The wacky story of how Jerry West became the NBA logo

RIP, legend.

Jerry West died on Wednesday at the age of 86.

West was one of the best — and most iconic — NBA basketball players ever. His stats are remarkable: In 14 seasons — all with the Lakers — he averaged 27 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds. He was an All Star in all 14 seasons (amazing!) and got votes for MVP in 10 of them. (West finished 2nd in MVP voting FOUR times.)

But, honestly none of that is what West is best known for in the broader culture. It’s this:

That’s the official NBA logo. And the player in it is Jerry West.

How did West become the face (or at least body outline) of the NBA?

Up until 1969, the NBA didn’t have a logo at all. The league hired a consultant named Alan Siegel to develop one. Siegel was a well-known brand consultant who, the previous year, had designed the logo for Major League Baseball.

The dude has a type, right?

In an interview in 2010 with the Los Angeles Times, Siegel said the similarity between the two logos was entirely purposeful. Wrote the Times:

[Siegel] says that J. Walter Kennedy, the NBA's commissioner from 1963 to 1975, told him that ‘he basically wanted to have a family relationship with baseball and to use red, white and blue to position basketball as an All-American game.’

Siegel says he came up with 40 or 50 designs, none of which featured any players other than West, but Kennedy gravitated toward the derivative of the baseball logo.

‘And in those days,’ the designer says, ‘it was top down. He made the decision. There was no research. There was no discussion. He said, 'We're doing this.'

The inspiration for the figure in the logo was a photo taken in 1969 by a photographer named Wen Roberts. Here it is:

How did Siegel come across the photo? It’s a wild story. He was childhood friends with Dick Schaap, the legendary sports writer. Schaap gave Siegel access to the photo library of Sport magazine. And the consultant came across this photo in the archives.

“I found this picture of Jerry West dribbling down the court,” Siegel told the Times, “and, of course, growing up in New York and my father having season tickets for college and pro games at Madison Square Garden, I'd seen West play a lot.”

What’s totally fascinating is that the NBA has never acknowledged that the logo is actually West.

But, Siegel has confirmed it. “It's Jerry West,” he told the Times, adding of the NBA: “They want to institutionalize it rather than individualize it. It’s become such a ubiquitous, classic symbol and focal point of their identity and their licensing program that they don't necessarily want to identify it with one player.”

West himself long had an odd relationship with the logo.

“The logo, this is not something he was at all seeking,” said Jonathan Coleman, who co-wrote West’s autobiography. “It was Walter Kennedy’s idea. Walter felt it was important to have a brand for the league. Jerry’s proud to be the logo, but it’s also embarrassing to him, in equal measure.”

In fact, by 2017, West wanted to be rid of the connection to the logo entirely. Here’s what he told ESPN at the time:

“I wish that it had never gotten out that I’m the logo. I really do. I’ve said it more than once, and it’s flattering if that’s me — and I know it is me — but it is flattering.

“But to me, I played in a time when they first started to try to market the league. There were five people that they were going to consider, and I didn’t find out about it until the late commissioner [J. Walter Kennedy] told me about it. . . .

“Again, it’s flattering. But if I were the NBA, I would be embarrassed about it. I really would.”

Two years before, West had suggested that the NBA make Michael Jordan the logo. “I hate to say it’s not a Laker, but Michael Jordan,” West told the Huffington Post in 2015. “He’s been the greatest player I’ve ever seen.”

In recent years, there has been a movement to make the late Laker Kobe Bryant the logo. Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks star guard, was public in his support for the move.

In 2021, to commemorate the NBA’s 75th anniversary, the league unveiled a new logo. But, it, well, looked a lot like the old West-inspired logo:

Now that West is gone, is it possible the league decides at some point to take him off the logo? Maybe! But it’s now such an iconic image that I can’t see them doing it.