OKLAHOMA CITY — In the wake of a spirited online debate about the state of the NBA Finals court during the Indiana Pacers’ stunning Game 1 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder — with a swell of support for the Larry O’Brien Trophy logos to be returned to the floor — commissioner Adam Silver indicated Friday that the league will revisit that discussion after this season.
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The league has had various iterations of the trophy logo throughout its history. But it stopped using them in 2014 amid concerns about, among other things, player safety when there were claims of “slipperiness” on the courts, Silver said. The Cleveland Cavaliers featured a small version of the trophy near a corner of the court in 2017, and the 2020 bubble finals in Orlando, Fla., had a massive finals logo that was sponsored by YouTube. As Silver sees it, the fans and media members who complained about a lack of distinctness to the modern-day finals court have a valid point.
“Maybe there’s a way around it,” he told a small group of reporters during an NBA Cares charity event at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County. “To be honest, I hadn’t thought all that much about it until I (saw) it (on social media). I’m nostalgic, as well, for certain things. And also, I think for a media-driven culture, whether it’s people watching live or seeing those images on social media, it’s nice when you’re looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that trophy logo or some other indication that it’s a special event. So, we’ll look at it.”
The timing of this topic had everything to do with the NBA Cup, as many questioned why the finals courts are so understated when the courts used for the league’s midseason tournament are often quite the opposite. They feature bright colors and extensive decals that are unique to each team, with the goal of attracting attention to the competition that began in 2023.
For the midseason games that matter only so much, the league was often accused of trying too hard from a marketing standpoint. Yet when it came to the finals games that matter more than any other, there was a sense the league wasn’t trying hard enough. Silver, though, said logistical context has come into play.
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“In the case of the Cup, of course, we have the opportunity to plan well in advance and to design a specific neutral court for a Cup championship game,” he said. “And the teams design their own Cup courts. It actually takes a significant amount of time to create new courts in terms of how they’re painted, et cetera.
“One of the reasons we moved away from the logos on the courts is — whether it was perception or reality — there was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court, and it was a change sort of on the court that was coming just at the time of the finals. … Maybe it’s for superstitious reasons or just a sense from teams that we shouldn’t be changing things around such important competition. That’s largely why we stopped putting the logos on the court.”
To hear Silver tell it, though, everything old might be new again when next June rolls around.
(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
