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Report: Nike pressuring Thunder to revamp team logo

REUTERS/Bill Waugh / reuters

The shield with ambiguous bolts shooting across the background simply won't cut it for the league's soon-to-be jersey provider.

Nike isn't thrilled with the Oklahoma City Thunder's logo, and they're hoping to overhaul the design, Grantland's Zach Lowe reports.

From Lowe's column on NBA logos:

... Nike will push for an overhaul once it replaces Adidas as the league’s apparel partner in 2017. Nike and the Thunder are already talking, and the Thunder “haven’t ruled out” a more explicit weather-related secondary mark, (Thunder vice-president for sales and marketing Brian Byrnes) says.

Bad news: Oklahoma City seems locked into the shield motif and likely won’t replace it with a bison - or anything else. "To some extent, we are committed to the idea we have," Byrnes says. "But we would not dismiss good feedback, particularly from Nike. We’re open to modernizing the logo, but we don’t have an appetite to overhaul it."

As Lowe notes, Adidas is ending their partnership with the NBA after the 2016-17 season. Nike won the bid to take over NBA apparel and will become the league's official on-court sponsor after signing a mammoth $1-billion deal in June.

With Nike gaining such clout, it will be increasingly difficult for the Thunder to stick with their current design.

As Lowe hints, a redesign centered around a bison motif could be an option. That would be congruent with the Thunder's mascot, "Rumble the Bison."

However, sticking with the status quo remains the plan for the Thunder, who seem rather attached to their current design. The root form of their shield and streaks design is featured in every partial and alternate logo scheme, and their D-League affiliate sports a very similar logo.

It's also worth mentioning that the Thunder are one of the league's most visible franchises. They boast two of the league's best players in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, and, when healthy, they've proven to be a perennial threat to win the NBA Championship. That success puts the Thunder's logo front and center in the league's spotlight.

The Thunder adopted their logo, and name, after the Seattle SuperSonics were uprooted and replanted in Oklahoma City in 2008.

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