Brooklyn Nets launch new logo. Reactions mixed

The Brooklyn Nets have released a new logo, designed by rapper and co-owner Jay-Z. Love it or hate it, it won't really catch on until the Brooklyn Nets start winning more basketball games.

|
Seth Wenig/AP
Brooklyn Nets basketball player Brook Lopez tries on a hat with the new Nets logo during a news conference to unveil the new logos in Brooklyn, N.Y., Monday, April 30, 2012.

The newly relocated Brooklyn Nets went one step further in their franchise transformation Monday, releasing a new logo that’s a complete do-over of the red, white, and blue threads of the team’s days in New Jersey.

Designed by hip hop mogul and Nets minority owner Jay-Z, the new Nets logo is monochromatic, retro, and a tad literal. A black, badge-shaped backdrop encases the “NETS” name, written in thin, all caps font. That sits atop a basketball engraved with a “B” for Brooklyn. Another variant has the “B” basketball encircled by the world “Brooklyn New York.”

"The Brooklyn Nets logos are another step we've made to usher the organization into a new era," Jay-Z said in a statement. "The boldness of the designs demonstrates the confidence we have in our new direction. Along with our move to Brooklyn and a state-of-the-art arena, the new colors and logos are examples of our commitment to update and refine all aspects of the team."

The design is inspired in part by the signage of the New York Subway system, according to a statement on the Nets website.

The new logo was unveiled at a press conference in a Modell’s sporting goods store near Barclays Center on Flatbush Avenue – the Nets’ new arena. Nets star Brook Lopez was in attendance, as well as Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The Nets are the first major professional sports team to call Brooklyn home since baseball’s Dodgers packed up for Los Angeles in 1957.

The Nets join the San Antonio Spurs, Chicago White Sox, and Oakland Raiders in the ranks of pro teams sporting a noncolor color scheme (a short subway ride away, the New York Yankees could probably be included in this group, but their pinstripes are technically navy). The Nets’ uniforms won’t be unveiled until later this year, probably September.

But shirts hats, and other Nets merchandise are now available, and reactions around the web are decidedly mixed. While some hail the logo as sleek and appreciate the aggressive courting of the urban market (the products are peppered with Jay-Z lyrics and other hip hop references), others complain that they are plain and derivative, some bemoaning the lack of color.

“They’re ugly. I expected more from Jay-Z,” analyst Tony Kornheiser lamented on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption.” The logo is the only one in the NBA to use a black and white color scheme, but a column in the Wall Street Journal griped about the tired use of a basketball in the logo, noting that 20 out of the 30 NBA teams also have basketball-centric logos.

But whichever side of the uniform debate wins out, it won’t matter unless the team can turn its fortunes around on the court. During the Nets’ 35 seasons in the NBA, the franchise has never won a championship. They’ve only made it to the NBA finals twice, in 2002 and 2003. The Nets haven’t made the playoffs since 2007. For the shortened 2012 season, they had the worst record in the Eastern Conference's Atlantic Division, at 22 and 44.  In a crowded professional sports market like New York, with storied franchises like the Yankees and Knicks, such a history will have a hard time attracting new fans.

But start winning, and the Nets can do anything they want with their team look. Case in point: The University of Miami Hurricanes, a team with five national championships and arguably the sports world's most horrid color scheme. Should the Nets win five titles, nary a soul will be complaining about Jay-Z’s logo design. The San Antonio Spurs have won four NBA titles since 1999, and they wear their black and gray in peace.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Brooklyn Nets launch new logo. Reactions mixed
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2012/0501/Brooklyn-Nets-launch-new-logo.-Reactions-mixed
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe