In 1969, NBA Commissioner J. Walter Kennedy hired Siegel's branding firm to design a new logo for the league. Kennedy was impressed with Siegel's work overseeing the design of Major League Baseball's 100th anniversary logo, which featured the silhouette of a batter in red, white and blue, and was designed by Jerry Dior.
“[Kennedy] “The NBA's reputation had been tarnished by drug use by many of its players, and basketball had fallen behind baseball's reputation, so we wanted a logo that had a familial connection to major league baseball,” Siegel said in 2011.
When Siegel was looking for inspiration for an NBA logo, he called his childhood friend and Cornell graduate Dick Sharp, a legendary sportswriter and announcer who was working as an editor at Sports magazine at the time and gave Siegel access to the magazine's photo archives.
Siegel, who played for Hall of Fame basketball coach Larry Brown in high school, was immediately captivated by photos of West taken by Wen Roberts, who became the Lakers' official photographer when they moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles before the 1960-61 season.
“It looked good, so I took a photo of it and traced it,” Siegel said of the photo of West dribbling the ball with his left hand. “It was perfect. It was vertical, it had movement. It was one of those things that just clicked.”
Siegel, who considered West one of his favorite players and even played against him in a high school all-star game, and his partner Bob Gale designed the logo “in maybe an hour,” then submitted it to the NBA the next day, where it was approved.
“I asked for $14,000,” Siegel told NBA.com in 2021. “It wasn't a lot of money, but it was an honorable assignment, so I never thought about it again.”
The league's new logo was introduced the same year West was named NBA Finals MVP and was presented with a Dodge Charger R/T by Sports Magazine, but his Lakers lost in seven games to the Boston Celtics. Siegel said no one asked him at the time if he was the inspiration for the design.
“This guy looks familiar,” West told The Times of his reaction when he first saw the logo.
West, who won nine NBA titles and was a 14-time All-Star as a player and executive, later admitted he was uncomfortable being “The Logo.”
“I wish they didn't know I was the logo,” West told ESPN's “The Jump” in 2017. “I truly do. I've said it many times and I'd be honored if it was me. And I know it was me. I'd be honored. But for me, I was playing at the beginning of marketing the league. There were five people that they were going to consider and I didn't find out until the late commissioner found out about it. [Kennedy] “They told me about it. … Again, it's an honor. But if I was the NBA, I'd be embarrassed about it. I really do.”
The league has never explicitly said that West was the inspiration for the logo, but commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged in 2021 that it “certainly does bear a strong resemblance to him.”
Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul George told West during a podcast last year that he should feel very honored to be associated with the logo.
“I don't look at it that way,” West said. “… I often think, 'What do I want people to think of me?' He was a good man, he was caring. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less.”
