One actually-noteworthy moment in the ocean of mostly non-noteworthy on-court happenings during the NBA preseason was the surprising result of an exhibition game between the San Antonio Spurs and Alba Berlin, the top professional basketball team in Germany. The defending NBA champions lost to Alba at the buzzer, when a stolen in-bounds pass — the Spurs’ 22nd turnover of the game — led to the game-winning shot. The game took place in front of a packed house in Berlin, and, naturally, a team like Alba would want to commemorate the occasion — even if it didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.
Alba produced 1,000 t-shirts which carried the phrase “NBA Sieger Besieger”, which loosely translates to “NBA Winner Conqueror”. The t-shirts were made by Adidas, which is the official brand of the NBA, but the league still put the kibosh on the tees, citing a trademark violation. A new version of the t-shirt has been released, but it merely has the final score of the game, 94-93, in big block letters.
