How Jerry West’s silhouette became the NBA logo

NBA excellent Jerry West died on Wednesday – but his legacy lives on as his image appears on the Basketball league icon logo.

West, 86, was an undisputed legend. Known as “Mr. Clutch,” he was not only a 14-time All-Star, co-captain of the 1960 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team, and also a trainerbut its silhouette has also become a symbol of the NBA.

Alan Siegel designed the logo in 1969, according to a 2010 report Los Angeles Times article. The logo depicts the all-white silhouette of a player in motion, dribbling a basketball surrounded by red and blue colored blocks.

Siegel told the outlet that West was one of his favorite players.

While he may have liked West when he came across a Wen Roberts photograph of the Lakers star dribbling on the court, he said that wasn’t why he chose the image.

He told the Times: “It had a nice flavor… so I took that photo and we traced it. It was perfect. It was vertical and had a sense of movement. It was just one of those things that clicked.

When the outlet asked the NBA to confirm whether it was indeed West in the logo, a spokesperson responded, “There is no record of that here.”

Seeing as his employer didn’t link him to the image, West told the outlet he found it “weird” to claim it was his own image. Instead, he told the outlet that he remembered thinking when he first saw the logo, “It looks like someone familiar.”

Years later, in 2017, he openly admitted on the ESPN program “The Leap”: “I know it’s me.”

The then-executive board member of the Golden State Warriors said, “I wish it had never come out that I am the logo, I really wish.”

While he called it “flattering,” the basketball legend said, “I don’t like doing anything to draw attention to myself…that’s just not who I am, period. If they wanted to change that, I would like them to. In many ways, I wish so.”

Despite its calls for change, the logo has remained the same over the years. West also holds another immutable title: He has the league record for most points per game average in a playoff series with 46.3.

West played for the Lakers for 14 years, starting in 1960. Two years after retiring from the team, he became their coach.

In 1991, he was induced in the Hall of Fame at his alma mater, West Virginia University.

West’s competitor and Boston Celtics star Bill Russell said at the time: “As everyone knows, Jerry is the logo man, but for us [players], Jerry was not a silhouette. He was a man with soul.”