Although I’m a huge Blazer fan and have their logo on plenty of things in my house, I have never been all that into that logo as art. I don’t know why. Just never did much for me.
What is it, anyway, a little spinny thing? Is that like an Oregon Trail wagon wheel on steroids? The media guide says it’s “a modern graphic interpretation of five basketball players from one side going against five basketball players from the other and rotating around a center circle.” OK, so even if I grant you a curved line as a picture of a player, we’ve got ten of them in our logo? And our five are dancing in a circle with somebody else’s five? Who’s the other team? And what are they doing in our logo?
And, more to the point, this being the artist’s intention … does anybody get that? Anyone look at this logo and see ten basketball players?
All that said, it’s easily one of the best logos in the NBA.
I’m not kidding. Before writing this, I scouted the competition, and it is weak. W-E-A-K. This is one of those tournaments where you might get on the podium just by showing up, because all kinds of people are sure to forfeit or be disqualified.
Every single logo that’s a picture of some goofy mascot? Toronto, Boston, Golden State, Memphis … I think that’s just asking too much of your mascot. That Grizzly bear (it’s from Vancouver!) does not say Memphis to me. That Raptor is clownish, and the Warriors logo is a human, but not a Golden State Warrior, which seems kind of strange.
None of them feel iconic.
Similarly, Dallas (ooh, sexy horse), Orlando (is that pixie dust?), Sacramento (kings with swords … should be sponsored by Medieval Times), Milwaukee (the perfect logo for the Christmas day game, but otherwise …), Minnesota (six evergreens? It’s a logo not a reforestation project), Phoenix (the sun is the one thing in this solar system that does not move, yet theirs has been shot from a cannon) and all those teams with some version of a shield (Oklahoma City, New Jersey, Cleveland) just seem to be very much also-ran.
None of them do, for me, what a logo is supposed to do, which is to represent the team in a way that makes them easier to remember.
Only a few do that. Atlanta’s is not bad. The Bulls. The Nuggets and Rockets are OK. Miami, the Knicks and the new/old Sixers … these are at least iconic. At least when you see those logos, you think instantly of the team. Even the Pacers’ goofy old letter P at least says “Pacers” to me, unlike that bizarro Golden State thing.
But in this context, hats off to Portland for its crazy ten-players-doing-the-maypole-dance number. It isn’t overloaded with fir trees or cartoon dinosaurs, and sports fans generally know what it means.
For that, it’s surely one of the greatest logos in the NBA.
Henry Abbott is … well, c’mon … you know who he is. Henry runs TrueHoop.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Only 4? What other team has an abstract symbol as their logo, and immediately everyone knows what team it’s from? For ANY sports franchise? Maybe the Steelers? Thats it.
Reminds me of a bird’s eye view of bad L.A. traffic. Subtle victory for the city of Portland? I think so.
Thanks, Henry, although I was actually hoping for a little Blazer-logo love from a (presumably) neutral party, like the thrill I got from seeing Run-DMC sport a sweet Blazers jacket in the “Christmas In Hollis” video.
Question: Do you suppose one of the single curved lines helped inspire the Swoosh? I have no idea why the thought hasn’t occurred to me before, considering I’m a life-long Oregonian, a Blazer fan since my seventies childhood, and a fairly reliable Nike customer.
Finally, old-school Blazer fans will usually insist that the original, vertical logo is superior to the rotated version they switched to in 1991. We fervently hope for its eventual restoration.