Kyrie Irving said on Wednesday that Kobe Bryant should be the new NBA logo, re-sparking debate on the matter.
[I don’t care] what someone says, ”Irving wrote on an Instagram post alongside a mockup of a Kobe logo, adding in capital letters,“ BLACK KINGS BUILT THE LEAGUE. “
This isn’t Bryant’s first attempt to replace legend Jerry West as the NBA’s new logo.
Shortly after Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020, along with seven others, more than two million people signed an online petition for the logo change. Since Irving’s post, the petition has more than 3.2 million signatures as of Wednesday night.
Kobe’s widow Vanessa Bryant also took to Instagram to support Irving, writing, “Love this @kyrieirving.”
Alan Siegel, who created the logo, also said at the time of Bryant’s death that he was open to change.
“It’s pretty obvious this [Bryant] was a highly respected figure by players and around the world and this is really serious business for the league to take into account, ”Siegel told Newsweek.
West, who has not cashed in on the logo’s likeness, also said in 2015 that he was open to changing the logo, Michael Jordan suggests.
The NBA has not changed the logo, which has been in use since 1969, as it does not recognize that West is the player on the logo, according to a Yahoo Sports report at the time.
According to the report, the NBA’s idea is not to have an individual player as their logo, because there are so many players who have played a significant role in growing the game, making generic better.
Bryant’s life was not without controversy. In 2003, a 19-year-old hotel worker accused the Los Angeles Lakers star, then 25, of raping her in his hotel room at The Lodge and Spa in Cordillera in Edwards, Colo.
Prosecutors dropped the charges in 2004 after the prosecution failed to testify. A civil suit she filed against him was settled out of court in 2005 for an undisclosed amount.
Bryant was Irving’s idol growing up in West Orange, NJ, doing YouTube clips of the Lakers icon. They became friends, and Irving FaceTimed Bryant out of the Cavaliers locker room right after winning the 2016 NBA title.