The Oklahoma City Thunder are entering a new era, which has caused fans over the last few years to push for a rebrand to symbolize a new beginning.
Since revealing the logo and nickname, the Thunder have been heavily criticized for the team’s identification — citing a lack of creativity and historical ties to OKC.
Buy Thunder TicketsDuring his 2023-24 preseason presser, Thunder general manager Sam Presti spoke about the possibility of potentially rebranding. While he didn’t completely rule out it in the future, he said a rebrand would feel like starting over.
“I would never say no to that. I do think that when you start a franchise from nothing, it is important — I think if you start chasing your tail on some of that, and we have to give ourselves a chance for the identity of the team to become kind of entrenched a little bit, certainly I think there’s a time for re-looking at that kind of thing, and if we do, I think we’ll do a very expert job but also a very thoughtful job.
But also making sure we stay true to who we are.
But I used to say this all the time in our earlier days, like the cement is not dry. We’re really only 15 years, going into 16 years. I think 80% of the history of the NBA has been played without the Thunder, OK, so we’re still the new people on the block here.
Letting that sink in a little bit I do think is important. I understand there’s some people that love our logo, don’t love our logo. That’s OK. If you have an opinion, we’re happy about that. You care. That logo means a lot to a lot of different people.
But change is part of progress, too, so at some point I’m sure we’ll look at that. But we’ve also — I think we’ve also evolved, as well, and this will be just another way we do that at some point.”
Presti did an excellent job at handling a touchy — albeit trivial — subject with diplomacy. He acknowledged it might not be the most popular logo, but its tenure has helped give OKC an identity with its first pro sports team.
