For the Love of Logos: The BIG3

Written by Zeke Perez Jr.

​As I’ve written about here before, I’m obsessed with sports logos. As a kid, I was especially in awe of throwback logos. The history of what teams used to wear always pulled me in, especially as I saw some of the wacky, cartoony, and colorful logos of the past. On the flip side of admiring vintage logos, opportunities to observe new logos hot off the presses are few and far between. Sure, you may get the occasional expansion franchise or witness an existing team’s rebranding, but you rarely see a new league with multiple teams unveiling their logos all at once. Lucky for us, the new BIG3 basketball league gives us that chance this year.
 
A staple of asphalt hoops all around the country, three-on-three basketball is surging to bigger stages in 2017. First, rapper/actor/legend/now sports mogul Ice Cube announced plans for a three-on-three basketball league featuring some of the greatest former NBA players. Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups, Dr. J, Kenyon Martin, fan-favorite Brian Scalabrine, Clyde Drexler, and more are all joining the BIG3 league as players and/or coaches. Then, the International Olympic Committee announced the addition of three-on-three basketball to the Summer Olympics beginning in 2020. The sport is booming, but that’s a story for another time. For now, I’m going to dig into the BIG3’s team names and logos. 

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Big Trends

• Location, location, location…?: Sports teams often have names that are location-based or relevant. Team names make reference to local animals (Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans), historical events (Philadelphia 76ers), industries (Houston Rockets), or geographical nicknames (Golden State). The BIG3 is in an interesting situation in this respect, as the teams don’t have a home city. Games take place over ten weeks, showcased in a new city each time. Teams can’t be named after a home they don’t have.
• For One…Two…THREEEEE!: There’s a lot of uniformity in team names in the league. In lieu of location-related team names, five of the eight teams in the league play on the unique sport with team names related to the number three.
• Color Combos: A number of teams in the league feature really nice color palettes. The Killer 3's use a classic black/yellow combo, while Tri-State goes with the always clean red/white/blue. The Trilogy’s red/black/white and the 3 Headed Monsters purple/gold/green make for nice pairings not often seen in the sports world. The Ghost Ballers, Power, and 3’s Company seem to borrow schemes from the Kings, Magic, and Knicks, respectively.

Logo and Name Thoughts

• Ball Hogs: A hog wearing a headband holding a basketball? I’m all for it! This logo is the one I’d be most likely to rock a cap or a shirt for.
• Ghost Ballers: Very unique and very awesome. How often have you see an archetypal 'sheet with three holes cut in it' ghost with a headband dribbling a ball? Not often enough! The purple/black/white colors work well too.
• Killer 3's: This one’s got it all! Fits with the three theme, cool rhyming play on words (i.e. killer bees), an amazing logo, and a classic color combination.
• 3 Headed Monsters: A mythical creature, an exciting font, and a cool color scheme make this one an easy favorite.
• Power: This one is a little 'meh' to me. It’s easily the most plain of the bunch. The name is pretty cool, but the logo leaves something to be desired.
• 3’s Company: Not bad. It’s a cool 3-D look and the industrial building meshes well with the company name. An industrial building isn’t as striking as skylines in other logos, but it works.
• Tri-State: Great color scheme and nice, simple logo, but not my favorite name of the bunch. It’s unclear what Tri-State refers to. Feels like it was a stretch just for the sake of having a three-themed name.
• Trilogy: Definitely a favorite. The font used for the wordmark is reminiscent of an old fashioned horror B-movie poster. Aside from the horror movie look, the trilogy name doesn’t necessarily seem to tie in to the eyeball basketball, but it’s still pretty great.

It’s fitting that team names and logos never seen before belong to a league with a revolutionary take on professional basketball.  To see these logos and the legends repping them in action, check out the BIG3 starting on June 25th, televised on Fox Sports.