Jerry West wishes NBA would get new logo after nearly 50 years of using him

The NBA created their logo almost a half century ago using former Lakers star Jerry West as the model, but now West says he wishes that hadn’t gotten out.

Almost 50 years ago, the NBA found themselves in a battle for fans and money with the upstart ABA. While the original league would end up winning out and take four of the smaller league’s teams in the process (some of you haven’t seen Semi-Pro, I guess), for a while the Association was worried and went out of its way to try and recreate its image.

One of those ways was creating a new logo showing a player dribbling with his left hand, presumably before traveling with the ball. Okay, maybe not. But for years, the identity of that player who was used as a model for the logo was kept secret.

Now we know that player was indeed Jerry West, one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history who won a total of eight NBA championships as a player and executive and countless other honors that are too much too much to mention here. Almost five decades after the fact, West is letting it be known that he wishes the league would have done something new and taken him out of the spotlight.

It’s almost commendable in a way that West said the reason he doesn’t want to be the logo is that it brings attention onto him. I’m sure that there are hundreds of others who would line up to take his place — and someday, the league may revamp its image and get rid of West — but that logo is just as much tradition as the Boston Celtics, John Tesh’s NBA on NBC music and people hating on LeBron.

Of course, West has spent the last six seasons working with the Golden State Warriors on their executive board. Maybe he will push to have Steph Curry be the new logo …

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