The sixth episode of "Road to Brooklyn," the docu-series running on Jay-Z's YouTube channel, focuses on the Nets' black and white logo. While much of the story has been told (without adequate acknowledgement of role played by the designer, Timothy P. Morris), there's some interesting background about how the process evolved. Among them: how the Nets originally considered an ABA retro look, with red, white and blue colors before settling on the more simple, stark black and white look.
The bottom line, though, is the bottom line. "This could be the biggest, most powerful logo icon change in sports in a long, long time," says Christopher Arena, the NBA's Vice President of Apparel. Even though Nets gear has only been on sale since the very end of September, it ranks seventh among NBA teams over the last six months.
It's certainly won the hearts of Brooklynites ... and beyond. Says Sean Malcolm of King Magazine: "I dont care what the logo looks like as long as we have a winner on the court, I could care less. We could have a loser on the court, I could care less. I'm going to rock it till I die."
Brett Yormark is careful to point to Jay-Z's inspirational role, rather than its actual execution. "It was really just Jay's vision that Brooklyn was about black and white," he says, noting that Jay-Z is "providing an incredible amount of street credibility... and that goes a long way. He is all in."
Best line of the piece may be from Prince Paul, who's seen wearing Knicks gear, but notes, "What's cool about the Brooklyn Nets logo is that it matches with everything you wear. not too like bizarre and crazy. Who has some crazy colors out there?"