Explained: As demand for Kobe Bryant on NBA logo grows, history of its origin

The petition, which has been signed by celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg and Usher, is the first petition in 2020 to receive over one million signatures globally. “With the untimely and unexpected passing of the great Kobe Bryant please sign this petition in an attempt to immortalise him forever as the new NBA Logo,” it states.

A brief history of the NBA logo

The NBA logo, which currently features West, was designed by former high school basketball player Alan Siegel in 1969. Siegel once told Sports Illustrated that during the late 1960s, the NBA’s reputation was being affected by drugs and “other things”.

At the time, NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy wanted to give an identity to the league, which could be seen as a “companion piece” to Major League Baseball.

Siegel also said that before finalising the NBA logo, over 30 designs were made featuring multiple players and different styles of shooting.

“While I was doing it, I went to Sport Magazine and I found this picture of Jerry West. And I had grown up as a great fan of the NBA and Jerry West. I thought this picture that I found of him dribbling up the court was very elegant, very classic, showed a dynamic motion and I used that as a basis for designing this symbol,” he told Sports Illustrated.

West later expressed on multiple occasions that he’d prefer if the logo was changed, adding that he was “embarrassed” about it. In 2017, he told The Washington Post, “I don’t know, I don’t like to do anything to call attention to myself, and when people say that, it’s just not who I am, period. If they would want to change it, I wish they would. In many ways, I wish they would.”

In 2015, he nominated Michael Jordan to become the silhouette.

Significantly, NBA spokespeople have never fully admitted the silhouette is of West. Siegal told Los Angeles Times in 2010 this was because they want to “…institutionalise it rather than individualise it”.

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