With its 75th anniversary season getting down to crunch time, the National Basketball Association has reintroduced a familiar logo from its past for the championship series.
The NBA announced on Wednesday, April 13, that it would bring the iconic script font back to a reimagined NBA Finals logo this year. A cursive font was used in variations of the Finals logo from 1986 to 1995 and from 2004 to 2017.
“The NBA Finals serves as the culmination of our 75th Anniversary Season as we celebrate the league’s past, present and future,” said NBA chief marketing officer Kate Jhaveri in a press release on the league’s website. “Highlighted by the return of our familiar Finals script font, back by popular demand, our new logo pays homage to our league’s history and looks forward to what’s ahead.”
The modernized Finals logo puts the script font front and center, with a rendering of the Larry O’Brien Trophy behind. Unlike past iterations, the new script font does not feature a shooting star crossing the F and forming the dot on the I in “Finals.” It does, however, have some small gold flourishes at either end.
(Graphics courtesy @conradburry / Twitter)
The new logo “honor[s] the league’s 75-year history while looking forward to the future,” according to the press release. “The identity also includes an updated black and gold color palette to complement the trophy and celebrate the pinnacle of the NBA’s season.”
The Larry O’Brien trophy in the new Finals does bear some differences from the trophy that has been given out up to now. The trophy in the logo has a circular base (as opposed to rectangular), and it appears to have a longer cylinder with more netting details and a different orientation for the basketball. There has been no word yet from the NBA if the trophy itself is being revamped this year; it could just be artistic license in the end.
The 2022 NBA Finals will tip off on Thursday, June 2.
Feature graphic courtesy National Basketball Association
