San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Sporting Green
Is Jerry West’s time up as logo? He doesn’t care.
NBA logo:
Jerry West, the original silhouette, wants no part of debate on a new look.
Jerry West is going to sit out this dance, thank you.
Don’t even ask him about the NBA logo controversy, OK?
Social media is abuzz with talk about the NBA logo, which is a silhouette of Jerry West. For years, a discussion topic has been whether the league should dump West and update its logo.
The discussion now grows more heated, there is support for Kobe Bryant as the new logo, and Kyrie Irving tossed some gas on the fire Friday, socialmessaging his thoughts on a logo change: “Gotta happen, idk what anyone says, BLACK KINGS BUILT THIS LEAGUE.”
West, who is white, declined to comment.
I rang up West on Friday morning, just in case
he might want to weigh in, which I knew he would not.
West loves to talk, to anyone, especially about basketball, but this is a topic he is avoiding like the coronavirus.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” The Logo said forcefully. “I don’t care what they do.”
The whole logo thing is crazy. In 1969, the NBA hired a brand consultant to design a new logo. He sifted through tons of photos and selected one of West. Not because West was a big star, but because the consultant, Alan Siegel, liked the image.
“It’s a really elegant, powerful presentation of basketball,” Siegel said in a recent interview. “It’s hard, graphically, to do something that static like this. To have tension in it, movement and grace. It’s very hard. ... It has to be simple. It has to be powerful. It has to be dynamic. This has all these elements.”
Siegel’s Westinspired logo had been plastered all over courts and backboards and uniforms for several years before West even realized it was him.
Nobody told him, nobody knew, until Siegel spilled the beans in an interview.
West has never received — or asked for — a dime for the use of his outline. He has not asked for or sought recognition. He does not seem comfortable when people refer to him as simply “Logo.”
West wears his fame comfortably and humbly, but not the logo part of it. I’m guessing that subject is even more painful to him, now that Irving has made it a racial issue. West knows who built the league. He played against Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson. He played alongside Elgin Baylor — they were Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid in Converse lowcuts.
West said he won’t mind if the league goes with a new logo, but I’m guessing it would bother him if they made the change because of skin color. He would not enjoy taking a seat on the logo bench alongside Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, recently retired corporate symbols with racist connotations.
In his 60plus years in the NBA, West has moved comfortably and easily in that multiracial world. As Lakers’ general manager, he put together the KobeShaq dynasty, and had close relationships with both. Over the years West has forcefully championed many Black nonstars he believed were misunderstood and stereotyped.
As the logo debate heated up Friday, @HeavyJumbo992 tweeted: “Jerry West was simply the silhouette that the designer chose to use. It wasn’t ‘recognition’ for being a great player.”
If being chosen the new Logo is an award, like an MVP trophy, whomever is honored will be raked over the coals by supporters of other players. Kobe was great, but greater than Jordan? And did Jordan ever score 100 points in one game, or average a tripledouble for a season?
The logo battle will rage on, but without input or comment from the Logo. He’s busy with his job as adviser to Clippers owner Steve Balmer. West took that job when he left the Warriors in 2017 after six years as an adviser.
West said he still watches almost every Warriors game.
“Obviously, I root for them,” said West, whose son Jonnie is a basketball ops executive with the Warriors. “I like the people who were there when I was there. The fans are great there, it’s nice to have something that brings community pride.” What about the team? “You know what, I think they’re pretty good. They move the ball, they play, their lineup doesn’t scare you at all, but they just play, they’re active, they play hard every night.
“If that ( James) Wiseman kid ever learns how to be a force on the defensive end, which he’s way behind, that would really help them a lot.
“Steph (Curry), he and Draymond (Green) throw the ball all over the place, turnovers all over the place, but yet they come back and they compete and they stay close. They play their ass off every night, and Steph is just Steph, it’s amazing to watch him play, you watch this little babyfaced kid out there playing like he does, how the hell can this guy do this?”
West said he misses just doing his casual NBA hangout thing, talking to players, coaches, media, fans. That’s his world. He said he fights the loneliness with frequent trips to the driving range. Doesn’t play much golf these days, but loves to hit balls.
Hey, maybe the PGA Tour needs a new logo.