October 11, 2011
Logos Through the Years
Best and Worst

by Dan Feldman

Inspired by Josh Cohen of OrlandoMagic.com, I decided to rank the best and worst logos for each year of the NBA.

First, check out this diagram that shows how each franchise's logo has evolved since joining the NBA (to view a larger version, click here; to view even larger versions of the logo, refer to Cohen's post):

All logos came from Cohen, except the 1962 Chicago Packers and 1963 Chicago Zephyrs (both predecessors of the Washington Wizards), which came from sportslogos.net.

When you're ready, uncheck "Null" at the bottom and select "Best" or "Worst" to see my year-by-year superlatives, or here are the lists:

Best

• Boston Celtics 1947-48
• Rochester Royals 1949
• Syracuse Nationals 1950-63
• Philadelphia 76ers 1964-67
• Seattle SuperSonics 1968-69
• San Francisco Warriors 1970-71
• Philadelphia 76ers 1972-75
• Seattle SuperSonics 1976-95
• Utah Jazz 1996
• Washington Bullets 1997
• Chicago Bulls 1998-2003
• Houston Rockets 2004-10
• Golden State Warriors 2011-present

Worst

• New York Knicks 1947-64
• Cincinnati Royals 1965-68
• Milwaukee Bucks 1969-71
• Houston Rockets 1972
• Milwaukee Bucks 1973-78
• New Jersey Nets 1979-90
• Milwaukee Bucks 1991-94
• Cleveland Cavaliers 1995
• Houston Rockets 1996-97
• Golden State Warriors 1998-2010
• Los Angeles Clippers 2011-present

Which are are your choices?

For what it's worth, the difference in record between my best- and worst-logoed teams is stark.

• Best logos: 2617-2461 (.515)
• Worst logos: 2314-2767 (.455)

I can't prove causation, but if I ran a team, I'd try to improve its logo--just in case.

Dan Feldman is an author of Basketball Prospectus. You can contact Dan by clicking here or click here to see Dan's other articles.