10 Worst 'We Believe' Rip-off T-Shirts Around the NBA

The 2007 Golden State Warriors had one of the most astonishing playoff upsets in the history of the NBA with their six-game win over the Dallas Mavericks.

The win sent Oakland into a frenzy, sent the world into a state of adoration and sent a single shirt to the height of popularity in the NBA world.

"We Believe" was the motto of those Warriors in that playoff run, and they printed it onto anything they could find, including those free shirts that get slung over the back of every chair before the start of each playoff game.

Ever since then, each team has been trying to get their own "We Believe" shirt out there, and some have even gone as far as to rip off the Warriors style, color scheme, unified message or even their slogan altogether, but no team has had the same success with their T-shirts.

Let's take a look at the most blatant rip-offs of the Warriors' now-iconic gold gear. 

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Okay, so I said mere moments ago that no other team's playoff T-shirt slogan has rivaled the "We Believe" uproar that came with the Warriors in 2007. I lied.

The Milwaukee Bucks "Fear the Deer" campaign in 2010 was the most unique and creative playoff slogan since then, and for that we have to give them credit.

So, to the 2010 Bucks, I'd like to send my love for doing the opposite of most other teams and actually doing something creative. Kudos.

The Jeremy Lin Show

Apparently, back during the peak of Linsanity, there were a group of raucous New York Knicks fans who were getting in on the "We Believe" train.

The game in question was a 99-88 win by the New York Knicks over the Utah Jazz in February during the peak of Linsanity, so I don't know how much you can blame these fans for going a bit Linsane with their shirts.

According to Charles Curtis of Fox Sports, these guys had shirts with "The Jeremy Lin Show" printed across the front and "We Believe" on the back. Now that's just a blatant rip-off right there, fellows.

We Need Creativity

I suppose I shouldn't go out and single out the Dallas Mavericks here, but all I was doing was looking for an example of the generic free playoff T-shirt that has been circulating for over half a decade now.

It seems that every playoff team, whether they're the top seed on the eighth seed or something in between will give away a playoff T-shirt, and usually there is little to no variation on the style.

All we ever seem to get is a small graphic in the center of the shirt with some generic phrase or saying accompanied by the team's logo separating the words.

Don't these teams have some creative minds working for them?

Generic Phrases All Around

This is another time when I'm not actively trying to single out the team in the picture, this time it happens to be the Hornets, but I'm calling out the entire league.

There's a dull trend going on with playoff T-shirts that I think has gotten out of control, and the creative guys in the league really need to put a stop to it.

Every year we see these T-shirts draped over the back of chairs, and every year all they say is some boring phrase of inclusion for the fans, stating that they are a part of the team in some way. 

We get it.

We Still See You, Hockey

All right, I know the title says that this is about the worst rip-offs around the NBA, but we can't very well sit back and let hockey teams get away with blatant rip-offs of the Golden State Warriors, now can we?

This T-shirt is the one the LA Kings were hocking a year ago when they made it to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Sure, they have a much more intricate design, which I applaud them on, but they straight up nabbed the "We Believe" slogan from Golden State.

The Dubs 'We're Back' T-Shirt

After the "We Believe" run that the Warriors made in the 2007 playoffs, you can imagine that the team had a lot of confidence coming into the 2008 season.

It only took a few weeks for the Warriors to get off to a hot start, and with that start came this "We're Back" T-shirt.

The Warriors were ready for another great playoff run, but the creativity gods were frowning upon them for blatantly going from their old design to this one, just changing the words on the shirt.

We Get It, the Dubs Like the Design

This is one of the T-shirts that surfaced as the Warriors were making a run for the playoffs in 2008, the year after their improbable takedown of the Mavericks.

The shirt didn't get nearly as much play as the ones in 2007, but they were still rather visible when the season was winding down.

The T-shirts were back in the NBA, but the Warriors couldn't quite make it back to the NBA Playoffs as they ended the season with 48 wins, but no playoff berth. I guess they didn't believe hard enough.

Memphis Wants to Believe

2011 was a tough time for the entire city of Memphis, but the Grizzlies were the lone bright spot banding the city together.

The Grizzlies were in a series against the San Antonio Spurs while their city and a good chunk of their state was battling widespread flooding.

It seems the basketball gods overlooked the blatant rip-off of the slogan and gave some good luck to the Grizzlies as they took down the Spurs in Round 1, nearly making it to the Western Conference Finals after a close series with the OKC Thunder.

Bobcats Homage

This isn't exactly the T-shirt that the Bobcats came out with when they made the playoffs for the first time in team history in 2010, but there were quite a few similar to it in the stands two years ago.

You can't blame the Bobcats too much for wanting to fit in; after all, they've not even been in the league for a decade at this point, but still they took it a step too far with their recreation of the Dubs t-shirt.

Just make up your own and maybe you can get some real playoff magic working for you guys.

Memphis Rip-off

This shirt just happens to be the one the Memphis Grizzlies gave away during their first and second home games of this year's series against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Grizzlies fans got a yellow towel and a white t-shirt, each saying "Believe Memphis" across the middle, just like the shirt they used the previous year.

Hell, at least then they used their blue, this season they look exactly like the Warriors' "We Believe" T-shirts, save for the Grizzly Bear hanging out in the corner.

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