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On Tuesday night, the Houston Rockets played the Oklahoma City Thunder in an NBA preseason game. The matchup would have been as irrelevant as every other exhibition except that it was our first time seeing Chris Paul in a Houston uniform and Carmelo Anthony and Paul George in OKC digs.

All around, it just did not look right.

We deal with this every time a star player (in any sport) switches teams. After years of seeing a guy wearing the same colors, with the same logo and the same color headband, it just feels weird when he pops up elsewhere in a different uniform. Carmelo in Thunder get-up genuinely looked like what you get when you trade players in 2K to teams they don’t belong on.

Here’s Chris Paul making plays in a different shade of red than we’re used to seeing him in.

And Paul George, playing his first NBA game not wearing Indiana Pacers colors.

Anyway, it turns out all three of them can still ball, even if their uniforms look out of place while they’re doing it. With Russell Westbrook out, Carmelo led OKC with 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting, while George added 15 points, five rebounds and two assists. On the other side, Paul put up 11 points on only five shots while dishing seven assists.

Anyway, the new uniforms might be disorienting for a while, but if we could get used to Karl Malone in a Lakers jersey and Tracy McGrady playing for the Spurs, this should be no problem.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.