A while back I was approached to design these old-school Celtics sweaters. The guy ended up flaking on me and I never got paid so with Christmas and the NBA season 1 day away I figure it is a good time to post these. Since this project resulted in basically nothing, it would have been cool to go completely over the top and make something like an ugly Christmas sweater with Celtics players stitched all over the place. Maybe next year…
alternate logos
The NBA is back in less than a week, and I’m back with another team logo.
The 76ers are one of the 8 original NBA teams still around today. They haven’t been championship-contenders since Iverson’s first tour with the team, but I would be surprised if they weren’t back in the playoffs this year. Thats all I have to say about them.
Syracuse Nationals
In 1963 the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia (the Philadelphia Warriors conveniently moved to San Francisco the same year) and became the 76ers.
1963/64 - 1976/77
The new logo was clearly inspired by the Revolutionary War, with 13 stars for the original 13 colonies. As overly patriotic logos go, this was a lateral move from the USA map/stars and stripes from the Nationals logo. I really like how simple this logo is. I’m not sure why the 7 is so weirdly shaped, but overall we are off to a solid start. Hoops-wise, the team beat the Celtics and went on to win its 2nd championship in 1966/67 led by Wilt Chamberlain. Boston had won 8 championships in a row, but I still like to think that Bill Russell was pissed about this one.
1977/78 - 1996/97
In 1976 the team acquired Julius Erving (Dr. J) after the NBA-ABA merger, got sold to a new owner, and lost the the Blazers in the NBA Finals. Just when things couldn’t get more exciting, they introduced a new logo with the “ers” text and a sweet volleyball-looking ball behind their old logo. Are there any basketballs in old-school NBA logos that don’t fuck up the seams on the ball? Ridiculous. Anyway, the 76ers won another championship in 1982/83, when they basically started 5 All-Stars, including MVP Moses Malone.
1997/98 - 2008/09
Fast-forward to 1996: the team drafted and got rid of Charles Barkley, and are the worst team in the league. #1 pick Allen Iverson joins the team, rocks cornrows, breaks ankles, etc. The next year the team releases this new logo and black/gold color scheme. The black and red outlines on this annoy me. However, I had a pair of these 76ers shorts that were pretty much my favorite piece of clothing when I was 12 or 13, so I can’t hate on it too much.
76ers current logo
2 years ago the team decided to go back to their old logo with some slight changes. I like the nostalgia, but they could have done this better (fix the lines on the damn ball).
My main goal here was to capture the simplicity of the original logo, but clean up the weird form and spacing of the 76. the bell shape is obviously(I hope) supposed to be the Liberty Bell, which symbolizes the city of Philadelphia. I love the 13 stars, and wanted to make them more prominent instead of putting the whole thing inside a ball.
I’m sure most people’s complaint about this logo will be the disjointed Phila-delphia text. I think it adds a little more modern feel, but I can see why people wouldn’t like it. The “PHILA” text on the alternate logo is inspired by the old Philadelphia Warriors jerseys (left). that one might be a better option.
See the rest of my NBA logos here »