NBA Commissioner Finally Addresses Finals Court Debate Before Game 2
Every year during the NBA Finals, fans point out the same thing: there's nothing on the court that shows it's the Finals.
Advertisement
The league used to place a large Larry O'Brien Trophy logo at center court, giving the series a unique look. That lasted through 2009. In 2010, the NBA switched to a smaller "The Finals" script logo along the sideline, but even that stopped in 2014.
The chatter from fans has continued through these NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. With two smaller market teams facing off and no Finals logo in sight, Game 1 felt more like a regular-season game.
General view of the Finals logo on the court prior to game four of the 2014 NBA Finals.© Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
On Friday, two days before Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver finally addressed the topic while attending an NBA Cares charity event at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County.
Advertisement
Silver admitted the league will look at bringing the Finals logo back next season.
"I think for a media-driven culture, whether it's people watching live or seeing those images on social media, it's nice when you're looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that trophy logo or some other indication that it's a special event. So, we'll look at it," Silver told reporters via Sam Amick on The Athletic.
Silver also shared the reason the NBA stopped putting the Finals logo on the court, citing "slipperiness."
"One of the reasons we moved away from the logos on the courts is — whether it was perception or reality — there was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court, and it was a change sort of on the court that was coming just at the time of the finals," Silver added.
Advertisement
"Maybe it's for superstitious reasons or just a sense from teams that we shouldn't be changing things around such important competition. That's largely why we stopped putting the logos on the court."
Related: Tyrese Haliburton's Girlfriend Jade Jones Flexes NBA Finals Outfit with One Word
Related: Tyrese Haliburton's Postgame Moment with His Dad Is Turning Heads
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
25 minutes ago
- USA Today
Chet Holmgren has NBA 2K26 rating revealed
The NBA is in its driest part of the calendar, which means NBA 2K has taken advantage of it. In anticipation of the NBA 2K26 release, the annual video game has slowly rolled out the top 100 rated players. It's a tradition that sparks conversations as fans across the league argue their guy should be higher. After winning an NBA championship, the Oklahoma City Thunder are prominently featured in the list. They have five players among the top 100. That shouldn't be a surprise. After all, they had one of the greatest seasons ever with a historic 68-14 regular-season record and a Larry O'Brien trophy. One of those top 100 players is Chet Holmgren. He has an 88 overall rating, which ranks No. 31. Other Thunder players in the top 100 are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort and Isaiah Hartenstein. An injury-plagued regular season became a distant memory in the playoffs. Holmgren helped the Thunder capture a championship by being the third-best player on the eventual title winner. The 23-year-old averaged 15 points, eight rebounds and 2.2 blocks. Even with injuries, Holmgren has lived up to his hype. He's been one of the best defensive players since entering the league and has a unique combination of size and skill on the offensive end. The Thunder signed him to a contract extension this past summer to keep him around for the long-term future.
USA Today
25 minutes ago
- USA Today
Today in Boston Celtics history: Jerryd Bayless, Si Green, Quinn Buckner born
Today in Boston Celtics history, guard alum Jerryd Bayless was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1988. Bayless played his NCAA basketball with the Arizona Wildcats for a single season before he entered the 2008 NBA Draft, where he was picked up with the 11th overall pick by the Indiana Pacers. The Phoenix native never suited up for the Pacers, dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers soon after the draft was over. He also played for the (then) New Orleans Hornets (now, Pelicans), Toronto Raptors, and Memphis Grizzlies before the latter ball club sent Bayless to Boston in a trade that netted the Celtics 3-and-D wing Courtney Lee. Bayless would play just one season for the Celtics, playing 41 games and starting 14 of them. He averaged 10.1 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 3.1 assists while with the Celtics, leaving in free agency next summer to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks. Other birthdays It is also the birthday of former Celtic guard Sihugo Green, born in New York City in 1933. An alum of Duquesne, Green was the No. 1 overall pick of the 1956 NBA Draft, taken by the (then) Rochester Royals (now, Sacramento Kings). The New Yorker played for the Royals after their move to Cincinnati, the St. Louis Hawks before they relocated to Atlanta, and the defunct Chicago Packers, Zephyrs, and the also-defunct Baltimore Bullets before joining the Celtics via trade in 1965. The last stop of his career, Green averaged 3.2 points and 1.1 rebounds per game as a Celtic, retiring afterward. Finally, it is also the birthday of ex-Celtic guard Quinn Buckner, born today in 1954 in Phoenix, Illinois. Buckner played college ball with the Indiana Hoosiers, where he won an NCAA championship, and was drafted seventh overall in the 1976 NBA Draft by the Bucks. He was dealt to the Celtics in 1982, and won a title in his second of three seasons with Boston. The Indiana alum would average 4.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 2.8 assists, traded to the Indiana Pacers in 1983.
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The Spurs are the league's new young core with expectations
With a little over a month to go to training camp, talking heads and experts around the NBA are starting to make their predictions for next season. Every offseason, people ask the same questions. Which team that didn't make the playoffs last year will make it next season? What young team is ready to make the leap? This summer, the answer to those questions has almost unequivocally been the San Antonio Spurs. Former players like Jeff Teague and national talking heads like Zach Lowe have said the Spurs are a team likely to go from playing for lottery odds to playoff seeding. San Antonio's win total has been set at 43.5 by most sports books. Last season, 43 wins would earn a Western Conference team the 9th seed and a spot in the Play-In Tournament. The hype is on the Spurs' side. We've seen this before. The Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, and Memphis Grizzlies, in recent memory, went from plucky young squad to a playoff team written in Sharpie by the national media. Those teams all had multiple young stars and an exciting young core. San Antonio follows in those footsteps with Victor Wembanyama and De'Aaron Fox leading the way, backed up by a young core of Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, and Jeremy Sochan. But are the Spurs ready to make that leap? They were just 5 games out of the play-in last season, and you could argue that had Wembanyama and Fox not experienced season-ending injuries, San Antonio was in line to earn a play-in spot. A full season with their stars, a second-year leap from Castle, and contributions from new additions like Harper, Luke Kornet, and Kelly Olynyk, even in a tough Western Conference, could be enough to help them live up to the hype. It'll be a make-or-break season for a lot of Spurs, and those expectations could help them sink or swim. Harrison Barnes is entering a contract year and is no stranger to playing on contending teams. Sochan has yet to sign his contract extension. If he doesn't, he's slated for restricted free agency in the summer of 2026, and just ask Josh Giddey and Jonathan Kuminga how that has turned out for them. He needs to have a big season if he wants leverage in contract disputes next year. Even Vassell, who is locked into a solid contract, could feel pressure to keep his spot in the starting lineup, and could face harsher scrutiny if he goes on a cold streak. Expectations for young teams bring about criticism. With Wembanyama, the Spurs will be under the magnifying glass of the national media all season long. With 22 nationally televised games, the team will be under the critical eye of fans who don't watch the team night in and night out. This team has the talent to handle it. They wouldn't be identified as the young team to watch if they didn't. This Spurs squad has officially moved out of the intriguing young core, to a legit playoff contender in the West.
