The image of Jerry West’s silhouette as the NBA logo is one of the league’s defining features, but West himself would prefer it if that wasn’t the case.
Appearing on ESPN’s “The Jump” on Friday, the hoops legend said that he wishes the NBA would change its logo.
“It’s flattering if that’s me, and I know it is me, but it is flattering,” West said. “But to me, I played in a time when they first started to try to market the league. There were five people they were gonna consider. I didn’t find out about it until the late commissioner told me about it, Walter Kennedy. And then obviously, The New York Times had a big article about it.
“Again it’s flattering, but I think if I were the NBA, I would be embarrassed about it, I really would,” continued the Hall of Famer. “I don’t like to do anything that calls attention to myself, and when people say that, that’s just not who I am, period. And if they would want to change it, I wish they would. In many ways, I wish they would.”
The NBA logo has borne West’s likeness since 1969, and his persona as “The Logo” has, in many ways, added to his legend as a basketball icon. But the 78-year-old West, who is now an executive for the Golden State Warriors and who has gotten considerably more outspoken in recent years, was apparently never comfortable with it, so we’ll see how the league reacts to this revelation.
