Good Sunday morning. I hope everyone’s having a pleasant weekend.
On Friday, The Athletic‘s Sam Amick reported that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, when speaking to reporters after a charity event, said that the league will “look at” returning the large Larry O’Brien trophy graphic to center court for next season’s Finals. Amick’s reporting of Silver’s quote is as follows:
“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.”
Silver’s comments come as thousands of people took to social media (particularly the Platform Formerly Known As Twitter) to complain about the graphic’s removal, and the overall lack of visual indicators on ESPN’s NBA Finals broadcast, as well as the encroachment of ads during the broadcast. Others compared the NBA Finals’ visual identity negatively to the In-Season Tournament.
In Adam Silver’s first full year as commissioner they removed the playoffs & Finals decals and started replacing it with ads.
Never forget what they took from us. pic.twitter.com/yGYWuAvKbA
— ✈️ (@mldiffley) June 6, 2025
We back ! https://t.co/ouFsDMHIYS pic.twitter.com/SdbFFwBAQK
— ℵ (@nicktharula) June 6, 2025
A mid-November game vs Game 1 of the NBA Finals. League has to do better. pic.twitter.com/Q68uyc6sDB
— jack (@TheCavsJack) June 6, 2025
I don’t know why this pisses me off so much but there’s literally nothing on the court that would indicate we’re watching an NBA Finals game. Yes, the Larry O’Brien Trophy on the court was beautiful and should be brought back but there isn’t a Finals logo anywhere. Ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/VhmCLMApyI
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) June 6, 2025
The removal of the Larry O’Brien trophy graphic occurred in 2014, Silver’s first year as commissioner. At the time, he claimed that its removal was due to player complaints about “slipperiness”. That rationale rings hollow when the league, at Silver’s direction, implemented an In-Season Tournament with special court designs featuring the In-Season Tournament trophy.
While Silver’s comments from Friday are encouraging, the fact that it’s not a slam-dunk “yeah, we messed up and we’re bringing it back” does worry me. No one actually believes that the NBA removed the Larry O’Brien graphic from the floors due to player complaints about slipperiness, especially when the size of corporate-backed arena names has exploded in recent years (not a whole heck of a lot of room for the O’Brien trophy when you’ve got “Paycom Center” taking up more real estate now than in 2012). This is the same league that moved the NBA Finals logo patch from the front of the jersey to the back explicitly to make room for the introduction of jersey ads. I find it hard to believe that Silver will make a choice valuing aesthetics over profits when he’s proven so many times before how much he’s willing to sacrifice the former for the latter.
One more thing…
Father’s Day is next Sunday, June 15. Uni Watch has proudly shared photos of Dads in uniform for over a decade now, a tradition started by Phil Hecken, continued by Jim Vilk, and now I’m taking up the mantle.
This is always a very special day, and we’d love for as many readers as possible to participate — especially those of you who haven’t done so before. A few of you have reached out to Phil saying “I’ve run out of photos of my Dad” (from years’ past), so if you want to resubmit a photo used before, please do so!
To take part in this annual tradition, select one photo of your father (or grandfather or uncle) in uniform (it can be sports, military, work — as long as it’s a uniform) along with a short description of 100 words or less. Then email the photo — again, only one, please — and text to anthonyemerson94@gmail.com with the subject line “Uni Watch Father’s Day 2025” by Thursday, JUNE 12, 11:59 PM Eastern. I’ll run all of the submissions on Father’s Day.
For a league that needs a specialty jersey for every day of the week and wastes money and time in general, I’m surprised that they don’t use a special court inlaid with diamonds and 24 karat gold that is tossed into a wood chipper at the end of every game so the mulch can be auctioned off. Brought to you by Miracle-Gro.
I don’t miss the big trophy. Maybe just add a couple smaller trophies or Finals logos wherever there’s space.
agree, i feel like we’re in the minority. the bigass trophy on the court was a bit of an eyesore to me. i liked the cursive finals as pictured with hakeem/shaq in the tweet above. seemed to add a level of class to the series and i thought was well designed. also in the big picture the trophy at center court wasn’t there for that many years if i’m not mistaken – what was it like 5-6 seasons max? seems like some people feel like it was some sort of storied tradition
Yep, exactly. It’s ugly and wasn’t there long. I agree that the Hakeem/Shaq example is the best. Logo with year in the corners, inside the three-point line. If not there, then at the half-court corners. Just actually paint it on the floor.
Agreed. Just give us that script with the year back.
“I find it hard to believe that Silver will make a choice valuing aesthetics over profits when he’s proven so many times before how much he’s willing to sacrifice the former for the latter.”
Don’t confuse Income with Profit. With the increase in advertisements, and ad dollars, all I’ve seen is an increase in contracts for players who aren’t worth it. It seems these ads just make sure the 8th man on the roster makes $20M per year.
Also, who can blame the NBA for NOT wanting this OKC vs. IND Finals to be remembered?
“Adam Silver Says Larry O’Brien Floor Graphic May Return In 2026”
Yep. That’ll fix the problems in the NBA.
Of the “Big Four” sports, the Championship of the NBA has the least significance. That’s because hockey, a sport of limited appeal during the regular season, totally slaps in the playoffs with its big honking trophy. (A higher profile in NYC than b-ball helps) The NBA Finals are a botch job.
NHL is the best final series of NBA, MLB and NHL. Speed, hitting, overtime games that are typically unbelievable. Refs tend to put their whistles in their pockets and “let them play”.
As the NFL is a single championship game and a one day event, it’s on its own.
Hard to get excited about a winter sport where the champions usually come from Carolina or Florida.
In Game 2 last night, small O’-Brien Trophy digital logos were inserted opposite each Paycom Center logo during the first quarter. They changed to script Finals logos in the second quarter. I changed channels at halftime; I assume there was a similar rotation in the second half.
And so of course the O’Brien returned last night in mini form. Two of them in fact.
Very simple: the logo will return once Silver sells the naming rights to the Finals. Then it will reappear but without a home team center logo.
Maybe it wasn’t widely reported at the time, but I distinctly remember the talk of “slippery graphics” from players (which has also come up in the college game for things like those invitational tourneys early in the season). I think some of the phrasing was disingenuous comparing the in season tourney courts and permanent court ads (which tend to be built into the design these days) vs. the old finals logo, since the tourney courts were full court designs done well in advance.
It’s a bit of apples and oranges – I don’t know what the turnaround time is for a court to be produced, but if you wanted to do an actual custom court for the finals rather than a decal it presents a lot of challenges (or making full courts in advance for teams that may not make it).
I’ll have to look for the decal commentary from back then, but it reads as a fairly valid explanation. It’s not like hockey where you just paint the base below the ice, or painting end zones in football. Maybe there’s a solve with “better decals” but I think worth considering that putting any sort of sticker on top of an existing court will have some sort of impact, however slight (even if its the inverse and is a grippier surface than the court), or maybe there’s a way to refinish over a decal, but I don’t think it’s as straightforward as them killing it in favor of ads (given the placements) or making up slipping as an excuse