The Think Tank

As promised here's a selection of NBA logos, and some notes.

1. The Spurs Have the 4th most championships (with 4). After taking a colorful misstep away form their original logo left they have evolved their logo very intelligently.

2. I've always found this old Kings logo (1971-1993) odd and kinda liked it as a result.

3. When it comes to The Blazers logo, I've read the pattern of lines represent 10 players (two teams of 5) squaring off, a pretty abstract idea for a basketball team logo and it's kind of amazing it has survived all this time. In 1990, after 30 years, it was rotated 90 degrees, a change I agree with, and then in 2002 it was sharpened up, a change I disagree with.

4. The Nuggets 1981-1992 logo is the best known example when it comes to old NBA logos, with its rainbowy, tetris-esc city skyline, it certainly stood out from the crowd.

5. The 76ers have one of the most enduring logos. For a while they were using a new logo but this season have returned to the beautiful original. (the 76 and stars made up the logo from 1963-1976, the basketball and "ers" being added in 1977 and lasting till 1997, before returning this year)

6. I think there are a lot of people out there who are fans of this old Atlanta Hawks logo (1972-1994). While the thick line style of the 70's does give it great presence, I'm not a big fan, it just doesn't feel like a sports logo to me, it feels like a phone company.

7. As a former fan I'm biased, but this Sonics logo from 1975-1995 is one of my favorites.

8. The Pistons are another example of a team which went in a new direction, but ultimately returned to something close to the original. (the orginal is seen here)

9. The Braves moved the late 1970's, which is too bad as this was a pretty cool logo, plus they became the Clippers, ouch.

10. The Nets weren't the only team to depict there entire state in their logo, Golden state did it, but they were certainly the least inspired. Their design can almost be boiled down to: "Hmmm, let's see the team is from New Jersey...okay we'll use a outline of the state...and it's called the nets...so we'll have it say Nets". That said, it does have a certain straight-to-the-point awesomeness, and does benefit nicely from the shortness of the name "Nets" allowing the type to be large and compact.

11. The city (San Francisco Warriors, now the Golden State Warriors). I love this one, it was only around from 1969-1971, but I love its sparseness and depiction of the Golden Gate Bridge.

12. I think this secondary Bucks logo from 1978-1992 is great, yes it's whimsical and doesn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of men, and perhaps it borrows a little from the Celtics, but I think it's much better than the overly literal, trying too hard to be masculine, deer they have now.

13. It's interesting to note that you don't mess with success, The Celtics (17 championships) The Lakers (15 championships) and The Bulls (6 championships) logos have all basically stayed intact since 1968, 1960, and 1966, with minimal changes. Of course in the case of the Chicago Bulls, their championships didn't come till much later during the Jordan years, but at this point I doubt the logo would be messed with.

Special thanks to Sports logos