NBA legend Jerry West has long been celebrated as one of the best ever shooting guards in the game. It is widely accepted that the famous NBA logo is made in his image. But if you ask him about it he's likely to get prickly. Why? Because the league has categorically denied it for the last 40 years, even though his likeness was the basis of the logo according to the artist.
When TMZ recently asked West about it, he said that he has never been paid for the use of his likeness in the logo because the NBA won't cop to it (via TMZ):
"But the question seemed to strike a nerve with the NBA legend ... who told us the situation with the logo is 'complicated' ... and not in a good way.
"Here's the twist -- over the years, The NBA hasn't exactly acknowledged that the person on the logo is West ... despite the fact the person who designed the image has said on record he adapted it from a 1969 photo of the NBA star."
While Alan Siegel, the artist who designed the logo, admits that he used a photo of West to create it, he says he understands why they would want to preserve the mystique of the "anonymous" player (via Logo Design Love):
"'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.'
"NBA Commissioner David Stern, through a spokesman, declines to comment, saying he doesn't know whether West is on the logo.
"'There's no record of it here,' spokesman Tim Frank says."
What do you think? Should the NBA pay him for the use of his likeness? Or is it better as a symbol devoid of specificity?
Tell us your thoughts in the comment field below.
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