Slamball ?09

[eRay]

I set out a while back to do something that would be different, maybe even the first of its kind on these boards. I looked at probably every professional sport to try to come up with an original idea to tackle. I came up with a couple, which will probably be used sometime, but I landed on redesigning Slamball from top to bottom. In an attempt at keeping this explanation fairly concise, I offer you the link to the Slamball wikipedia page, which highlights the sport's history, major players, defunct teams, rules, and so-on. There were many reasons that I settled on this project. When Slamball started being shown on Spike TV back in 2002 I absolutely fell in love with it. It gave me everything I wanted to see from sports. One of the bigger reasons is that I think Slamball is positioning itself to blow up again, and this time I think it will find long term popularity and success. The league has named Pat Croce the Commissioner, which I believe will prove to be a smart move. Joining the league as coaches are Kenny Anderson, John Starks, Rocket Ismail, and Ken Carter (Coach Carter). The league is airing games weekly on the Versus network, and on November 2nd the finals will be shown on CBS. The league is making it to the big stage, but doing it professionally and trying to attract the right kind of fans. I think their look, and the look of all their teams should reflect this if they hope to continue gaining popularity. The logos and uniforms I am presenting would be used next year, and would try to help the sport gain followers. I have kept the league at 6 teams, with the hopeful expansion of 2 teams coming in 2010. I also kept teams out of locations because I think a 6 team league cannot stand to represent different cities or states just yet. Stay tuned into this sport and check out slamball.net for videos and better looks at the current teams and players. I enjoyed this project because of the endless freedom it provided me, with no real history to stick to. C&C is greatly appreciated, and thank you for reading this if you did. Enjoy.

The Bouncers have been in Slamball since its inception. They grabbed the championship in 2001 and I felt it was essential to keep them intact. Founder Mason Gordon is on the Bouncers.

The Diablos were present in the first season of Slamball, but were renamed the Hombres last year. I brought them back to Diablos because I felt it was a stronger identity to work with. They are coached by Kenny Anderson.

The Marvels were renamed for this project from the existing Maulers. In the first season of Slamball they were known as the Steal. The Marvels are aptly named because the most explosive young player in the sport, and the league's all-time leading scorer Stan ?Shakes? Fletcher is on the team. Shakes has won 2 Slamball Dunk Contests.

Also around from the beginning are the Mob. I chose to bring the team some new imagery, as opposed to their monster-eye logo they currently use. Sean ?Inches? Jackson is one of the original 6 Slamball players, but still holds down the team?s play with his creative dunks, like the McNasty.

The Rumble have been around since the first Slamball season as well, and took home the championship back in 2002. Their roster is stacked with the likes of Jelani Janisse (probably the best player in the game today) and James Willis (one of the original 6, and the only player in the sport's short history to have two championship rings).

Finally, I bring you the Yellow Jackets. I dropped the name Slashers because of its lack of meaning, but they have also been around since the sport's first season. They employ the best Stopper in the sport, Adam Hooker, who holds the single-game record for Blocks with 36.

[Brass]

I remember Slamball! It looked like a blast to play. As for the concepts, I like them all and think they fit their respective teams. I especially love the look of the Mob. The white pinstripes remind me of a suit that a gangster would wear. I'm sure that was your intention.

Great work as always, eRay!

[TheAK47]

Great job, especially like the Mob and Diablos!

[tj4eck]

haha awesome!!

is this still on?

i have an autograph picture of adam hooker somewhere in my stuff i'll have to find it and get a scan for you guys

[Conrad.]

Slamball was great back in the day...i hope it's received well when it comes back.

very nicely done sir...quite the refreshing read after so many "mainstream" sports concepts (myself included).

i wouldnt mind to see the expansion teams soon

[ericjjyy]

DANG, i really like these. This must have been a fun project since you had a lot of freedom, not only with the logos but with the jerseys, since you had not templates to limit yourself, plus you could go out-of-the-box with these, which is what you do, and its a good thing for this league.

Bouncers- I like how you incorporated striping like there is in the logo, thats always cool.

Diablos- Awesome logo, and very very good font.

Marvels- i like the blue a lot, and the jerseys have a nice template on them

Mob- cool logo, im not that crazy about this jersey, but i like the idea behind it.

Rumble- that must have been hard to think of a logo for, but you did a good job on it.

Yellow jackets- very nice logo, and jersey. Typically when teams try to put stripes from the logo onto the jersey (i.e bengals) it typically doesn't work, but this does. I like it.

[eRay]

Thanks all, and yes it was very fun to have pretty much free range on the logo and uniform designs. Conrad, I just might have to put together some expansion teams. Stay tuned for that. More C&C???

[yoo]

slam ball is still going,its on Vs.

[gatorade09]

slam ball is still going,its on Vs.

Its on every Sunday and all there jerseys are the same with different colors, I think that is really dumb because they could have really cool ones like the ones in this thread.

[TNT44]

My big problems with these:

1. The Rumble and Mob logos are as close to iconic as you will get in SlamBall. Those need to stay.

2. I would keep Hombres, as they have a sweet logo and it's a unique name. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of the Maulers identity, and bringing back the Diablos identity would be a good switch for the Maulers.

Other than that, I love these designs.

Oh, and just to let you know, the Bouncers did not win the championship in 2001. That was the untelevised season, in which the championship was won by the Chicago Mob over the L.A. Rumble (at the time, they were given cities they were "from", but all games were played in L.A.)

[eRay]

My big problems with these:

1. The Rumble and Mob logos are as close to iconic as you will get in SlamBall. Those need to stay.

2. I would keep Hombres, as they have a sweet logo and it's a unique name. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of the Maulers identity, and bringing back the Diablos identity would be a good switch for the Maulers.

Other than that, I love these designs.

Oh, and just to let you know, the Bouncers did not win the championship in 2001. That was the untelevised season, in which the championship was won by the Chicago Mob over the L.A. Rumble (at the time, they were given cities they were "from", but all games were played in L.A.)

I got my info from Wikipedia, if that is any kind of excuse. I would like to see reference to what you are talking about though, with city names and such. I had never heard that.

[TNT44]

I got my info from Wikipedia, if that is any kind of excuse. I would like to see reference to what you are talking about though, with city names and such. I had never heard that.

A picture from Slamball's first season in 2001.

These two teams were the only two teams in 2001. Note that the Rumble had basically the same logo, while the Mob had a similar logo but with a mobster instead of an eye.

BTW, Slamball championship is tomorrow on CBS after the NFL game.

[fishheatcats]

Wow, a Slamball redesign, didn't think I'd ever see that! While I like the idea of going outside the box with a slamball concept, I must say that all the uniforms and logos look, well, too Slambally. I think one of the reasons Slamball floundered the first time was that it was presented as more of a weekly TV show as opposed to a professional sport(kind of like And-1 on ESPN). Even if they do play all the games in one place, or they moved to a different city each week(like volleyball), I think you need the city names in there. It's just sounds so unprofessional to have just "Bouncers" or "Slashers" or whatever.

Combine the singular name with what were pretty generic looking logos, and the teams weren't much to look at. I think the best logo you've got here is the Yellow Jackets secondary. That looks really sharp. I think the Diablos, Marvels, and Yellow jackets have a lot of potential, they just need to pushed a little further. To be honest, I'm not felling the Mob, Bouncers, or Rumble at all. I do however like the league logo.

You did a fine job of emulating the look of Slamball, but I think that's the problem.