OKC NBA to announce nickname, logo, colors September 3

[McCall]

So, to review, if you're from Oklahoma, the logo is fine and everything is great.

If you're from anywhere else, this is a disaster and terrible design.

Is that about right?

No. No matter where you're from, this logo sucks.

Ya know, some good could come from this logo afterall; I'm sure this could make all political parties actually agree on something.

[MVP]

I literally LOL'd when I read this, from Doug Smith's Raptors blog for the Toronto Star:

Q: Love your blog, and a big fan.

I have few questions about new NBA team.

We all know that the most recent one is the "Thunder". My questions are, how do they recruit players at first? and What does it do to the season? how many more games does it add to our original 82?

Ken C, Toronto

A: Um, it?s not a new team. It?s Seattle. The Sonics moved.

[SLAM]

^ LOL

[Alphabet Man]

Bring back Seattle!

This Oklahoma team can off.

[agentrygraphics]

Apparently the basketball fans of OKC don't think the logo matters much..

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/bask...s.ap/index.html

All season tickets sold out in 5 days. Good for them.

[HowBoutThemFins]

Apparently the basketball fans of OKC don't think the logo matters much..

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/bask...s.ap/index.html

All season tickets sold out in 5 days. Good for them.

tickets usually sell out in a hurry when a city is awarded a franchise. that's not such a big deal.

[gosioux76]

Apparently the basketball fans of OKC don't think the logo matters much..

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/bask...s.ap/index.html

All season tickets sold out in 5 days. Good for them.

tickets usually sell out in a hurry when a city is awarded a franchise. that's not such a big deal.

Exactly. The real bellwether of success is whether those season ticket sales are sustainable. Time will tell, but good on the OKC fans for now.

[OnWis97]

I don't see how anyone can defend this. The Buffaslug is bad, but it's just kinda crappy and inferior to other Sabers logos. Clearly some thought was put into it, though most people found it to be a bad logo. This is much worse. It had no effort or thought. It was done in two minutes.

Someone early on in the thread pointed out that this was probably created before the name choice, as any of the names could have been inserted where "thunder" is.

I did not take the time to read 35 pages, so my apologies if this has been discussed:

Does anyone think that this logo is just a placeholder for a real logo in the near future? It reminds me of when the "Wild" name was announced. I was really down on the name and then they came out with the wordmark logo. If these boards were running then, there'd have been just as many "fail" sigs. I was pretty disappointed because they screwed the name up and came out with a lame logo (the colors being the silver lining).

In hindsight, I think they just put out a logo as fast as they could so they could sell some merchandise. Which is kind of a lame moneygrab since I am sure they sold it to the same chumps (myself included) once the real logo came out. Nevertheless, I was quite happy with the animal head logo and still am.

The difference between the Thunder and the Wild is that the Thunder have very little time to throw everything together. So I would not be suprised if they are going to use the FAIL logo as a place holder and get a "real" logo soon. In time for the season, in time for next season or even during the season? I don't know whether the NBA has rules about how quickly they can add a new logo, but if they have to wait a couple years, perhaps that will be waived due to the special circumstances.

I predict that this either goes away or gets relegated to a very rare secondary fairly soon.

[habsfan1]

I don't see how anyone can defend this. The Buffaslug is bad, but it's just kinda crappy and inferior to other Sabers logos. Clearly some thought was put into it, though most people found it to be a bad logo. This is much worse. It had no effort or thought. It was done in two minutes.

Someone early on in the thread pointed out that this was probably created before the name choice, as any of the names could have been inserted where "thunder" is.

I did not take the time to read 35 pages, so my apologies if this has been discussed:

Does anyone think that this logo is just a placeholder for a real logo in the near future? It reminds me of when the "Wild" name was announced. I was really down on the name and then they came out with the wordmark logo. If these boards were running then, there'd have been just as many "fail" sigs. I was pretty disappointed because they screwed the name up and came out with a lame logo (the colors being the silver lining).

In hindsight, I think they just put out a logo as fast as they could so they could sell some merchandise. Which is kind of a lame moneygrab since I am sure they sold it to the same chumps (myself included) once the real logo came out. Nevertheless, I was quite happy with the animal head logo and still am.

The difference between the Thunder and the Wild is that the Thunder have very little time to throw everything together. So I would not be suprised if they are going to use the FAIL logo as a place holder and get a "real" logo soon. In time for the season, in time for next season or even during the season? I don't know whether the NBA has rules about how quickly they can add a new logo, but if they have to wait a couple years, perhaps that will be waived due to the special circumstances.

I predict that this either goes away or gets relegated to a very rare secondary fairly soon.

In the case of the Minnesota Wild's wordmark logo, it was meant to only be the shoulder patch and it's still in use today. At least, they made better decisions overall. Unlike the Thunder, they were guarenteed a franchise much more in advance so they had a load of time to let the fans choose a name, have discussions about what would be designed, create a first draft, a second draft, a third draft and finally the logo set we all love today.

The Sonics move was confirmed for a long time but other cities we're in a bidding war, and it's only on April 18, 2008 that the whole kit and cabootle was completely sealed.

What I'm really the most disapointed of is the fact that the logo is not representative of Thunder in any way, shape or form. Any neglected concept with a bolt of lightning and clouds would have been better they what they use now.

The rule is no change until 5 years but an alt takes less time. There may be a rule about the home and road jersey but there's no rule that forbids a franchise of keeping the same colors/logo/template for the alt. In the worst case scenario, they need to seize that oppurtunity to design what will be their future road jersey. The fans of Oklahoma City deserve a team with an established and recongnisable identity asop. This is the worst logo of the 21st century so far, something needs to be done.

[Gothamite]

In the case of the Minnesota Wild's wordmark logo, it was meant to only be the shoulder patch and it's still in use today. At least, they made better decisions overall. Unlike the Thunder, they were guarenteed a franchise much more in advance so they had a load of time to let the fans choose a name, have discussions about what would be designed, create a first draft, a second draft, a third draft and finally the logo set we all love today.

The Sonics move was confirmed for a long time but other cities we're in a bidding war, and it's only on April 18, 2008 that the whole kit and cabootle was completely sealed.

Except that we know they were angling to moving the team from the start. So it's not like this was some surprise here, that they ended up in OKC.

Obviously they couldn't officially work on a new logo set before then, but there's still no excuse for this slipshod work. The sale only required that they make a good-faith effort to stay in Seattle, and hiring a designer would have been a signal to send to Washington that they were serious about the whole "build-an-arena-or-we-move" thing.

[NMLSooner]

Yea, yea, the logo stinks. Maybe they came up with a lame logo knowing people would by it anyway, then change it whenever the league allows (5 years?). Come out with a good one then and make a bunch of cash again. And as a side note, how about that 55-14 clubbing of the Huskies by the Sooners!

[Jimmy!]

Not to offend the SuperSonics loyalists here, but all of the criticism of the Thunder logo got me thinkin'...what was so freakin' great about their last logo?:

I don't know...that thing always looked like some sort of parks and recreation sign to me...nothing about it visually had anything to do with the name "Sonics" or "SuperSonics".

I certainly am not coming to the defense of the Thunder logo (it sucks), but it wasn't like their last one was a masterpiece either.

My two cents.

True, it wasn't a masterpiece. As a Sonics fan, I can only speak for myself in saying that logo was so well received because it was a return to the green and gold after that brief brick red crap they dumped on us.

[TenaciousG]

And as a side note, how about that 55-14 clubbing of the Huskies by the Sooners!

Some fans from Washington have no problem with that...

To keep this thread on topic, the logo is atrocious. I don't see how anyone can like it, even as a homer.

[Gothamite]

As discussed on its own thread, the OCK minor league baseball team just unveiled its new logos.

That's how you brand a team.

[oukingpen]

OK to recap, below are OKC's team logos. (try to find which team is in the majors)

OKC Blazers (Hockey)

OKC Yard Dawgz (Arena Football)

OKC Thunder (Basketball)

OKC Redhawks (Baseball)

[Braden]

Well that's obvious, it's the Yard Dawgzzzz.

[habsfan1]

OK to recap, below are OKC's team logos. (try to find which team is in the majors)

Hmmmmm, I'll go with umm.....

The OKC Redhawks.

[Conrad.]

agreed.

quite the pro-look there from the red hawks. they just need to switch leagues with the thunder and switch the balls in the respective logos.

[eRay]

This is very weird, and I felt I had to post it, but most people will not find it interesting. It kind of shows the level on which Clay Bennett thinks.

Just today, going through some old things, I found a list of my fantasy hockey league teams from when I was like 13. I made up team names, then drew out and colored logos for them and just pretended it was real. Oh, the weird things kids do. Anyway, this list of Ruthless Hockey League teams was in alphabetical order. Right after the Milwaukee Robins comes OKC Bison, and then after the Reno Battling Silvers comes the Salem Thunder. I found it amazing because both Thunder and Bison were considered, but Mr. Bennett chose the worse of the 2, but at 13 I knew better for OKC. Thats my "in yo face" of the day.

Another note, also on the list was the Arizona Rays. Guess I mixed together the MLB expansion teams of the time, and dropped the "Devil" like the Rays just did.

[Phil]

I had to come back for this.

Wow. There's better stuff being developed for fun on a daily basis in places like this, than was paid for handsomely by Mr. Bennett.

I'm almost ready to try and go full-time as a brand developer, purely based on the putridity on display here.