to focus on “founding new coach” or is it okay for the players to have some fun? After the jump, I’ve included a photo of one of the players in the actual uniform at gametime, so you can determine for yourself if these outfits are as butt ugly as a nuclear diarrhea hurricane or if they’re harmless generators of buzz.

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During the 2012 Summer Olympics, it was reported that security at the London venues was instructed to crack down on any people who tried to attend events while wearing recognizable logos of companies that weren’t exclusive sponsors. That was a very nice way of saying that McDonald’s owned the fry monopoly and Coke wanted to kick out anyone wearing Pepsi logos, which would have sucked for me because my whole wardrobe is nothing but Mountain Dew shirts.

This was a little unfair to the average Joe, Boris or Ming cheering on their countries, because as some surveys showed, nobody knew which companies were even sponsoring the Olympics. In fact, 37% of the 1,034 people who took part in an online survey believed that Nike was a sponsor, when it fact it wasn’t – Nike does, however, sponsor Team USA and other countries so it didn’t matter – and this just basically proved what we already knew – Nike is really awesome at marketing.

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I had a lot of fun comparing the new Nebraksa Cornhuskers alternate uniforms to the jacket Kevin wears on ‘Captain N: The Game Master’, and Jesus, I wish I could have that kind of harmless fun with the announcement of Penn State Nittany Lions uniform changes. They’ve been in the news for a thing or two recently, and sadly none of it seems appropriate for me to type “do you remember this cartoon” alongside it.

Anyway, the two major changes are

1. Names on the backs of the jerseys
2. Special commemorative ribbons

Names are going on the jerseys for the hilarious reason of “holding each other accountable to uphold the traditions of Penn State football, both on and off the field”, a weird disconnect I’m not even sure my brain can process. I love the idea that if #14 wanted to do something reprehensible he’d go for it, then stop and go “oh wait, my shirt when I’m playing football says Jones on the back, people will know I’m Jones, maybe I shouldn’t”.

The ribbons thing is a little less funny.

When they take the field at Beaver Stadium for their 126th season, The Pennsylvania State University football team will wear uniforms featuring a blue ribbon to support all victims of child abuse. Also, for the first time, the names of each football player will adorn their jersey in recognition of their resolve and dedication to the team and the University.

“The Penn State community stands with all victims of child abuse,” said Acting Athletic Director David Joyner. “Coach Bill O’Brien and his football team made it clear they want to support victims and bring more awareness to this issue, which affects so many.”

“I’m proud that our players want to be part of the University’s efforts to help victims of child abuse,” O’Brien said. “We hope our fans join us in wearing blue ribbons to all Penn State home games. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of children everywhere.”

Or, more directly, “we hope our fans join us at all Penn State home games”. You know what’d be even better? If schools with programs that didn’t allow the systematic molestation of children wore ribbons. Maybe that’d be considered bragging. I’ve always been the guy who’d rather hear “don’t do drugs” from somebody who never did drugs than from someone who did them for years, got famous and then decided to warn me of their dangers.

Of course, the reality of the situation is that nothing can change what happened to those kids, and while I personally think it’s a little shifty, I can understand wanting to hold up a big sign that says “we swear we’re never doing this again”. That’s progress, in its own way. Who knows, maybe 10 years from now I’ll feel okay saying, “ha, look at those bright-ass white unis, they look like Brian from ‘Family Guy’”.