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The NBA found a number of special ways to pay tribute to Kobe Bryant after his death last year but a lot of fans at the time wanted the league to something really big and change its logo to the former Laker great.
The idea picked up steam this week thanks to Kyrie Irving, who had a heartfelt post on Instagram on the one year anniversary of the memorial service for Kobe and his daughter, Gianna.
Irving’s caption on the post, which was a photo of Kobe on the logo, said: “Gotta happen, idc what anyone says.” And he added: “BLACK KINGS BUILT THE LEAGUE.” He then had more to say about it after Thursday night’s win over Orlando.
Kobe is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He won five championships during his legendary career with the Lakers and the way he played the game physically and attacked it mentally helped inspire so many people to do the same.
Changing the logo to Kobe is something his wife, Vanessa Bryant, endorsed with a heartfelt reply to Irving’s post.
The current logo, of course, is a silhouette of Hall of Famer Jerry West. The Laker great was then later the GM of the franchise who made the draft-night trade for Kobe back in 1996.
West, however, said in 2017 that he’d be more than happy to have the league update the logo and that he “wished they would” update it.
This logo was created in 1969, which is a million years ago and it’s about time for a change.
Some who are in favor of updating the logo suggest it should be Michael Jordan because he’s arguably the best to ever play the game. But the logo doesn’t really need to be the best player ever. West was a great player, but not the best ever. Kobe is certainly deserving of the honor for all that he did during his career.
So what’s Adam Silver waiting for? An announcement at next week’s All-Star Game would be a perfect time to do it but according to the Washington Post that likely won’t be happening:
A person familiar with the league’s thinking told The Washington Post that there have not been serious discussions about changing a logo with which the NBA is comfortable. League officials felt happy, as did Bryant’s family, about the way it chose to honor his memory with the MVP award for its All-Star Game, the person said.
Changing the logo is a big thing – we’ve all grown used to the current logo and change can be hard.
But a change to Kobe would be a great way to honor a player who did so much for the game.
Quick hits: Looking into the rift in Seattle… PGA Tour golfer’s wild mistake… Post Malone’s Hootie cover… And more.
– Steven Ruiz broke down the news Thursday that Russell Wilson isn’t happy with the Seahawks at all and explained why both Russell and Pete Carroll are to blame for this rift.
– Rising PGA Tour star Matthew Wolff made an embarrassing mistake during his round Thursday at the WGC even and then later withdrew from the tournament.
– Post Malone’s Hootie and the Blowfish cover had a pretty great line about the Dallas Cowboys.
– T.J. Watt joked about NFL fans reading so deeply into his brother’s tweets.