It's August 1, the first day of the slowest NBA month of the year. Admittedly, I could consider September the slowest but at least we are getting really close to training camp in September. Maybe it's a tie. Anyway, die hard fans who live off NBA news get no satisfaction in August other the release of next season's schedule and no satisfaction in September other than it's closer to October. So to kill the boredom each of the last two years, I've ranked all the NBA mascots (2013) and all the NBA team names (2014). This year, it's time to take on each team's logo and rank them 1 to 30 (or really 30 to 1 would be more accurate).
Unlike team names which rarely change, especially in today's era of non-relocation, and team mascots which seldom change (although I did have to re-rank mascots last year and I will again this year), team logos are seemingly constantly in flux. At least for most teams anyway. Whether it's a small tweak, the introduction or change of a secondary logo or a wholesale re-design, it seems like these days there are at least a handful of franchises which are introducing new branding each offseason. Because of that, this rank may be a yearly moving target.
Generally speaking, I love sports teams logos. Growing up in England, I found football (soccer) teams' emblems rather dull. They were mostly centered around some sort of heraldry-like theme in a badge type format. They strike me as almost like the equivalent of college seals over here in the United States: stately, dignified, tradition-filled, venerable, sometimes sporting a saying, boring and NO FUN! Logos of American sports teams are not no fun; in fact, to a kid moving to this country at the age of 11, they were a breath of fresh air, especially considering the abundance of cartoon like logos around in the 1970s. No way we would see the smiling Baltimore Oriole or the swinging for the fences San Diego Padre or the old Milwaukee Buck twirling a basketball on his hoof in the UK.
Cartoon logos seem to have been a trend in the 1970s and I think there are trends today. There have been a number of (mostly unsuccessful) franchises recently who have deliberately changed their branding to harken back 20, 30 or 40 years ago when NBA times were happier in their cities. A few years ago, the Golden State Warriors changed their loges and uniforms to evoke their old "The City" uniforms. In 2010, my beloved Washington Wizards changed their color scheme, logos and uniforms to re-invent the old Washington Bullets teams of the late '70s. Last year, the Atlanta Hawks brought back the Pac Man logo. We'll get to all that.
The other fad that seems to be happening in the NBA is franchises taking existing circular logos and adding a ring around them with the team name. I'm not necessarily a fan of these types of logos but the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Wizards, Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks have all added this type of logo to their branding in the last half decade or so. But enough chatter…let's get to the good stuff. First up, the Los Angeles Clippers.
30. Los Angeles Clippers
Last summer, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer bought the Clippers from the exiled Donald Sterling for a cool $2 billion (yes, that's with a B). Apparently, Ballmer didn't want to waste any time carrying around the Clippers 30 year old logo and so he set about getting someone to re-brand the team in record fashion, taking just under a year before rolling out a new set of logos and some new unis to match.
The result? You're looking at it above. Congratulations, Mr. Ballmer you now have absolutely, hands down the worst logos in the NBA. I mean it's not even close and you can probably already see the less than impressive Oklahoma City Thunder logos awaiting you below. Now I admit, the previous Clippers logo was pretty poor and was really just sort of an adaptation of the Lakers' not much better logo. But these things above? Did you actually pay money for someone to design these? You would have gotten a far superior product by opening up a public competition and offering a couple of sets of Clippers season tickets as a prize. Heck, you might have even done much better with like a $500 cash prize and some credit for a job well done.
Some people have pointed out that the primary logo (on the left above) is pretty much just the EA Sports NBA Live logo and I don't think they are necessarily far off. This is an epic fail. I think the only question about this set of designs is how long until Ballmer pays for a better set. Hopefully he gives it two years this time.
29. Oklahoma City Thunder
For the longest time (OK really just since 2008 when the Thunder arrived in Oklahoma City), the Thunder has had the worst set of logos in the NBA. Thanks to the Clippers, they are now sitting at number 29 on my list and they are pretty safe given the Clips' lack of vision there.
I'm not sure exactly what the deal with the Thunder logo is. I get that it's connected to the native Americans who inhabited the open plains of Oklahoma before the United States government decided to round them all up and make them live (generally speaking) in a confined and maybe totally foreign part of the country. I think that's an honorable gesture on the part of the team. But this logo? A bulging triangle with a partial basketball and two swoopy marks going behind the triangle? I'm not sure they are honoring anyone with that look. I understand it's difficult to convey thunder in a logo since it's a sound but they did a hell of a job with their mascot; just adopt a bison as a logo.
As if the logo itself wasn't bad enough, the team has added insult to injury by rolling out a "secondary logo" and a "third partial logo", all of which are exactly the same with the exception of some words being added or taken away. This is the laziest, cheapest form of having multiple logos. Just keep one. Somehow adding two more with little imagination makes the whole thing just way worse.
28. Denver Nuggets
I have to confess when it comes to the Nuggets, I'm at a bit of a loss for words. This franchise has been horribly mired in mediocrity in the branding departure since the 1970s. After they ditched their excellent prospector with an ABA ball nugget, they've lost their way. First came the 1980s to early 1990s Tetris rainbow logo then they rolled out the primary logo on the above left in gaudy dark blue and copper colors before changing their color scheme to the garish colors above and just re-coloring the same logo in the new colors.
I like the connection between the Rocky Mountains and the Nuggets franchise in the primary logo and the picks and partial mountaintop in the secondary logo help reinforce this theme. But the font in the logo is just terrible (why is it arched?) and the banner with the word "Denver" on it sort of draped on the front of the mountain doesn't work for me. I don't get it.
The Nuggets rolled out a snowy mountaintop third logo (at the top of this post) but this thing can't really stand on it's own and appears custom designed to go on the backs of the player's jerseys in the spot where they moved the NBA logo this past season (to make room for advertising on the fronts of the jerseys). That logo now seems sort of homeless to me. The Nuggets sit at 28 because none of their logos work for me.
27. Detroit Pistons
In evaluating all the logos in the NBA, I came across a team or two with one or two pretty pedestrian and uninspired logos and then one awesome super spectacular logo. Some of those teams ended up higher in my ranking than a lot of teams with solid across the board logos none of which are really going to make a top 10 logos of all time list.
The Pistons are sort of in the opposite category from those teams. The Pistons' primarily logo is really pretty OK. Indeed, I'd say it's better than any of the other logos in this post, even the teams ranked ahead of them. But I have a real issue with the "DP" secondary logo. It's literally just the "P" taken off their main wordmark with then a "D" placed where the hole of the "P" would usually go. This is Clippers logo bad; it's like a joke that someone who was less successful at logo design would invent before the idea got summarily rejected. Only this one never did.
I don't like anything about this secondary logo. Nothing. It's a complete graphic disaster to me. If I were a Pistons fan, I'd refuse to wear any clothing with this abomination on it. Good middle of the pack primarily logo. Worst secondary logo probably ever.
26. Sacramento Kings
If there's a franchise out there with worse overall branding (meaning name, logos, uniforms, colors and product on the court) than the Sacramento Kings, I'm not sure what sport they play or what town they live in. The Kings have been anything but kings for most of their history. Success since they moved to Sacramento seems to be confined to the early years of the 21st Century when they were battling the Lakers in the playoffs. Even back then, their uniforms, colors and logos were still terrible.
Are either of the logos above even remotely palatable for a professional basketball franchise? True, there are basketballs in both designs. But take away the balls and the images would look way more at home in the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas than they do in the National Basketball Association. You might be able to leave the balls back in even. There's nothing modern or taking about the Kings' current logos. These things need a ton of work.
I don't know how to fix the Kings situation. There's no easy answer. But I'd nix the lances to start and make the whole thing less heraldic. It's just not necessary. Surely Vivek can hire someone (or a team of someones none of whom agree) to try to sort this mess out. The Kings ought to feel lucky they finished as high as 26th here.
25. Dallas Mavericks
I love Mark Cuban and everything he does and has done to get his team in position to win an NBA Championship as frequently as possible. But I don't like the Mavericks logos one bit. They are not the abandoned after one game alternate silver unis the Mavs rolled out some years ago, but they are pretty uninspiring.
I'm actually OK with the partial logo shown in the center above, which shows a horse's head in front of a basketball. And I've already rationalized the use of a horse as a Maverick (rather than a cow) in a past post on this same blog. I guess if I were a Mavs fan, I'd look for this logo to be on all my shirts.
But the other two logos, I don't know. I don't understand the whole shield motif on the primary logo and the "Mavericks" wordmark exploding out from the bottom of the design is distracting. But it's a damn sight better than the alternate logo on the right above. I'm not sure what this thing is about. I get the M and the shield and the basketball. I just don't know what's going on for sure.
The horse and the basketball is good enough for the Mavs to finish at the top of the worst list but these designs need work.
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