Changing the NBA logo?

If West is the NBA's logo, should he be?

The NBA logo is, outside of the Olympic rings and the Nike "swoosh," the world's most recognizable sports emblem.

For years, players, fans and journalists have assumed that the figure depicted within the familiar NBA logo is Jerry West, the Los Angeles Lakers' Hall of Fame guard and the current president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Search the Internet and you'll find sentences like this one, from Sports Illustrated staff writer L. Jon Wertheim in 2003: "(West is) well respected — no, lionized — in his field: one of the top 50 NBA players of all time, one so iconic that his silhouette adorns the NBA's logo."


The man who designed the NBA logo acknowledges that Jerry West is, indeed, Logoman. But the NBA is apparently reluctant to attach West's name to the silouette. (Photo illustration / FOXSports.com)

"It's Jerry West," Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told me recently. "I'm familiar with the original photograph from back in the '70s."

"My impression is that it's Jerry West dribbling to the hole," said David Kohler, president of Laguna Hills, Ca.-based Sports Card Plus Auctions and owner of perhaps the largest private collection of Lakers memorabilia. "I know it's always been assumed that it's Jerry West."

And yet, in a league with a well-deserved reputation for hyping even the most mundane milestone, the NBA did not celebrate the recent 35th anniversary of the logo's unveiling. The league has also refused to acknowledge publicly that West is the player in the logo. A high-ranking NBA official who asked that his name not be used told me that the identification of West is an "urban myth" and that the league has "no definitive records" about who designed the logo.

Why does the NBA refuse to admit that the logo is a representation of West? Is their "urban myth" statement PR bunk, or do they know something the rest of us don't?

Read More

- Wat do you guys think? I don't see any need to change the logo. On a business level, I don't think a new logo would actually help because it sort of takes away the old image of the NBA for me because we've had the same logo for over 35 years. You just get so used to it and giving a new logo to the need gives a sense of a new 'face'... if u get wat i mean.

I would leave it, thats one of the few things that never changes in sports, the leagues Logo.

i dont think they need to change it

It's great how it is right now. Does anybody know how was the logo before the current one?

I also dont think it should be changed...but obviously 95% of voters would choose jordan

OLD but still funny...



http://espn.go.com/page2/s/neel/021202.html

Id leave it.

anybody know how was the logo before the current one?

1951-1971

i wont even vote for this as it should not be changed

First time I've heard that the league has denied the fact West's silouette is the basis of the NBA logo. In any case, I don't think it needs to be changed.

Why should it be changed theres no need. IF it is then J or Bird. But theres no need to change it.

Hmm seems like they look a like:





Look. Notice the short-shorts in the picture of West and the Logo? Notice the placement of the feet? Notice the hair outline? How can the NBA deny this?

No question, I think most people do believe it's Jerry West since it's a well known fact whether the NBA acknowledges it or not. But like I said, this is the first time I've heard of the NBA actually denying it. You'd think there'd be more of a cover up, since West has been referred to as the logo for decades now and it's brought up as trivia fairly frequently (or has been in the past).

Freemasons at work again me thinks.

leave the logo like it is

I love the logo as it is now, but I also loved the LeBron James logo someone made.

It was a silhouette of his dunk. So I actually think it'd be cool if they changed it to that.

If they went with an MJ logo I think they'd be better off picking another image than the Air Jordan logo.

The logo has become the NBA's symbol, so why change it now?

yeah, leave it to much contraversy

actuall change it.............to this
we've earnt it

remain the same logo..better
guess everyone in the world watching the NBA had used to it..lol

I love the logo as it is now, but I also loved the LeBron James logo someone made.

It was a silhouette of his dunk. So I actually think it'd be cool if they changed it to that.

If they went with an MJ logo I think they'd be better off picking another image than the Air Jordan logo.

hehe yep there and would be some problems with Nike and the NBA

I don't think the NBA needs to change the logo and if the logo was going to be changed, it should just be a logo, not something with a player on it

I believe Jerry West was made the logo because he stood for what the game was supposed to be about- hard work, the ultimate competitor, a champion

Nowadays there's too much corporate BS involved in the NBA. Players are considered superstars because they are very marketable

I still don't see what's wrong with this:

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/9348/logo6kr.jpg

Not enough colour.

Seriously, I think the logo they have now is fine.