Basketball fans rejoice at nostalgic NBA Finals logo

The NBA Finals logo was released back in April but the recent televised finals have brought the design front-and-centre. And it looks as though basketball fans are chuffed with the new design, which brings back an old element that's perfectly nostalgic (at least, that's the general consensus on Twitter).

But what is this nostalgic element? Well, between the years 1986 to 1995, and 2004 to 2017, the NBA Finals logos featured a script font. The design had been axed for the finals since 2018, but that famous cursive-looking logo has finally been brought back to life. The new (or old) design has everyone so excited I'm considering it for our best logos list.

The modernised design features that iconic script font, this time embellished with small gold accents on the F and the S. The black and gold colouring is a new look for the logo as the original was black and red (see below), but I think the palette gives the design a sense of elegance and has connotations of winning, which suits the 'finals' aspect of the design perfectly. In fact, this retro-looking design fits in pretty nicely with LogoLounge's predictions for the 2022 logo design trends.  

The design also features the Larry O'Brien Trophy to honour the 75th Anniversary of the league, as explained in the NBA blog."The NBA Finals serves as the culmination of our 75th Anniversary Season as we celebrate the league’s past, present and future," says Kate Jhaveri, Chief Marketing Officer.

"Highlighted by the return of our familiar Finals script font, back by popular demand, our new logo pays homage to our league’s history and looks forward to what’s ahead," she adds.

The design has been causing quite a stir on Twitter, with fans responding to the announcement enthusiastically. One user replied, "Thank you! We love the Script Finals font," and another tweeted, "What is the name of this font, please? Can ordinary folks use it, too?" – to which we can answer yes, you can find similar fonts in our roundup of the best script fonts. 

The Finals were won by the Golden State Warriors last Friday, but that doesn't mean we need to stop appreciating that logo design. Inspired? Why not have a go at making your very own basketball-inspired logo? Just download Illustrator to get creating.

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