The L.A. Clippers may have the most uninteresting and unoriginal logo in all of professional sports. They certainly have the most unoriginal color scheme. The L.A. Clippers are literally red, white and blue like the American flag. Like many other sports franchises, it’s an obvious pandering to your patriotism through their brand.
Only the Clippers are actually the shame, not pride of the greatest nation right now. Donald Sterling was voted the most hated man in our great country by a recent online poll. Yet, he sees his net worth increase by $2.2 Billion dollars as a direct result of his repulsive bigotry. What kind of message does that send?
Nevertheless, as Sterling gets the boot, so should the stupid nickname and mundane logo.
Here’s why:
1. It’s vanilla, and it’s derived from when the team was located in a different city.ย
Look! It’s just a basketball!
There’s nothing in there to denote a tall ship, which is what the team is actually named after. And the team nickname originates from another city: San Diego. Which makes the logo and nickname doubly stupid. The city of San Diego is known for a beloved clipper ship in the bay. It’s a popular tourist attraction. If you go to the beach near Los Angeles, you won’t find any clipper ships. Unless they just now decided to move a bunch of tall ships into Santa Monica Pier, and just didn’t tell us.
Look at the clipper ships docked in San Diego’s harbor, and the original San Diego Clippers logo, with the sailing imagery incorporated:
I know San Diego is just a couple of hours or so down Pacific Coast Highway, but it’s a totally different city. Look at Charlotte, along with New Orleans, eventually they realized that “Hornets” only works in Charlotte, not NOLA. Because the city’s nickname, hence the hoops team moniker, actually came from King George III. He called Charlotte “that hornets’ nest of rebellion.”
Also, Charlotte is an extremely boring place with little going for it, so your other options were “Charlotte Ric Flairs,” “Charlotte Banking Corporation Skyscrapers” or “Charlotte Suburban Strip Malls.”
As for the Utah Jazz?
Well, we know Salt Lake City isn’t exactly known for hep cat jazz clubs, but we’ll save assessing that instance of stupidity for another post.
2. Making a re-brand wouldn’t be too difficult
The L.A. Clippers have zero championship banners and no retired numbers up in the rafters at the Staples Center. Other than the court itself and arena bunting, which they change almost nightly anyway for Lakers and Kings games, there’s very little that would have to be re-done. I guess you’d have to stop putting red, white and blue balloons on the statues of Laker legends outside. I think L.A. Live can handle such a transition.
3. Desperately need an image makeover
Your star player is a creationist who actually believes the Earth is 6,000 years old. Your (now former) owner is the worst bigot in the history of sports. Although Redskins founder George Preston Marshall comes close. And if you want to actually examine the Washington team name debate, take a long hard look at the guy who created the moniker. Back to the Clippers, I think they need some Image CPR! STAT!
When your power forward can’t accept science and your (now ex) ruling monarch can’t accept civil rights, it’s time for a total overhaul.
4. The time is now
To live and die in L.A. if I could channel my inner 2pac, or as he was called then, Makaveli, is to reside in a very socially progressive place. It’s an enlightened, sophisticated city populated by publicists and media moguls. The town knows a thing or two about trying to manipulate public image. So the Clippers
1.) need to distance themselves as much as possible from Sterling in an image focused place like this and
2.) they have the best talent pool in the world for accomplishing this task right in their own backyard!
5. The Washington football team is going to have to do it.
Daniel Snyder will eventually have to succumb to public pressure and change the name. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not next week. But the EPIC FAILURE that was the #RedskinsPride hash tag verified the inevitability. Here’s more on that situation. The L.A. Clippers should take pre-emptive action before they face a similar situation.
Paul M. Banks ownsย The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate ofย Fox Sports. Heโs also a frequent guestย on national talk radio. Banks, a former contributor toย NBCย Chicago and the Washington Times, has been featured in numerous outlets including NFL.com, Forbes and the History Channel.ย President Barack Obamaย follows him onย Twitter (@paulmbanks)
