Who is on the NBA logo?

The NBA logo was created in 1969 and has never been changed to date. It depicts the white silhouette of an anonymous, faceless player dribbling against a red-and-blue backdrop and is easily one of the most recognizable sports logos in the world.

Yet the question remains: who is on the NBA logo, and was a single player truly honored by having his career forever intertwined with the league’s identity? Officially, the NBA denies crediting any specific player with the image, but fans, analysts, and former insiders know better.

"Mr Logo," the basketball player behind the NBA’s logo

The NBA logo does not acknowledge any single player it is based on, but one player has been repeatedly credited with the distinction - Jerry West, whose profile is believed to have been infused into the league’s very identity.

West, who passed away in 2024, has been celebrated as one of the league’s most illustrious players and is credited with the logo so much that one of his fan-given monikers has been "Mr Logo," apart from the equally popular "Mr Clutch."

The NBA has never officially confirmed that it had indeed represented West in its logo, but there is enough evidence to believe that this is the case.

While other sports leagues, such as the MLB, use a similar logo branding, with a faceless silhouette taking a rather generic pose, the NBA counterpart appears to be more dynamic, and its appeal comes from the very fact that it feels like it is a snapshot of an actual game.

According to one Reddit user, who shared an image of Sports Review’s 1967/68, superimposed with the NBA logo, West is clearly visible in the logo, although plausible deniability still applies in this case.

Could the NBA logo depict another player, or no one at all?

There are several good reasons to believe that West is indeed the man behind the dribbling man encased in the NBA logo. One detail, in particular, speaks volumes.

The dribbling man’s right arm is defensively put sideways and clenched in a fist as the white silhouette is pushing past a player, exactly like the photo in the magazine.

It is precisely this similarity - the clinching fist - that is widely believed to be the determining factor that West is indeed the man in the logo. But beyond the speculation, the NBA has half-admitted that the logo is indeed based on West’s profile.

In an interview in 2010, Alan Siegel, a brand identity specialist who owns a company, gave an interview in which he shared the creation process that went into the NBA logo.

In fact, it was Siegel who created the MLB logo a year prior, in 1968, and hence the similarities between the designs. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Siegel spoke plainly: "It’s Jerry West."

The NBA logo is based on an actual photo - Adam Silver admits the resemblance

To flesh things even further, Siegel said that the logo was based on a photo of West taken by photographer Wen Roberts, and explained:

"It had a nice flavor to it. So, I took that picture, and we traced it. It was perfect. It was vertical, and it had a sense of movement. It was just one of those things that clicked."

The NBA did not budge, however, and did not back Siegel’s claims, which is something he explains as the "institutionalization" versus the "personalization" of the logo and the dilemma that a major sports league faces.

In other words, the NBA wanted the logo to be inherently tied to its own brand and identity, and not that of an individual player. Aaron Dodson also shared similar doubts, arguing that the NBA probably feared that West would possibly want a fee.

As to Adam Silver, he similarly said in 2021 that the logo did look a lot like West in what was understood to be an admission that the league may have indeed used Roberts’ photo to create their logo with Siegel’s help.

Image credit: ChatGPT