Thunder: Diminished role/uncertain future
Looks like Thunder -- the Warriors’ mascot, that is -- is on his own. If he's as smart as he is strong, he's thinking head-hunter right now.
He doesn’t seem to be getting any love these days from the NBA … or his hometown team, the Warriors.
On Wednesday, the NBA officially named its Oklahoma City team Thunder.
“Thunder” also happens to be the name of the Warriors’ mascot, first introduced by the team in 1997. That would seem to be a conflict. Not a big one, mind you, but one in need of addressing.
Commissioner David Stern can make a mascot go away just like that, after all. Right?
Problem is, Thunder is different; he’s not your run-of-the-mill mascot.
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The Warriors' first logo love: the "Flying W"
In fact, he’s quite unique.
Thunder is actually part of the Warriors’ primary logo -- central to it, in fact -- and he happens to be the only mascot in the entire league with such a distinction. So, he’s NBA-approved and all that stuff.
Right now, there is a team in the Northwest Division named the Oklahoma City Thunder and another team in the Pacific division with a mascot named Thunder, who just happens to be the only mascot in the league featured on his team’s logo.
A spokesman for the league said the NBA didn’t view it as an “identity conflict.”
Tell that to Thunder. He knows his identity. He’s the one who scares the kids, dances at inappropriate times and puts the lampshade on his bolt-head during crunch-time.
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Rarely seen around 1011 Broadway, Oakland
Anyway, you might think the Warriors would be a little wound up over all this. Not necessarily. They don’t seem to be too crazy about Thunder, themselves.
It turns out that for the past few years the Warriors have been trying to make their secondary logo -- the “Flying W” -- their primary logo. But the NBA has demanded upwards of $500,000 for the switcheroo.
Instead, the Warriors use their secondary logo -- the one without Thunder -- all the time. And when we say all the time, we mean all the time. There is not one image of the Warriors’ primary logo in their 2007-08 media guide.
In other words, not only doesn’t the NBA care about Thunder, but the Warriors may be pushing him out the door, too.
Comments
The warriors love thunder as their mascot. But they pushed him out of their logo as the nba moved on from the late 90's comic book uniforms.
Once again the NBA shows the warriors no love.
Maybe after this they will come up with a new rule. Stating no naming your team after another team's mascot. The warriors will just be kept around for creating new rules. Hey it worked with Arenas didn't it.
Again, Thunder is an awful mid-90's power ranger. But, he's just part of the problem. The Warriors are really in need of a full redesign -- new logos, new mascot, and new uniforms as well. Baron's gone. Thunder doesn't work anymore. Monta's being shady. Jack is complaining. It's time for something positive and good and reenergizing this offseason.
Of course, as you seem to be suggesting here, Matt, the Warriors won't even pay $500k to ditch their terrible primary logo. Instead, they're utilizing that oversized cartoonish "W" and pointless lightning bolt (how long before the OKC Thunder franchise starts utilizing lightning bolts in their logos and marketing stuff as well?).
And it's not as though the Warriors don't have money to spend. How much money did they dish out this offseason? When it comes to quality v. cheap the Warriors are definitely the Harvey Dent of NBA. You just don't know who is going to show up on any given issue involving money.
Anyway, just to reemphasize our team's cheap cheap cheap approach to things in comparison to another team's well-executed marketing over the offseason, I give you the New Orleans Horents promo video:
http://www.nba.com/hornets/0809rebirth.html
yo matt,
for future reference, 'very unique' = redundant. It's like saying something is really one of a kind.
Keep up the good work.
Good riddance Thunder!! That is one WEAK mascot.What does "Thunder" have to do with "Warriors" ?! Let's get a real mascot-some type of WARRIOR-LIKE OUR NAME both on our logo and running around the Oracle !!
I think this is a great opportunity for the Warriors to ditch the mascot and both logos. The Warriors need to go back to the blue and white uni's (think the hardwood classic jerseys). Modernize them a bit, but the logos and uni's they have now look cheap and cartoon-ish. Don't overlook how a uniform defines an orginizations professionalism and how the rest of the league perceives them. Think of the top teams in the league and how there uni's are classic yet simple. Boston, San Antonio, and LA are all top tier teams and there jerseys are ones any professional basketball would love to represent. Mullin, Nellie and the rest of management have done an good job of changing the horrible culture that surrounded Golden State for too long, but as of right now, they are not even close to being a championship level team and that I know is the ultimate goal. Change the look of the uni's and it's one more step in changing the losing culture the stunk up the Bay Area for over a decade. Classic, simplistic uni's show professionalism and confidence. It's time for a Warrior make-over and Oklahoma City just handed us the perfect opportunity to do this.
Thunder is not, as you claim, the only mascot in the NBA with the distinction of being central to his team's primary logo. Hugo the Hornet is even more prominently central to the Hornet's primary logo, and has been since the early days in Charlotte.
In addition to J.C's comment, the Raptors have had that dinosaur on their logo since the team's inception and used the raptor as their mascot.
What I really don't understand is why OKC didn't name their franchise the OKC Lightning, because articles were written shortly after to promote the team, with titles like, "Thunder Strikes in OKC." Thunder doesn't strike...
Taking a page out of Washington's history, when they deemed the "Bullets" too offensive, I would have liked to see a public fan-vote on the new OKC name, just to see what other names were in the running.
http://www.examiner.com/x-601-Washington-Wizards-Examiner~y2008m9d4-Thunder-prevails-2008-class
i love the warriors, but thunder is the worst mascot of any professional club i've yet to see.
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