Certainly, it's not why you turned the game on. And yet a team's logo gives you an immediate impression of what's to come. The same way a brightly branded bag of chips will catch your eye in the grocery store aisle more than a bland and uncompelling competitor, a good NBA logo sets a team apart long before you ever see a player hit a midcourt three.
You probably shouldn’t develop your YouBet.com sports wagering strategy around which team logs look the best. Yet most likely, you will find that all of the designs featured in this article communicate more than “Doesn’t this image look cool?”
They are art, embodying strength, precision, and…the enduring marketing value of leprechauns?
Well. Every team approaches branding a little differently. Which NBA logos stand out? In this article, we take a look at some of the best.
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA, having begun in 1946 as the Buffalo Bisons. After a move to Atlanta, the team rebranded to the Hawks logo, which fans now know and love.
Framed with a red border and designed in exact but straightforward lines, the logo communicates immediately everything we want and expect from a good basketball team: fierceness, attention to detail, and preparedness. This is a hawk that is ready to strike at any moment. So too are the Atlanta Hawks.
Even when they may or may not be playing at their peak, the team has a logo that they can easily rally behind and try to embody. This, at least, is something that any true Hawks fan will tell you they always manage. It's no wonder the design remains a favorite among NBA fans all over the country.
Boston Celtics
Maybe on the very opposite end of the spectrum, we have the Boston Celtics logo, which favors whimsy and good humor over fierce intensity. The team, of course, has deep Irish roots reflected not just in naming but in branding.
Lucky the Leprechaun stands front and center in the Celtics logo, spinning a basketball on his finger while propping himself up on a gnarled wooden cane. Despite a certain sense of absurdity, the logo translates well with the team's overall branding package.
The mint green and classic color scheme plays well into their Irish heritage. It's fun, effective, and yet able to avoid taking itself too seriously.
Chicago Bulls
Back to the serious side, we have the famous Chicago Bulls logo with the angry-looking bull that has been the face of the franchise for decades. It communicates power, intensity, and aggression - key ingredients of basketball at its finest.
It's simple, and yet effective in what it says. This is a team that dominates. While their performance may fluctuate the same way any team does, they certainly have a championship history that backs their logo's messaging. Basketball fans will never forget that this is the banner under which Michael Jordan played during his peak years.
Los Angeles Lakers
It’s just tacky in a way that basketball fans have come to accept and even appreciate.
The logo itself is straightforward: a ball in motion with the team's name scrawled in large italic font. It's basic, yet bold and restrained - good basketball qualities, right?
This is a team that might otherwise have been left playing under the banner of what? A large lake?
Instead, this alternative has served them quite well over the years.
An Impossible Task
There's no objective way to rank and measure iconic NBA logos. For one thing, there are more than thirty teams in the league. For another, there are endless variations to consider. Logos from franchises that no longer exist or teams that have rebranded numerous times over the years.
And for every logo that's never found its way onto the back of an extra-large jersey, there's an ardent fan base surrounding it, ready to explain why this is the very most significant iteration of basketball branding.
You may have noticed that we gravitated towards logos that not only look cool, but also communicate something about the teams that are playing under their banner. Basketball branding as a metaphor?
Maybe it's a little much to call it that, but it's also part of what makes a good NBA branding package special.
It's not just that the teams look eye-catching. It's that they're playing under colors and imagery that embody the mindset and expectations of the fans crowding the stands. What's your favorite NBA logo?
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