The Cleveland Cavaliers have existed as an NBA franchise since 1970. Needless to say, the franchise has had many prominent players during its existence. Some of these players include Mark Price, Larry Nance, Brad Daugherty, and Kyrie Irving. However, one will be hard-pressed to find a greater player in Cavalier history than Lebron James.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have undergone many logo changes throughout their 50+ year history. It appears that another logo change will be coming. On June 1st, the Cleveland Cavaliers announced their new primary and alternative logo changes for the upcoming 2022-2023 season.
Let’s take a look at the primary logo history of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
From 1971 to 1983, the Cavaliers had a large circular “Cleveland Cavaliers” wordmark. The “Cavaliers “wordmark could be seen on the top half and was in a semi-circle while the “Cleveland” was on the bottom half. The color of the wordmarks was burnt orange with a yellow trim outline.
The middle of the logo contains a yellow basketball in the background. In front of the basketball, an orange cavalier with a sword can be seen.
From 1984 to 1994, the primary logo of the Cleveland Cavaliers was an orange “CAVS” wordmark. The “V” in the CAVS wordmark stands out as it has a basketball net with a basketball attempting to enter it.
From 1995 to 2003, the Cavaliers would switch to a logo with an orange basketball going through a white-colored net. This logo has a black background and is surrounded by a black square. The bottom of the logo contains a blue “CAVS” wordmark with a white outline.
From 2004-2010, the Cavs switched to a logo with a “CLEVELAND CAVALIERS” wordmark. The “Cleveland” wordmark was quite tiny while the “Cavaliers” wordmark was bigger and is draped across the logo. The end of a red sword can be seen on the lower half of the logo while the end of the sword goes right through the “C” of the Cavaliers' wordmark.
From 2011-2017, the Cavs only deviated slightly from its previous logo. The only difference was that the sword was colored gold instead of red.
From 2017 till now, the Cavaliers have a white “CLEVELAND CAVALIERS” wordmark that takes up the upper half of the logo. The rest of the logo contains the letter “C” colored in wine and gold with a sword of the same color going right through it. The tip of the sword can be seen towards the top of the logo.
The entire logo is surrounded by a black shield.
Now, the Cavaliers have released primary and alternative logos that target a certain type of gold.
Their primary logo has a gold “Cleveland Cavaliers” watermark on the upper half of the logo. The lower half of the logo has a gold-colored jagged “C” watermark. All of this is surrounded like a black shield.
In terms of alternative logos, the Cavs just have the gold-colored jagged “C” watermark.
Additionally, the franchise released a gold “CAVS” wordmark. This was reminiscent of their logo from 30 years ago due to the fact that the “V” had a basketball net with a basketball attempting to go inside it. The only difference is that the color scheme is gold as opposed to red.
Finally, the Cavs have an alternative logo that contains just the “V” with the basketball net and basketball that was mentioned prior.