Storyline: The NBA is an exemplar when it comes to being a socially responsible organization. But the league’s logo, crafted decades ago, neither befits that lofty status nor mirrors the reality of today’s America and NBA’s place in it. The logo needs to be changed.
All institutional leaders need to make decisions that are socially responsible. What do we value? What is right and just? Answers to those questions reveal what an institution stands for and wants to be known for.
Sports leagues and conferences are no exception. And while the sports news is rife with organizational struggles (e.g., Baylor University), the National Basketball Association (NBA) stands out as an exemplar. The league has no rival — in any sport and at any level — when it comes to showing what it means to be a socially responsible institution.
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Consider the assessment made by Richard E. Lapchick, who directs The Institute for Ethics and Diversity in Sports (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida. Lapchick and his colleagues track a variety of sports organizations on dimensions of social responsibility. The Institute’s most recent evaluation of the NBA was released on July 14.
Lapchick and co-author Theron Bullock, Jr. gave the NBA an A+ when it comes to racial hiring practices–“the only sports organization to receive that grade.” Over a third of employees serving in the League Office are people of color and fifty women (nearly 40%) serve as NBA executives.
Lapchick and Bullock also report that the NBA was the first pro sports league to have two people of color as team owners. Five women served either as team presidents or team CEOs during the ’15-16 season–“the highest in all of professional sports.”
No sports institution does a better job of aligning the demographics of who’s playing the game with who’s serving in executive management. That’s an important goal for the NBA, a league where people of color constitute 80% of team rosters.
And while the NBA has made considerable progress in being a socially responsible organization, there’s still more to be done. TIDES reports that only 3 of every 10 NBA head coaches are people of color even though diversity is a hallmark of the League’s assistant coaching pool, which is 45% diverse.
But there’s reason to believe, the co-authors assert, that the NBA will continue making progress. They write: “The NBA more than understands that diversity and inclusion are business imperatives. Commissioner Silver has been clear on this issue from the onset of his tenure with the Donald Sterling decision.”
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Given that commitment, the NBA needs to put logo reform on its leadership agenda. The logo is an anachronistic representation of the NBA. It no longer reflects what the NBA is — or the meaning it has — in society today.
A stark disconnect occurs when Commissioner Silver makes a public presentation (as he’s doing in the photo to the right) with the NBA logo in the background.
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The NBA used to be a league with a significant number of high-profile White players, players like Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, George Mikan, and Bill Bradley. The League’s logo was modeled after one of them–Jerry West–by depicting West’s distinctive go-to-the-basket profile (pictured to the left).
Known as “Mr. Clutch,” West was a prominent NBA player of the ’60s and ’70s for the high-profile LA Lakers. West well represented the NBA in play, style, and temperament.
Alan Seigel, who designed the logo in the very late 1960s, admits that his design was inspired by West. Siegel recalled how he was leafing through photos of NBA players when he found the shot of Jerry West dribbling down court. ‘It had a nice flavor to it,’ he told the L.A. Times. ‘So I took that picture and we traced it. It was perfect. It was vertical and it had a sense of movement.’ ”
Modeling the logo after West made sense in 1969. The logo was identifiable and relatable. But times have changed. At issue is why the NBA continues to use West’s profile as the League’s logo.
I’m certainly not the first person to raise this issue. I remember it being brought up by commentator Mark Jackson during the 2009 NBA Playoffs. Jackson proposed changing the logo from West to Michael Jordan’s profile. Some reporters in the press corps criticized Jackson for making that recommendation.
But there’s a difference between advancing a concept and recommending how that concept might be implemented. While I believe the NBA needs a new logo, I reserve judgment about what the new logo might be–other than to say that it needs to validly depict what the NBA is today. Valid depiction is exactly what the West-based logo did nearly 50 years ago.
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It’s actually quite surprising that the NBA–or any company–would retain a logo, unchanged, for nearly a half-century. And while logos do change over time, modest change is often the norm. Pepsi is a good example (to the right).
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But you’ll find examples of companies that made a radical logo change. Tropicana is an example.
My take is that the NBA needs to “go radical.”
Don’t view that recommendation as a rejection of Jerry West. As a fellow West Virginia University grad I’m a big Jerry West fan. I followed him during his college days in Morgantown when West was known as “Zeke from Cabin Creek.”
This isn’t about West. It’s about how the NBA has changed over the years and how it portrays itself publicly today. A Jerry West caricature just doesn’t make sense when viewed through the lens of social responsibility. And given the fact that the NBA gets high marks in that domain, that’s saying something.
