Minor Leagues

Last month, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced plans to potentially reduce the number of Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams across the United States by 42. Considering the number of MiLB teams out there stands at around 160 or so, 42 is quite a cut. MLB claims this will save them a ton of money and they might be right. I've read that the cost savings might be around $22 million or so per year. I've also read that Major League Baseball brings in revenue of about $10 billion per year. $22 million divided among 30 teams pulling in $10 billion seems like small potatoes to me.

Understandably, there has been some backlash to this plan, particularly from the communities which stand to lose their baseball teams. Think this isn't important? I disagree. Access to live professional sports for communities is sometimes vital for community pride and social connection. It has been for centuries. Take away the Pioneer League (which is part of the contraction plan) and you've just wiped out professional baseball in Montana. Like all of it. So maybe not that many people out west care about a rookie league or any other team that's being run out of business, but I bet some do. And not just the owners of the teams (MiLB teams are not owned by parent organizations) and the communities that have financed stadiums for those teams. Although those two groups might have a pretty strong opinion of Major League Baseball telling them they are out of business.

Need any other reasons why this sucks? How about tradition? The Chattanooga (Tennessee) Lookouts are on the chopping block with this proposal. They have been the Lookouts since 1909 and their franchise dates back to 1885. They might have survived without MLB affiliation in the early 20th century but today that might be a different proposition.

So why am I writing about baseball on a Washington Wizards blog that's supposed to be about basketball? Well, because I think this same sort of thing has been going on for the past few years in the NBA's minor league system, the G League. Not the contraction (because the G League has actually been expanding) but the removal of professional sports from towns and cities with little to no access to that kind of thing once the NBA moved their teams. And I'm arguing what the G League is doing pretty much sucks too.

Erie Insurance Arena: Home of the Erie (PA) BayHawks. For now.

Consider this: at the beginning of the 2009-2010 NBDL season (the NBDL or National Basketball Development League was what the G League used to be called before corporate sponsorship got involved) had 16 independently owned and operated teams spread out over 14 states. Of those 14 states, seven of them had no NBA team so the NBDL was all they had. Of the nine teams located in NBA states, one (the Tulsa 66ers) was in their state before the NBA was (on a permanent basis, anyway) and two of the other teams (in Hidalgo, Texas and Bakersfield, California) were hours by car from the nearest NBA arena, which made access to live pro basketball an overnight or very late arrival home affair. Point is, professional basketball was available to people in the United States without having a visit an NBA city.

Fast forward to today and the G League looks much different. There are now 28 teams in the league which from a growth standpoint is awesome. But all of those teams are now owned by NBA franchises and just six of those 28 teams are located outside the state of their parent team. Considering one of the remaining six is the Memphis Hustle which plays just over the Mississippi border about 12 miles from Memphis but is named after the city where the NBA team plays, it's really just five remote teams. Of those five, just four are located in states without an NBA team. I think things are trending in the wrong direction there.

When the NBDL was launched in 2001, it was deliberately located in the underserved (from a professional basketball standpoint anyway) southeast of the country. At that time there were other non-NBA affiliated regional leagues (notably the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) centered in the midwest of the country) around the United States but I guess the southeast stood out to the NBA as an area of opportunity. Plus I imagine locating all eight charter members of the league in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama cut down on travel expenses.

It didn't work. Within four years, two of the franchises had folded and four of the other six had moved. The two that remained in place? Gone one year later. New teams were added in Arkansas and Texas and they too went belly up after just two years in business. Not such a good idea to start a basketball league in the southeast apparently.

Inside the rockin' Portland Expo Center.

Obviously, the league was able to weather the poor start, likely because it had the backing of the NBA. Original franchises which had re-located to Albuquerque, Austin and Tulsa were more successful in their new locales than their original cites and in 2005, the league engaged in a serious expansion, fueled in part by the defection of four teams from the CBA, to bring the total number of franchises to 12. Three years later it was 17. The league that started in the deep south now spread from Los Angeles to North Dakota to Portland, Maine. And they had taken the CBA out along the way and stood as the only serious minor professional basketball league in the country.

Things were good. Good for basketball fans. Good for small cities which needed professional basketball. Good for the NBA.

Then things started to go downhill. Maybe not for the NBA. Maybe not for the players. Maybe not for the owners of the teams that were suddenly being offered large sums of money for their teams. But for fans in small cities...for sure. In 2011, the Boston Celtics entered into what would be known as a hybrid affiliation with the Maine Red Claws. Under that arrangement the Celtics got to run the operations of the team and install their own coaching staff. That meant they could coach their G League assignees in the exact same system they were using in the NBA. Huge advantage to have that kind of control.

Two years later, the Knicks founded their own G League team. That slowly became the new norm. One by one (well except for the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers) teams were either added to the League (typically in very close proximity to the parent club) or NBA teams purchased existing franchises and moved them. 

Dakota Wizards? Gone from North Dakota to be close to the Warriors who bought them. Replaced by...nothing. Reno Bighorns? Also gone. Moved to Stockton, CA to be close to the Sacramento Kings. Idaho Stampede? No more (say hello to the Salt Lake City Stars)! Get the picture? How about in Oklahoma where the Thunder actually moved a team from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. That's 107 miles away. Did they really need to move that team?

The Springfield (MA) Civic Center, no longer home of minor league basketball.

I have never visited Bismarck, North Dakota or Reno, Nevada or Boise, Idaho during basketball season or at any other time in my life. But I have visited Hidalgo, Texas and Erie, Pennsylvania and Canton, Ohio and Portland, Maine. They are all cool little cities who showed up to root for their basketball teams, no matter that they were in the G League. All of those cities fortunately still have their teams (except Hildago - the Rio Grande Valley Vipers moved to Edinburg about 20 miles away) although Erie will lose theirs at the end of this season.

The Celtics, I guess to their credit, didn't move the Red Claws (awesome name by the way) from Maine to Boston but instead keep them in the old 1915 Portland Expo Center. I saw that team play on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter and the place was filled. If any team saw the atmosphere inside that place I kind of believe they would think twice about moving that team. Maybe. Probably not.

While I have never been to Bismarck, Reno or Boise, I have been to Springfield, Massachusetts. I was there in 2014 to see the Springfield Armor play in their final season, right before the Detroit Pistons bought the team and moved it to Grand Rapids. With no offense intended toward the place where basketball was founded, Springfield is dead. In the two days I was there (small sample size I know) the streets were empty and decidedly not alive. Except before and right after the Armor played. The NBA took that away.

So I know I'm being a little melodramatic here. I mean, it's not like the NBA forced all these team owners to take millions of dollars for what were probably barely profitable teams. On the other hand, I'm not. I really believe in the power of sports to bring people and communities together. And I think the NBA has played a role in taking that away from some cities and towns. Just like Major League Baseball will if their plan to contract their (admittedly much more extensive) minor league system goes forward. They should stop it.

So should the NBA. But they probably won't.

The cover photo of this post is the logos of six of the original eight NBDL teams. 

Bobblehead Nation 2019 Update

So it's been a couple of weeks since I posted my annual post letting all NBA fans (OK, so the 20 or so people who read this blog) know where to get the choicest bobbleheads around the NBA. When I published my Bobblehead Nation 2019 post back in October, I had just over half the NBA teams' promotional schedules and I hadn't even started checking out the G League quite yet. Three weeks or so later, I have done that (the G League part). Time for an update.

First of all, let me say that the G League bobblehead schedule this year is pretty amazing. For the past couple of years, we've seen NBA team bobbles be handed out to fans at the minor league levels on a pretty regular basis. Canton and Santa Cruz have been notable in their rigor in treating Charge and Warriors fans to Cavaliers and...well...Warriors big league bobbleheads. This year, there's plenty of that and I've listed everything I could find below. But there are also a number of bobbleheads available which are exclusive to the G League and that's pretty exciting I think. Looks like some road trips are in order for some die-hard bobblehead collectors. Let's get right to the supplemental list, shall we?

Oh..and there have been a few new NBA promo schedules released. Only one of those (Houston) features bobbleheads. For those fans in Dallas, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Utah...better luck next year. Each of those teams have released promotional schedules since my post last month and there ain't no bobbleheads on them, although the Pels' schedule is mysteriously incomplete in its stopping in December. No way are there four promo nights in November and December and nothing the rest of the season. There has to be a Zion bobble, right? RIGHT??

November

9 Sugar Skull (Windy City Bulls)

Last year my bobblehead update was posted in December. Because the Windy City Bulls are handing out a bobblehead on November 9 (or tomorrow), I've been forced to go early this year. The Bulls are handing out a pretty sweet (no pun intended) Sugar Skull bobblehead (shown above) for their season opener this year. This type of bobblehead is typically handed out in late October to coincide with dia de los muertos. Since the G League season doesn't open until November 8, the Bulls are going with better late than never here. I'd show up to the Sears Centre for this one. The Bulls do note the bobble is available while supplies last. Get there early. This is generally true for all G League giveaways.

18 Russell Westbrook (Houston Rockets)
One of the biggest offseason deals (top 3 after Anthony Davis and Kawhi/Paul George to LA?) has to be the Chris Paul and a like a half million draft picks to Oklahoma City for Russell Westbrook. I don't think Russ is winning a title in Houston; I also think the Rockets live to rue the day they made this trade. But if nothing else, Westbrook gets a bobblehead out of the deal.

29 Draymond Green San Francisco Edition (Santa Cruz Warriors)

The Warriors got bested by the Cavs in the bobblehead department at the NBA level this year. But they are still kings of the G League bobbles. Try six bobbleheads. That's more than they are giving out in San Francisco (remember there's no more Oakland...). Five of the six match giveaways scheduled at the brand new Chase Center. The last is a G League exclusive. First up? Draymond Green in the mysterious San Francisco Edition. If you miss this one six days earlier in San Fran, drive down to Santa Cruz.

December

13 Kevon Looney Stormtrooper (Santa Cruz Warriors)

Warriors bobblehead #2 in Santa Cruz, two days after the same giveaway in San Francisco. 

14 Austin Carr (Canton Charge)

This is the first of three Cleveland Cavaliers bobbleheads being handed out by the Charge this year. I'm assuming this is a duplicate of the Carr bobblehead given away in Cleveland two nights prior. First 1,500 fans only on this one, folks!

27 DeAndre Jordan Star Wars Night (Long Island Nets)

Brooklyn becomes the third NBA team to have a pile of parent club bobbles at the door of their G League franchise when they open up the arena on December 27. If you missed this one at Barclays on December 21, head out to this game six days later. The Brooklyn club doesn't have an image of this bobble on their website. The Long Island version does (above). First 1,000 fans only.

28 Whammer (Canton Charge)

Bobblehead night #2 in Canton is a repeat of the December 20 giveaway in Cleveland. First 1,500 fans here just like on December 14 in Canton.

January

4 Marvin the Martian and Gus T. Bull (Windy City Bulls)

Are you kidding me? I get that the Brooklyn Nets have co-opted about half the Marvel character list to tie in to their bobblehead promotions this year but Marvin the Martian? In the G League. I'm buying Windy City Bulls season tickets if I'm in the Chicago area. This thing is epic. Photo above. And remember...while supplies last.

6 Raptors Alumni Night (Raptors 905)

No promises here for a bobblehead but the Raptors' minor league franchise is hosting three Alumni Nights (on January 6, February 22 and March 11). All three nights advertise "special appearances, bobblehead giveaways and more." The focus here seems to be on Raptors players who have spent time in the G League. Pascal Siakam, maybe? Fred Van Vleet? Just my own guesses there. I don't see a promo schedule on the Raptors site right now. Could these be exclusive G League collectibles?

11 James Harden Space Bobble (Houston Rockets)
If it seems like every year I write this post, I'm writing about a James Harden bobblehead in Houston, you'd be correct. Seems like they are giving out these things more often than Harden travels in a game (not gets called for traveling, because that wouldn't be very often at all, but actually does travel). In the past five years, there have been four James Harden bobblehead nights in Houston. 2019-20 makes it five out of six. Apparently this one is space themed...cool!

18 Mark Price (Canton Charge)

Bobblehead night #3 in Canton matches the January 4 game in Cleveland. Just like the two prior bobblehead nights for the Charge, there are only 1,500 of these things available.

24 D'Angelo Russell (Santa Cruz Warriors)

Bobblehead night #3 in Santa Cruz is January 24 when the guy traded for Kevin Durant get his own plastic bobble likeness. 10 days earlier, he gets distributed at the Chase Center.

25 Gus T. Bull ASL Bobblehead (Windy City Bulls)

ASL is American Sign Language and this is the third not-available-at-the-parent-club-level bobblehead to be handed out by the Windy City Bulls. This is awesome that a bobblehead is actually addressing a cause of some sort rather than just spitting out an image of a player or mascot for the fans.

February

22 Alumni Night (Raptors 905)

See January 6 above.

28 Klay Thompson Headband Edition (Santa Cruz Warriors)

Well when I speculated about what this bobblehead would look like in my prior post, I was right. It is, in fact, Klay Thompson wearing a headband. And, yes, it's the same color as the one he wore when he dropped 52 on the Bulls.

29 Ben Wallace (Grand Rapids Drive)

No bobbleheads on the schedule for Pistons fans in Detroit but head west to Grand Rapids in late, late February (like, really late) and you can pick up a Ben Wallace bobblehead. Gotta think some Pistons fans are hopping in their cars for this one. I would.

March 

11 Alumni Night (Raptors 905) 

See January 6 above.

14 Stephen Curry Santa Cruz Warriors (Santa Cruz Warriors)

This is the only one of the six bobbleheads available this year in Santa Cruz that's exclusive to the G League. Surprise, surprise, it's Steph Curry. Presumably wearing a Santa Cruz jersey. If the Capital City Go-Go handed out a John Wall Go-Go jersey bobblehead I'd be there for sure. Of course, it's a bit further from San Francisco to Santa Cruz than it is from D.C. to another part of D.C. I'm seeing some Dubs faithful making this drive.

18 Stephen Curry Popcorn Edition (Santa Cruz Warriors)

The Steph in front of a giant tub of popcorn bobblehead that so befuddled me in my prior post shows up in Santa Cruz in mid-March. Go for it.

27 Dr. J as Black Panther (Long Island Nets)

The second Long Island Nets offering in the bobblehead department is the same as Brooklyn's giveaway three weeks prior. If the image above is true to life, I'm not sure how Dr. J is Black Panther. Maybe the real version is different? Looks like the Nets are making 2,000 of these available for G League fans. Get there early.

That's all I got bobblehead-wise until (a) the Thomas Bryant bobblehead gets released at Capital One Arena or (b) the Wizards by some miracle decide that there's another way Wiz fans get a different bobblehead this year (come on...there's got to be a Rui Hachimura bobblehead ticket package somehow). 

I'm still missing some lists from some NBA teams but there have been some bobblehead-less schedules published at the G-League level. Get ready to be disappointed some of you. Hoping for bobbleheads in Aguas Calientes (Clippers), Erie (Bayhawks but the Pelicans G League team), Greensboro (Hornets), Iowa (Wolves, short for Timberwolves), Salt Lake City (Stars which is way better than Utah Jazz) and Stockton (Kings).

Good luck NBA (and G League) bobblehead collectors!!!

The Capital City Go-Go

Between the first and second quarters of last night's win over the Detroit Pistons, the Washington Wizards made an important announcement, revealing the name and logo of their minor league or G League affiliate which will begin play in the fall of 2018. The name? The (drumroll please...) Capital City Go-Go!!! The logo? Well, that's the picture at the top of this post.

How good are the name and logo? I'll get to my thoughts on that in just a minute. Let's talk about some more practical considerations before we get to the fan stuff.

From a basketball standpoint, yesterday's announcement is a next step forward in what is an important process and one which frankly the Wizards have been trailing most of the rest of the NBA on for a significant period of time. For sure, rolling out a name and a logo doesn't make a minor league franchise any more real but this process has steps and this is one of them. It now allows fans to believe that we are on schedule with having a support franchise of our very own.

Why is this so important? Well, in addition to bringing pro basketball to more people in this country at a more affordable price point, having a dedicated farm team allows concentrated player development and rehabilitation assignments. This year, 26 of the 30 NBA teams have G League franchises that are singly affiliated, meaning either that the two franchises are owned by the same organization or that the operations of the minor league team are run by the parent franchise. That means that the coaching system is identical between the two teams, allowing faster development of young talent or rehabilitation assignments for players coming off injuries in a basketball playbook environment exactly the same as they will find when they get to or back to the NBA.

The Wizards ain't one of those 26 teams with a dedicated G League affiliate. That means the League has way less value for the Wizards than about 26 other teams. In fact, this year the Wizards have used the G League only because they pretty much have to. Devin Robinson and Mike Young were signed to two-way contracts which allow them to play in both leagues under specific guidelines and salary structures. So far, the Wizards have confined both to the G League and left it at that. The only way they could have had less involvement so far is if they just opted to not sign any two-way contracts at all.

So how are Robinson and Young developing? Right now, no clue. Devin is playing the Philadelphia 76ers way on assignment to their Delaware G League franchise. Mike is learning how the Phoenix Suns do things down in Arizona. Earlier this week they actually played each other in a game. Assuming the G League franchise is actually interested in developing another team's players, does this setup sound ideal in any way? Not to me it doesn't.

So how else might not having a G League franchise hurt a team? Well, earlier this week, the Chicago Bulls announced they would be sending Nicola Mirotic and Zach LaVine to their nearby G League team for a rehab assignment. They are not the only team to have done this in the past. There's no way the Wizards are going to send some of their NBA players to another team's minor league affiliate so they just simply don't have that luxury available to them. The Wizards are a step behind here.

Capital City Go-Go shirts were mandatory shirt wear during second half warmups last night. 

So about that name and logo.

Really? The Capital City Go-Go???

OK, first, let me say I appreciate the effort to do something different. Of the 26 teams currently in the G League, 11 of them have nicknames that match their parent franchise (I'm counting the Iowa Wolves in this number) which is both unimaginative and sad. The best names in the G League are the ones that existed before single affiliation was a concept. The Maine Red Claws, Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Fort Wayne Mad Ants and Reno Bighorns are all awesome names. The Capital City Go-Go certainly matches the spirit of these names, just like the Memphis Hustle did when that franchise began playing this year.

I also appreciate the effort to create a name that's place specific instead of generic. Warriors can come from anywhere, as can Wolves, Raptors and Stars. There's no place else that Go-Go (named after D.C.'s own go-go style of music) can come from.

So what's my problem, you might ask? Well, there are a few issues. First, I object to the Capital City moniker. I am going to think of The Simpsons every time I read or hear that. In case you are not a Simpsons fanatic, in one episode Homer self-appointed himself the mascot of the local minor league baseball team the Springfield Isotopes and was so successful that he got sent to Capital City to pinch-mascot for the world-famous Capital City Goofball. Of course, he failed. I like Capital. Just not Capital City. I've had Tony Bennett in my head all day singing the Capital City song from The Simpsons. Hate that!

Second of all, it's not really very sports-y. It used to be mascots were concrete things like Orioles or Cowboys or Jets or Hawks or something like that. I get that some teams have appropriated more abstract concepts like weather (Heat or Lightning) but now we are dealing with sounds? I guess the Jazz is the same way. And how is the name going to roll off the tongue when the team's on the court? Are we going to chant "Let's go Go-Go!"???

Finally, and the biggest reason really, is that nobody outside of D.C. is going to get it. On one level, I love that. It's like an inside joke that everyone is in on except people not from the District. On the other hand, nobody really cares about the G League nationally and it's going to be ultra-confusing to explain to other people what my Capital City Go-Go shirt means. It's just going to bring up endless questions. 

Some nicknames have hidden meanings: I love how the Charlotte Hornets name references a quote from Lord Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War. But the great thing about the hornets name is it works whether or not you understand the hidden meaning. The Memphis Hustle is another name with multiple levels of meaning. The Go-Go name is just confusing and there's no hidden meaning although until it's explained, nobody's going to get it on any level.

And then there are the logos. We got three last night. The (what I assume will be) primary logo at the top of this post, a partial version of that same logo with just the bongo drum with basketball patterned drum head and then the alternate logo which features a note with three stars over a silhouette of the District of Columbia.

I think the primary logo is fine. I'm not crazy about the "Capital City" font but other than that I am pretty ambivalent about the whole design. My biggest objection is the name itself. Because the name makes up most of this logo, I can't imagine I'm ever going to be purchasing any apparel with this logo on it.

I actually like the secondary logo a lot. I don't like the red background but if the team sells shirts with this logo on it that are not red, I could see myself owning one or two of these things. It represents the District way more than the name itself. I'm surprised, and actually refreshingly so, that the team didn't make basketballs out of the circles on the note. Basketball logo designers have a way of turning every circle on a design into a basketball. Not doing that here was a good move.

I'm not sure I have the answer to what I wanted here. I wrote a post last year on this blog where I wondered what the name of the team would be. My answer was Capital Bullets, although I really liked my Ward 8 Wizards suggestion better over time. My answer was non-creative. The Capital City Go-Go is way more creative. But I just don't like it. Maybe I'll warm to it over time. I expected today that I'd be hunting around on the internet to see where I could find a t-shirt with the new team's logo on it. I haven't done that and I don't think I'm going to do it any time soon. I'm disappointed here. I get it. But I don't get it. Oh well.

G-League Logo Rank, Part 3

Over the past two weeks, I've posted 16/26ths of my G-League logo rank (or 8/13ths if you prefer to reduce fractions). Now it's time for the grand finale, the exalted top 10 of the NBA's minor league. Read on. There are some good looking logos on this list.

10. Northern Arizona Suns

The Phoenix Suns began play in the NBA way back in 1968. When they did, they rolled out a secondary logo that to me is still one of the best logos ever used by an NBA franchise. Yes, it was extremely simple, just a cartoon-like sun blazing away that would look at home in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon of that era. The Suns kept that logo, which also featured the word "Suns" across the center, until 1992. A piece of classic NBA logo history died for me the day they retired it.

The simplicity of that original logo has been recreated in large part in the Northern Arizona Suns' branding. It's the resurrection of that long dead motif that lands the Suns' G-League offering at number 10 on this countdown. Admittedly, there are issues with the re-use that are lost in translation. I'm OK with the basketball at the center of the logo (so it's really a basketball shining like the sun I guess) and I don't mind the compass point pointing north at the top of the sun. But I'm not such a fan of the wordmark below the logo and I hate the NAZ abbreviation. Nonetheless, I still like this one. It's simple enough to capture something that I really like.

9. Agua Caliente Clippers

For the first time maybe since the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (named after the Zollner piston manufacturing company) dropped the Zollner in 1948, corporate sponsorship returns to an NBA-affiliated team in the form of the Agua Caliente casino sponsored Los Angeles Clippers G-League team. The name's not really the point of this post I guess.

The parent Clippers team in my humble opinion have the absolute worst branding in the NBA, a videogame logo inspired mess of way too simple Ls, As and Cs put together in awkward combinations. I have to say they did way way better with their G-League branding. There's nothing too complicated going on here which is refreshing. They are still using the same boxy C as they are at the NBA level, but the abstract basketball with the color swirls (or whatever else you want to call those things) and the circular text ring at the perimeter for me come together in a coherent and pleasing logo. Thumbs up! Good job!

8. Canton Charge

I despise putting anything associated with the Cleveland Cavaliers this high in any ranking I'm responsible for but let's face it, when compared to the competition logo-wise in the G-League, the Canton Charge deserve a top 10 spot.

The Charge's primary logo features a cavalier (I'm assuming) thrusting a decidedly non-elegant sword towards the viewer. Other than the blade looking way clumsier that I would imagine a swashbuckler wielding, the logo is well designed and uses color as shadow to make it simple but not simplistic. There's movement and force in this design.

I'm not thrilled with the secondary logo, which looks like a chunkier, squarer version of the Cavs' cocktail onion on a sword toothpick logo but the primary logo is good enough to carry the day here.

7. Delaware 87ers

Yes, the 87ers logo is pretty much an exact copy of the Philadelphia 76ers 2009 logo recreate featuring the classic 1977 Sixers logo with "87" placed where "76" was on the original logo. On the one hand, there's nothing wrong with this; this logo is one of the most beloved (by me) NBA logos of all time.

On the other hand, they got one thing very wrong. In the original logo, the top of the "7" is curved, which creates a perfect negative for the circle of the 13 stars from the first Stars and Stripes flag to sit. In the 87ers logo, the same curve is applied to the "7" but the circle of stars sits awkwardly above the top of the "8" and not nested in the dip like on the original logo. Who knows, maybe they tried moving it over and it looked out of place in the middle of the logo. I still say they should have done it. Good, not great, here.

6. Raptors 905

I didn't particularly know what it was quite about the Raptors 905 logo that appealed to me until I wrote this piece. Let's face it, I couldn't state "yep I like this for no particular reason" and put them in the 6 spot. It's the details for me. I love the simple symmetry of the logo, right down to an attempt to make "9" and "5" mirror images of one another (they are decidedly not in real life). I also LOVE (yes, LOVE) the raptor claw marks on the top of the ball where the seams are on the bottom. As much as I hate the Raptors' name, I am almost giddy about this design.

The secondary logo for me is OK. It's (I guess) a map of Ontario (didn't really know the shape of Ontario) with a plan white "M" for Mississauga, the town where the team plays. This looks either like a saddle with an M on it or an old college blanket of a school beginning with M draped over the back of a couch. Or both. I know, I said I love map-themed logos. I don't love this one. It's good at best. It's the primary logo that lands Raptors 905 in sixth.

5. Fort Wayne Mad Ants

Yes, it's already obvious I have a soft spot for teams that pre-date the NBA's true takeover of the G-League, especially when they have kept their names and logos intact. The Mad Ants are the first of three consecutive in that camp, although the Ants have surrendered their red and yellow color scheme for a more Indiana Pacers-themed blue and yellow package.

The Mad Ants' (named after General "Mad" Anthony Wayne who was also whom Fort Wayne was named after) logo is fairly simple: an ant head in a circle with a triangle beneath, if that makes sense from the picture above. It's the words more than anything else that get me liking this one. I love this font. It reinforces the name more than the voracious ant with mandibles ready to chomp into anyone who opposes him.

4. Reno Bighorns

The Mad Ants predate the Pacers' takeover. Out west in Reno, the Bighorns are the last of the original west coast franchises. The Idaho Stampede are gone; the Bakersfield Jam are gone; but the Bighorns remain in Reno. And just like the Mad Ants, the Bighorns have allowed the now-parent Sacramento Kings to change their green and gold colors for the Kings' purple and silver.

If I've got a soft spot in my heart for the classic NBDL (and before) franchises, I've also got a huge spot there for bighorn sheep. I've looked for these things in the Black Hills of South Dakota; Yellowstone National Park; the stretch of Nevada between Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam; and Zion National Park in Utah (saw one far far away) before finally laying eyes on a whole herd in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. The image presented by the Bighorns' logo is simple and strong and shows one of these gorgeous animals in a classic pose seen from below. I'm in full support of this logo. I even like the insertion of the Kings' crown from their logo into the wordmark.

Now about that secondary logo...I'm just ignoring this thing. I don't like it at all. It's not as bad as the Legends' "TL" or the Drive's "GR" but it's not adding anything. The good outweighs the bad here by a long shot.

3. Maine Red Claws

I'm just going to throw this out there: the top three logos in the G-League are better than the top three logos in the NBA. There! I said it! And that's including the homer pick Washington Wizards being in my NBA top three. Let me prove I'm right.

Sitting at number three on my G-League logo rank is the Maine Red Claws and their lobster logo  that looks like he's about to put a beating on some dude that owes him some serious money. Huge powerful claws draped either side of the Red Claws' wordmark are intimidating, especially when combined with that facial expression that says to me "you better not drop me in no boiling water or else." He also looks none too pleased by the cute little basketballs someone has glued on to his antennae or whatever they call those things on lobsters.

Unfortunately for this crustacean, he's red, which means he's already cooked (and yes still somehow alive). But we can suspend disbelief here a little right? The secondary logo's not quite as good but if it were the only logo rolled out by this team, I still think it would get a top 10 nod. Bravo, Maine. You finally found something for me to like about your state.

2. Memphis Hustle

If you know anything about my love of logos (or if you've ready past posts from me about NBA logos and haven't just dismissed the information like you probably should have), you'll know I think the Memphis Grizzlies' bear head logo is the best in the NBA hands down. Well, I got some news: the Grizz outdid themselves with their G-League branding because this stuff is even better than the original.

The look for the brand new Hustle team set to start play in a few months consists of three logos: a bear head silhouette with Memphis Hustle written in font eerily similar to the old 1970s pump triline font (pretty much anything from the 70s makes anything more awesome) complete with a finishing star on the "e"; a stylized "mh" using a similar font to the one in the bear head; and a circular "grit & grind" logo (again with the star). I love the colors here, I love the fonts and I love the callbacks to a bygone era when Memphis was cranking out some of the funkiest music around over at the old Stax Records studio. Thumbs way up all around. They might just be the best in the G-League if only...

1. Santa Cruz Warriors

Let's gloss over the alternate logos (and their variants) that make up the Santa Cruz Warriors' branding package just for a moment shall we? These things are good but not great. I'm even not upset about the "SC" logo and we know how I feel about jumbo initial logos by now. These secondary designs are not why the Dubs are number one in this countdown.

If there's a simple more elegant logo in professional basketball in the United States, I'm not aware of it. This thing is awesome. The Warriors have taken their own color scheme and circular motif and blown the doors off Santa Cruz with this baby, a trident in the shape of a capital W that simultaneously identifies the franchise and their coastal location. I also love the way it is not constrained by the circle but instead breaks through to stand on its own. This is an A+ design. If I lived in Santa Cruz, I'd have all sorts of swag with this look on it.

So that's it! 26 down, four to go (sort of). I'm expecting at this time next year we'll at least have a 27th team in the mix in the form of my very own Washington Wizards as yet unnamed G-League team so I'll need to spend a few days at least digesting how that look shakes up this countdown. In the meantime, that's all I have on this subject. Opening night at this point is just a bit more than two months away. Can't wait!

G-League Logo Rank, Part 2

Last week I published the first in a series of three posts ranking team logos of the 26 teams that make up the G-League or Gatorade League, the minor league farm system of the NBA, formerly known as the NBDL. I took on the eight worst (in my humble opinion) packages of logos adopted by the teams that make up that league. Here's part two, which also features eight not so good but certainly better than last week's logos. Once I'm done here, I'll conveniently have ten logos remaining for a triumphant top 10 in next week's post.

Enough gold plating something that has really no importance whatsoever but which strangely means something to me in the dead of summer when there's no NBA. Let's start in Grand Rapids.

18. Grand Rapids Drive

In part one of my G-League Logo Rank, I mentioned that I sketched the initial draft of this post series some months ago. In the first pass, the Grand Rapids Drive, which have pulled together a really pretty awesome looking primary logo with an absolutely abominable wholely unnecessary jumbo "GR" as their secondary look, were actually ranked much higher. So why the drop? Turns out it's because of what their parent club the Detroit Pistons went and did.

Let me explain. I love the old Detroit Pistons logo that the team used from 1979 to 1996. The complete loss of that logo in favor of (initially) a fire-breathing horse with tailpipes and a subsequent plain looking basketball with some strangely fonted arched wordmark over it was distressing to me. The only thing that came close to that classic look was the Drive's main logo. And I loved it (still do). But now the Pistons have adopted a logo that's closer in appearance to the 80s and early-90s one than the Drive's. Consequently the Drive's logo just ain't that great for me and the absolute horrorshow that is the giant "GR" becomes more dominant. I'm maybe being a bit unfair to the Furniture City (I'm serious with that name) but whatever. Get rid of the "GR" please.

17. Salt Lake City Stars

Does the Salt Lake City Stars logo seem unusually small to anyone or is it just me. Check out the full selection of primary G-League logos on Chris Creamer's sportslogos.net site and tell me it doesn't. Other than the Northern Arizona Suns (terrible name), the Stars' logo is way smaller than any other team's. I think that's the first thing that bothers me. It shouldn't because taken in isolation the Stars' logo is neither bigger nor smaller than anything. But it does all the same.

As a logo, the Stars look isn't all that bad. But it isn't all that good either. It's just a star with a basketball in front of it and another couple of stars on either end of the wordmark. Ironically (considering where this sort of thing got the Grand Rapids Drive and Texas Legends) the Stars might actually benefit from a secondary logo. Maybe something a little more exciting. Two thumbs sideways here.

16. Long Island Nets

Speaking of not all that bad, but not all that good either, let's take a look at the Long Island Nets. If there's a traditional logo that looks like it was borrowed from another decade and another sport, it's the Nets' look. This simple basketball with a script "Nets" written in front of it looks like it could be straight out of Major League Baseball in the 1970s. Not much more to say here. The Nets have crafted something innocuous enough not to be marked down for being bad but without much merit deserving of praise.

15. Erie Bayhawks

Last December I made it to my first Erie Bayhawks game. A couple of weeks later I found out the team had been sold to the Orlando Magic, which meant the complete death of yet another longstanding independent team before the one-to-one affiliations and outright ownership by NBA parent teams began to consume the league. For the Bayhawks, it meant that the 2016-2017 season would be their last. No more Bayhawks. No more complicated but independently proud Bayhawks logo.

Since my trip to Erie, the Bayhawks have moved to Lakeland, Florida and have become the Lakeland Magic. Yet the Bayhawks remain for one final season because the Atlanta Hawks' G-League franchise doesn't have a building to play in yet. So they agreed to stash the team in Erie under the old Bayhawks name. It's an odd circumstance that has nothing to do with ranking the team's logo, which is neither that good nor that bad. This is likely the Erie Bayhawks will be featured in any logo rank and I think that's sad.

14. Rio Grande Valley Vipers

The Vipers, just like the Bayhawks, are one of the holdovers from the pre-NBA team ownership era of the G-League (or the D-League actually), a team with a name not aligned with any NBA team's branding in a city somewhat far from the home club. Only their logos are better than those in Erie.

The primary logo is the best Vipers look here, a basketball (which oddly enough is one of the microfiber composite basketballs the NBA rolled out in 2006 and then kicked to the curb on January 1, 2007) with a viper, which are endemic to the Rio Grande Valley where Hidalgo (the Vipers' home town) is located, wrapped around it. It's well designed and proportioned and makes me believe that one of these things could wrap itself around a ball as a hands-off-this-is-mine gesture.

The secondary logos are less successful, mostly because the snake looks really stubby. There's not way a normal snake body is present between the head and tail in the alternate logos.

13. Sioux Falls Skyforce

The Skyforce are one of the G-League's oldest franchises, tracing their lineage all the way back to the old Continental Basketball Association in 1989 with no change in location or naming (although they flexed on the color) despite the fact that the Miami Heat moved into single affiliation status in 2013. They are one of the league's true survivors. For now.

There's not much to the Skyforce's logo. It's a simple basketball moving at rate of speed high enough to cause some sort of warped matter trail as it moves from left to right and down to up. It worked better with the team's old colors in my opinion (I've included the new scheme above and the original at the top of this post) but the Heat color scheme doesn't detract from the look that much. Simplicity (and my insistence on letting nostalgia for the good old days of the D-League and before) puts the Skyforce just inside the top half at 13.

12. Austin Spurs

I like the San Antonio Spurs logo. I like it so much that I've put it in the sixth position in my NBA logo rank each of the last three years. As much as I do like it though, I don't need to give that organization credit for just duplicating their look and foisting it on their minor league Austin-based franchise. It is as close to the original look as it could possibly be. The Spurs finish here because of just plan lack of originality.

11. Iowa Wolves

This offseason the Minnesota Timberwolves re-branded themselves completely. Well, maybe not completely because they still have the same nickname and their howling wolf logo looks suspiciously like previous howling wolf logos they have used. But they changed their color scheme a little, the wolf looks decidedly less rabid than he or she did in the past and their look now prominently features a four pointed north star in some sort of deep chartreuse color

Turns out the Timberwolves want the same look for their newly acquired G-League in Des Moines, the former Iowa Energy and now the Iowa Wolves. No howling in this one. Instead the wolf is looking straight at you and it doesn't look friendly. Not raving about the primary logo here; it's clearly a 2-for-1 special from the ad agency who redesigned the parent company's look. But I like the (again) map-based secondary logo if for no other reason than Iowa never seems to get a lot of pub as a state shown in isolation. I'm thinking the star is a bit too low for Des Moines, though.

16 down; 10 to go. I know all you G-League fans are already debating in your heads which of the remaining 10 franchises you'd put in which order. Eh, who's kidding whom. At least 90% of the people who will read this couldn't name five of the remaining 10 teams. If you are not motivated to look it up (and let's face it, who really is) stay tuned next week to this spot for the top 10.