It really is unbelievably, horrifically bad. I mean that literally: It's hard to believe that anything so horrible was chosen by a group of adults, let alone ones that own a professional sports franchise.

I would imagine it would still rank last if you included all pro sports (down to single-A baseball), colleges and high schools. Maybe there are some little league teams that are worse, but on the other hand there are tons that are way better.

https://espngrantland.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/thunder.png?w=150&h=137


The Definitive NBA Logo Rankings « (http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-definitive-nba-logo-rankings/)

30. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Like, what is this? Thunder higher-ups hoped fans would think of two things when they heard the name — storms and rampaging bison — but they didn’t want to commit visually in either direction. A stormy logo might marginalize the bison, a key symbol for local Native Americans, and the staid Thunder thought it would be silly to have mature adults wear jerseys with animals on them. “We didn’t feel like having professional players represented by [an] animal was where we wanted to be,” says Brian Byrnes, the team’s senior vice-president for sales and marketing. Besides, Byrnes says, “the bull was already taken.”

Straddling the fence resulted in this vanilla mishmash. “It might be the best D-League logo ever made,” says Tom O’Grady, who served as the NBA’s first creative director before leaving to found Gameplan Creative, a Chicago-based branding consultancy. Team officials say the shield hints at a leader charging into battle, and that the upward rising “bolts,” which don’t look like bolts at all, symbolize a young franchise growing up.

No team has worse art, top to bottom, and Nike will push for an overhaul once it replaces Adidas as the league’s apparel partner in 2017. Nike and the Thunder are already talking, and the Thunder “haven’t ruled out” a more explicit weather-related secondary mark, Byrnes says.

Bad news: Oklahoma City seems locked into the shield motif and likely won’t replace it with a bison — or anything else. “To some extent, we are committed to the idea we have,” Byrnes says. “But we would not dismiss good feedback, particularly from Nike. We’re open to modernizing the logo, but we don’t have an appetite to overhaul it.”

OKCBISONThey already have plenty of nice bison illustrations, courtesy of Dick Sakahara, a California designer who consulted with the Thunder during the team’s creation.

“I have a lot of bison that never got to be,” Sakahara says.

i'd say this would be the worst if it were still being used:

http://www.michael-weinstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/wizards2.jpg

but yeah... the thunder logo is pretty bad. i've never really liked it.

Keep in mind half the grantland writers openly mock the thunder and the other half like them. It's not a traditional sports site. Their writers are pretty open about certain biases. You'll never convince me it's worse then the new clippers logo. That thing is just atrocious.

It's not amazing by any standards but it's not that bad. It's pretty vanilla, which is pretty much how the thunder are in every aspect minus the on court play where it matters.
You could be a fan of dramatic teams like the Knicks or lakers though.

Why change the Thunder logo? | NewsOK.com (http://m.newsok.com/article/5445662?utm_source=NewsOK.com&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=NIC-Facebook)

Keep in mind half the grantland writers openly mock the thunder and the other half like them. It's not a traditional sports site. Their writers are pretty open about certain biases. You'll never convince me it's worse then the new clippers logo. That thing is just atrocious.

It's not amazing by any standards but it's not that bad. It's pretty vanilla, which is pretty much how the thunder are in every aspect minus the on court play where it matters.
You could be a fan of dramatic teams like the Knicks or lakers though.

I honestly can't think of a fairer journalist in any field than the author of the article, Zach Lowe. The reason the Thunder ranked last is because he analyzed it and came to that conclusion, not because of any anti-Thunder bias. Besides, Brian Phillips is a huge Thunder fan who writes for Grantland. Who exactly, besides former Grantlander Bill Simmons, is anti-Thunder?

Why change the Thunder logo? | NewsOK.com (http://m.newsok.com/article/5445662?utm_source=NewsOK.com&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=NIC-Facebook)

I love Trammel, but his reasons and analysis are pretty weak by his standards.

I really liked the mix of humor but also real context for the opinions, including the input of several professional branding experts.

Zach wrote a similar article about team names, which was equally reasoned and entertaining.

Grantland is pretty great.

I really liked the mix of humor but also real context for the opinions, including the input of several professional branding experts.

Zach wrote a similar article about team names, which was equally reasoned and entertaining.

Grantland is pretty great.



I thought when I first saw the logo that it was an off shot of the superman shield. Pretty bad logo IMO and it should be changed. I didn't like the name Thunder either. Just too boring and conservative all the way around IMO.

I honestly can't think of a fairer journalist in any field than the author of the article, Zach Lowe. The reason the Thunder ranked last is because he analyzed it and came to that conclusion, not because of any anti-Thunder bias. Besides, Brian Phillips is a huge Thunder fan who writes for Grantland. Who exactly, besides former Grantlander Bill Simmons, is anti-Thunder?

Lowe is solid. I like him a lot. But look how much he unloads on the thunder versus anyone else. He even mentions teams like the celts logo is bad but because they have won a bunch that makes it good. By that logic if the thunder rattle a streak of titles the logo would be good.

Andrew sharpe is openly a wizards fan and writes a few pieces a year about how to get kd to the dmv.
I like grantland and frequent it daily, but it by no means is impartial, which is great, but sometimes you have to take some things with a grain of salt.

Tramel's article was spot on. Don't just change the logo for changes sake. Logos don't win titles. Culture does. The thunder culture is vanilla, steady as she goes, and low key. This logo pretty much wraps them up.

I always liked the name and really thought the colors were a great idea.

The logo and the the uniform design look like something from an elementary school kid.

The logo reminds me of an ABA team from the early 70's. BTW, does Berry still refer to the Thunder as the "Boomers"? Berry, nobody is wanting to change the logo for changes sake, they want to change it because it is an embarrassment.

Lowe is solid. I like him a lot. But look how much he unloads on the thunder versus anyone else. He even mentions teams like the celts logo is bad but because they have won a bunch that makes it good. By that logic if the thunder rattle a streak of titles the logo would be good.

Andrew sharpe is openly a wizards fan and writes a few pieces a year about how to get kd to the dmv.
I like grantland and frequent it daily, but it by no means is impartial, which is great, but sometimes you have to take some things with a grain of salt.

Tramel's article was spot on. Don't just change the logo for changes sake. Logos don't win titles. Culture does. The thunder culture is vanilla, steady as she goes, and low key. This logo pretty much wraps them up.

Agree completely. I couldn't give a flying flip about the logo.

There are some ghastly NBA logos. Personally I think Portland's is the worst. It looks like a boring low budget corporate logo to me. I hated the Thunder logo when I first saw it, but it's grown on me. It's kind of a late mid century modern look and it feels familiar now. I don't really mind it at all, and I have no faith that they'll come up with a stunningly impressive new one. We have almost no tradition yet. I say let's stick with the current logo.

A logo is a logo is a logo -- just an icon to symbolize some concept. Most logos are pretty horrible when examined in isolation. Who would have ever considered the Nike "swoosh!" to be good or even have anything to do with their product?

But once a logo has become clearly recognizable and associated with the concept it's supposed to symbolize, then it must not be changed lightly -- and never for the simple sake of change. If changed at all, it has to retain enough of its former self to be easily recognizable. For example, in the past week Google changed its logo slightly -- but few folk even noticed any difference. They took the serifs (the little points at the corners) off of the letters, nothing more.

Most of Lowe's criticisms in this case are valid, but meaningless. The triangular shield and the bolts are now easily recognizable around the world -- they need to stay that way!

The Thunder logo is terrible. It's extremely generic and says nothing about Oklahoma or Thunder, but I don't think at this point it should be changed. The current logo is very recognizable and once you have an established brand like that, changes should not be done lightly. I think having an additional secondary logo would be the way to go.

11486

This is the original Yankees logo. Given a much better design, I'm certain no one misses it. I would feel the same way about the Thunder logo.

Besides, pretty much any brand that has stood the test of time has changed logos several times by now. Some have even overhauled them completely (Apple and Google's original logos were unrecognizable compared to today's). This early in franchise history would be the best time to make a change.

Many sports logos and team colors are largely liked/loved/hated out of nostalgia, at least half the logos in the league would draw some well deserved ridicule if released today out of nowhere. Of the ones that were announced in the past ten years, only the Hornets seemed to have an overwhelmingly positive reaction at announcement by everyone (and you know it was bad when both opponents and team fans wholly support the change). Even that was helped by replacing a poor received logo & name, mostly associated with failure, with a modernized version of one with tradition and better days.

I find the bison the author presented in the article with his rant on the thunder ironic in that it looks more fitting on a high school team than an NBA franchise.

The Thunder logo (and even the name, really) reek of temporary expansion team. We won't be changing the name any time soon, but I do agree the team deserves a better logo.

That said, it's a big stretch to call it the worst in all of sports, professional and non-...have you seen minor league hockey logos? Odessa Jackalopes, Amarillo Gorillas; no grown man should be forced to wear those things on their sweaters.

Apple and Google's original logos were unrecognizable compared to today's

The Evolution of Tech Companies' Logos - Neatorama (http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/07/the-evolution-of-tech-companies-logos/)

To me, it is a testimony of how rapidly things have changed in Oklahoma when you realize we are in the early stages of the college football season, and a story about an NBA team logo is getting this much play. A logo. I mean, yeah, it's the local team's logo, but it's a logo. Of absolutely *zero* practical, real-world relevance in terms of the sport itself or how likely KD is to return next year or the Thunder are to compete for an NBA title. It's nothing but marketing, yet here we are, talking about it.

Like I said, times are changing.

Which firm designed the Thunder logo?

It reminds me of a bad version of the Doritos logo. No matter how you feel about Cool Ranch that's not a good thing.

Which firm designed the Thunder logo?

I know Ackerman & McQueen were heavily involved.

The Thunder logo is terrible. It's extremely generic and says nothing about Oklahoma or Thunder, but I don't think at this point it should be changed. The current logo is very recognizable and once you have an established brand like that, changes should not be done lightly. I think having an additional secondary logo would be the way to go.

Neither do the ou or osu logo, and ou's isn't even in the correct order technically should be uo. Ou's has had slight tweaks over the years (which is what Nike will do with the thunders) but overall has remained the same. The reason the ou logo is loved and widely loved is the amount of winning they have done with it. Lowe even admitted this bias in his piece the more winning you do the better the logo. Heck Miami uses a U for their logo. Miami and U's have absolutely zero in common, but they won with it and had rap songs about it and made hand gestures with it.

It's bland and boring sure, but guys that's who the thunder is everywhere except the on the court. And to an extent that's a little bit who okc is. Just normal Midwestern American sports loving town that's bonded through lots of tragedies.

Neither do the ou or osu logo, and ou's isn't even in the correct order technically should be uo. Ou's has had slight tweaks over the years (which is what Nike will do with the thunders) but overall has remained the same. The reason the ou logo is loved and widely loved is the amount of winning they have done with it. Lowe even admitted this bias in his piece the more winning you do the better the logo. Heck Miami uses a U for their logo. Miami and U's have absolutely zero in common, but they won with it and had rap songs about it and made hand gestures with it.

It's bland and boring sure, but guys that's who the thunder is everywhere except the on the court. And to an extent that's a little bit who okc is. Just normal Midwestern American sports loving town that's bonded through lots of tragedies.

Actually OU didn't start getting really protective of their logo and related intellectual property until the last few years (exact definition of 'few' I couldn't tell you). There was a mismash of unofficial, unauthorized versions of OU logos going back through the 80s; there was a stylized, squared-off logo that was popular; an older looking, rounded interlocking OU that was actually painted on the 50 for years, then the one that's on the helmet - they were all over the place and no control or oversight was in place. Just about anyone could (and did) make or sell anything with an "OU" logo on it, and OU back in that era just wasn't too aggressive in protecting the brand.

I think Joe C finally decided that OU needed to get that aspect of its house in order and get OU's brand protected more aggressively, especially realizing the revenue potential for licensing the brand. They came up with an "official" set of logos and branding, got all the licensing things cleaned up (not that they weren't there before, it was just that OU didn't pay a great deal of attention to them), and now has one of the better-branded set of school-related merchandise out there. Now, if you want to produce OU-branded merchandise, you have to buy a license, use only OU-specified logos, down to the size, lettering, coloring, and placement of the trademark. It's all meticulously covered now - a friend of mine makes leather stuff on the side and got a license to put OU logos on some of his stuff, and showed me some of the rules he has to follow :)

Sorry for the diversion onto the OU stuff, but that mention reminded me how handling it had changed for OU in the last decade-plus or so.

I always thought one of the original choices, the Barons, was the absolute best. The black and gold colors would have been awesome while playing off Oklahoma's history as an oil state was quite fitting. It just fit in my opinion. I love when team names have some ties to the city or state's story and this would've instantly been one of the best.

http://assets.sbnation.com/imported_assets/15387/m8cqzc.jpg

The Sonics name would have worked with our aviation history, but...

The Sonics name would have worked with our aviation history, but...

That would have been sweet. Especially with the additional Sonic burger tie in.

We could have named the Chesapeake Arena "The Bun"

Think of the headlines: "Sonics Grill Portland"; "Sonics win was a Job "Well Done"; "Sonics Fry Grizzlies"

okay, okay, I'll stop. No throwing canned tomatoes. :)

https://espngrantland.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/thunder.png?w=150&h=137
Remember: GRANTLAND The Definitive NBA Logo Rankings « (http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-definitive-nba-logo-rankings/) was a product of Bill Simmons, a known Thunder (Blunder) basher.

NIKE stands to make millions if they are awarded or allowed to modify the OKC Thunder logo; Nike has reasons why that want to bait this hook.

Check this out: NBA Power Rankings: The 50 Worst Uniforms in League History | Bleacher Report (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1158026-nba-power-rankings-the-50-worst-uniforms-in-league-history)

That would have been sweet. Especially with the additional Sonic burger tie in.

We could have named the Chesapeake Arena "The Bun"

Think of the headlines: "Sonics Grill Portland"; "Sonics win was a Job "Well Done"; "Sonics Fry Grizzlies"

okay, okay, I'll stop. No throwing canned tomatoes. :)

The OKC Bun... Have Sonic serve Thunder Bison burgers on a bun.

Reminds me when Louisville first proposed their arena (currently: KFC Yum Center); KFC initially bought naming rights, they wanted to call it the KFC Bucket... :lol2:


If Heisley moves his team to Louisville, Tricon would pay millions in naming rights to an arena to be called the KFC Bucket. The team would be renamed the Kentucky Colonels, a nod to the founder of the chicken chain and to the old ABA team of the same name

Two Cities Propose New Arenas for Grizzlies - latimes (http://articles.latimes.com/2001/mar/16/sports/sp-38449)

KFC plans for Grizzlies no drop in the bucket : Sports (http://journaltimes.com/sports/kfc-plans-for-grizzlies-no-drop-in-the-bucket/article_0e7acd12-10a3-594f-b723-bde80f4dca14.html)

That would have been sweet. Especially with the additional Sonic burger tie in.

We could have named the Chesapeake Arena "The Bun"

Think of the headlines: "Sonics Grill Portland"; "Sonics win was a Job "Well Done"; "Sonics Fry Grizzlies"

okay, okay, I'll stop. No throwing canned tomatoes. :)

For reasons such as these listed, I'm hoping Miami will change their name from, "AA arena" to "Kitchen Stadium"

It reminds me of a bad version of the Doritos logo. No matter how you feel about Cool Ranch that's not a good thing.

I would rather eat the logo than anything with ranch dressing on it.

I think the Drillers would have been awesome, thanks tulsa. Frackers would be good too.
Thunder alludes to the nasty weather we have here, without being as direct as tornado.

Tramel's article was spot on. Don't just change the logo for changes sake. Logos don't win titles. Culture does. The thunder culture is vanilla, steady as she goes, and low key. This logo pretty much wraps them up.

I agree you don't change the logo for changes sake. Who even made that argument? Is someone arguing regularly changing the Thunder logo with the reason as "change's sake?" I'm arguing like many others that it should be changed because it's really, really bad. ;)

Again, having said all that, on a day-to-day basis, I don't think about it. It's not a huge deal. It just annoys me how bad it is once I do start thinking about...

I personally think they went as neutral, plain-vanilla, say-the-team-while-saying-practically-nothing-else-at-all very deliberately for more specific reasons they'll likely never disclose publicly. I think there may be a specific logo or branding they *really* wanted, but couldn't (or opted not to) pursue for maybe legal reasons that existed *then* but might not down the road.

Who knows; maybe the Nike push into the NBA in 2017 will serve as a catalyst for all this to happen.

For me, I'm not a big merchandise buyer - heck, even as a nearly lifelong OU fan, I only have a handful of OU gear compared to many folks, so this Thunder issue affects me hardly at all, but the discussion being generated makes me.....curious.

I agree you don't change the logo for changes sake. Who even made that argument? Is someone arguing regularly changing the Thunder logo with the reason as "change's sake?" I'm arguing like many others that it should be changed because it's really, really bad. ;)

Again, having said all that, on a day-to-day basis, I don't think about it. It's not a huge deal. It just annoys me how bad it is once I do start thinking about...

Yeah I just thought it was a little unfair how much he unloaded on it. Then later said we'll this logo isn't that good but they win so it's cool. Seriously the clippers new gear is just atrocious. He barely dives into how bad it is. I think Lowe got a little mad because he cares greatly about these things and the thunder org has been, meh whatevs towards the whole deal.

The amount of NBA team names that make little to no sense is just as bad. The LA Lakers and the state is literally sinking from the lack of water. There are no grizzlies in Memphis, Utah isn't known for Jazz, a Clipper is a weather pattern that doesn't happen in LA, the nets ohhh cause the rim has a net, dc wizards i guess politicians are wizards at taking our money, people are in sf are cultural warriors maybe, Atlanta hawks there's hawks everywhere, Sacramento kings well California state pols do like to act like kings, and the Orlando magic because the magic of Disney i guess?

Most people have become very used to it but it still is really, really bad.

The amount of NBA team names that make little to no sense is just as bad. The LA Lakers and the state is literally sinking from the lack of water. There are no grizzlies in Memphis, Utah isn't known for Jazz, a Clipper is a weather pattern that doesn't happen in LA, the nets ohhh cause the rim has a net, dc wizards i guess politicians are wizards at taking our money, people are in sf are cultural warriors maybe, Atlanta hawks there's hawks everywhere, Sacramento kings well California state pols do like to act like kings, and the Orlando magic because the magic of Disney i guess?

I know it's trivial to some people and doesn't matter to most, but I absolutely HATE this about sports teams. If a team leaves a city, that name should stay with the city. New Orleans Jazz, Minnesota Lakers, Vancouver Grizzlies, San Diego Clippers, etc. Just irritates the hell out of me.

The Cleveland/Browns (and Seattle/Soncis theoretically) got to keep their names...

I know it's trivial to some people and doesn't matter to most, but I absolutely HATE this about sports teams. If a team leaves a city, that name should stay with the city. New Orleans Jazz, Minnesota Lakers, Vancouver Grizzlies, San Diego Clippers, etc. Just irritates the hell out of me.

Ya know, that could be a condition cities use when public monies are expended for the physical plants of professional teams.

The Cleveland/Browns (and Seattle/Soncis theoretically) got to keep their names...

That's two... But it's pretty clear historic names don't typically travel well when the teams leave for greener pastures.

You have 30 NBA teams (OKC fortunate); somebody is going to be in the lower tier in something.

Like a mold or wart it should have grown on you by now; some Seattle Times NBA forum posters compared it (Thunder logo) to the WNBA's New York Liberty.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSoeKdZFzMCPNoDsNjGUCMN8lvmxPkex 45lQcjRh2o19Q-UTbH- https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQA5xaaQ57zgVo5MWmZZJXYKtJOOI_vT OuYjd7gcswRa_w-s66H


So What? :tongue:

They are lucky that Professional Basketball Club LLC left them their beloved Seattle Storm; then KeyArena wouldn't have an anchor tenant. Oklahoma City Storm (WNBA) & the Oklahoma City Thunder (NBA) = a nice combination...

Win an NBA title, that logo will take on a different meaning.

That's two... But it's pretty clear historic names don't typically travel well when the teams leave for greener pastures.

I know of other teams that left their former names with the cities when they moved but the cities never got another franchise or took on a completely different name. Buffalo Braves became the San Diego Clippers, Dallas Chaparrals became the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas next team called Mavericks.

I know of other teams that left their former names with the cities when they moved but the cities never got another franchise or took on a completely different name. Buffalo Braves became the San Diego Clippers, Dallas Chaparrals became the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas next team called Mavericks.

While sad for the cities that get left behind, this is, to me, how it should be.

Yeah I just thought it was a little unfair how much he unloaded on it. Then later said we'll this logo isn't that good but they win so it's cool. Seriously the clippers new gear is just atrocious. He barely dives into how bad it is. I think Lowe got a little mad because he cares greatly about these things and the thunder org has been, meh whatevs towards the whole deal.

The amount of NBA team names that make little to no sense is just as bad. The LA Lakers and the state is literally sinking from the lack of water. There are no grizzlies in Memphis, Utah isn't known for Jazz, a Clipper is a weather pattern that doesn't happen in LA, the nets ohhh cause the rim has a net, dc wizards i guess politicians are wizards at taking our money, people are in sf are cultural warriors maybe, Atlanta hawks there's hawks everywhere, Sacramento kings well California state pols do like to act like kings, and the Orlando magic because the magic of Disney i guess?

The Clippers are named after that style of ship, from the days they were in San Diego, at least LA has ports though :)

The Nets, cause it rhymed with Mets and Jets. Kings were formerly known as Royals from Cinncy days. Warriors were called that when team was in Philly.

The Cleveland/Browns (and Seattle/Soncis theoretically) got to keep their names...

Don't get me started, my favorite NFL team should be the Oilers not Texans. Screw Bud Adams

I always casted my non-existent vote for "the barons." Obviously another team took that name and colors. But I always like it out of the 3 proposed names/colors.

The Thunder's logo looks like dressed up clip art. But it's really not a whole lot worse than a lot of other NBA logos.

The thing I don't like about sports teams changing is the move to really dark colors. Philadelphia Eagles looked so much better when they used kelly green. Remember when the Seahawks were royal blue and green? Now I can't even tell what color they're supposed to be. They look like there were only a couple of broken crayons and one highlighter left in the box to color their unis with.

Someone mentioned earlier about how OU was backward and that it should be UO. That was a Big 8 thing. They wanted them all to end in U. KU, KSU, NU, ISU, CU, MU, OU, and OSU. The OU paperclip logo has been around since the seventies. Before that, it was rounded. And before that, it was many times just and O.

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/c7310328843107.55d618f8b2997.jpg
https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/cb6e3528843107.55d618f8b18ec.jpg

Could this be the future Thunder logo in 2017?

https://www.behance.net/gallery/28843107/Every-NBA-Team-Logo-Redesigned

That's solid

Man, I'm all in on that.

That's a million times better.

Of course, just about anything else would be.

where did that come from? Was that something new or from when the team was first announced?

On that SI article someone commented with a link to the redesign someone did.

The new logo design is an artist's conception; nothing in stone:

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/c7310328843107.55d618f8b2997.jpg

All NBA teams redesigned...

Source: https://www.behance.net/gallery/28843107/Every-NBA-Team-Logo-Redesigned

^

Like it, but needs the red-orange color and less/no brown.

I'm not fond of it...

I guess I'm just not hip. I like basketball, but people really care where the logo ranks? Obviously, by the responses in this thread, the answer is yes. Which means, again, I guess I'm just not with it.

I guess I'm just not hip. I like basketball, but people really care where the logo ranks? Obviously, by the responses in this thread, the answer is yes. Which means, again, I guess I'm just not with it.

Me personally? I don't care where the logo ranks, I care about the product on the floor. This is just discussion.