There have been many unusual court designs in basketball over the years, but it’s most common to see them from teams rather than conferences. That wasn’t the case for the remarkable court at the Big 12 men’s basketball conference tournament in Kansas City. The court which featured the conference logo’s “XII” in a repeated pattern, has been drawing quite the reaction from many viewers over the past few days. Here’s some of that:
The grey uniforms on a grey tinted court with black paint all around is horrible color contrast. If someone played around in Paint for 15 minutes, they could have nailed it.
— Michael Springer (@SpringerProject) March 10, 2025
Whoever approved the big 12 tournament court design should be in jail
— Lucy Rohden (@lucy_rohden) March 9, 2025
POV: Turning on the Big 12 tourney to sweat your bet and you see this court 🤩 pic.twitter.com/2ZNpJ3auUd
— br_betting (@br_betting) March 11, 2025
Why is the Big 12 court attacking my eyes like this pic.twitter.com/EzztgIk76Z
— Nate (@TheWordsOfNate) March 11, 2025
Not to sound like an old grandpa yelling at the clouds but we need to stop these obnoxious basketball court designs.
The NBA Cup and now the Big 12 have taken it way too far. It’s brutal on the eyes.
Bring back basketball courts that actually look like hardwood flooring. pic.twitter.com/bqOgXqrlhY
— Brandon Koretz (@BrandonKoretz) March 11, 2025
This Big 12 court is impressively bad. pic.twitter.com/S6gHtA6jBa
— Rick Broering (@RickBroering) March 11, 2025
I wonder if Mr. Pitt is able to see the image hidden within the Big 12 Tournament court. pic.twitter.com/x9ATMfdZg5
— Erik Haslam (@haslametrics) March 11, 2025
Everyone watching the Big 12 Tournament: pic.twitter.com/KCzmoZb7ph
— College Sports Only (@CollegeSportsO) March 11, 2025
Some of that criticism has been directed at Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who has made plenty of splashy moves since taking that role in 2022. The former CEO of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has done a lot in his time at the conference helm, from signing new media deals with Fox and ESPN to adding Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah (and dooming the Pac-12 in the process, even if he was “not happy” about that outcome) to attention-grabbing international announcements and partnerships with everyone from WWE to Ne-Yo. But, in a press conference Tuesday, Yormark tried to say the court wasn’t about him:
Here’s commissioner Brett Yormark on the new-look Big 12 Tournament court this season:
“That’s our stage, and we wanted to make a profound statement. I think we did.”@KCTV5 pic.twitter.com/JCZ4OZ78M1
— Marleah Campbell (@MarleahKCTV5) March 11, 2025
“Let me just start off by saying that that court isn’t about me, it’s about our student-athletes. When I first got here, it was all about modernizing and contemporizing our brand, connecting to culture, and getting on the consciousness of current and future student-athletes. And that’s what we’re doing.”
Yormark continued by saying he’s received praise for this from athletes.
“Every student-athlete that walked on that court last week came up to me and said ‘Brett, it’s fantastic.’ They took selfies, they loved it. Today, I got here very early, Iowa State practiced, and the entire team said ‘Love it, love being on there.’ I think it’s aspirational. That’s our stage. And we wanted to make a profound statement, and I think we did, and I love it.”
He then illustrated that he’s heard some of the criticism elsewhere, but said he isn’t bothered by it.
“Listen, in life, you never get it perfectly correct. But I think the people that matter most that are weighing in really love it, and that’s what matters to me.”
Well, many of those people seem to be weighing in privately to Yormark (and even there, it’s questionable whether “every student-athlete that walked on that court last week” told him “Brett, it’s fantastic,” as that seems a little over-the-top for such unanimity). There are many others weighing in with other feedback, but apparently they don’t matter quite as much. But it is interesting to hear Yormark explaining his goals for this publicly, and saying “It’s about our student-athletes.”