The great Jerry West died Wednesday at age 86, and there's only one way for the NBA to honor him: Tell the world he's "The Logo."
A Basketball Hall of Famer as a player and executive, West was a 15-time All-Star and led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA Finals nine times. He finally won his long-awaited NBA championship in 1972.
In 1969, the NBA had designer Alan Siegel come up with a logo for the league. Siegel came up with the silhouette that remains the NBA logo today.
In 2010, Siegel revealed to the Los Angeles Times that he used a photo of a dribbling West as inspiration for the logo, having pulled the picture, taken by photographer Wen Roberts, from the archives of Sport Magazine.
"It had a nice flavor to it, so I took that picture, and we traced it," Siegel told columnist Jerry Crowe. "It was perfect. It was vertical, and it just had a sense of movement. It was just one of things that clicked."
The NBA said it had no records stating the logo was West, and then-commissioner David Stern said he was uncertain.
But when comparing the photo Siegel said he used for the logo, it's obvious.
"They want to institutionalize it, rather than individualize it," Siegel said at the time "It has become such a ubiquitous, classic symbol and focal point of their identity and their licensing program that they don't necessarily want to identify it as one player."
The question is: What would the NBA have to lose by saying West inspired the logo?
Well, if any drawing, that is being filed as a trademark, portrays a living individual, the filing authority must have permission from that person. There's also a potential need for an agreement and potential compensation.
But what's interesting about West is that he didn't seem to care. He told Crowe at the time that "if that's me, I'm extremely flattered."
West also said he wouldn't mind if the logo got replaced. It wasn't that important to him.
"If they [NBA] would want to change it, I wish they would," West once said on ESPN's "The Jump." "In many ways, I wish they would."
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben told cllct that it's more likely West's estate would behave in the manner that West did and wouldn't try to squeeze the league in any way. But Gerben said the NBA is also likely protected by estoppel and latches, legal terms for behaving differently and not acting for an unreasonable amount of time.
It was understandable that Jerry West, one of the greatest players of all time, didn't want to be called "The Logo." But now that he's gone, the league should give him that respect.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.