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!!!

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!