Who could follow Atlanta by reviving old logo

The Atlanta Hawks’ new secondary logo doesn’t belong. The revised version of their 1972-95 logo isn’t a natural fit with their current primary, which is staying put, and doesn’t gel with the Hawks’ generally busy look.

But it is a good logo, albeit mildly inferior to the original version. It’s now easier to recognise the hawk, thanks to the neck detail, the curvier beak and the meaner eye. Those changes slightly subtract from the strongpoints of the original: its simplicity and vagueness. The Hawks emphasised how the

The new Hawks secondary logo

old logo could be confused for something else by referring to it as the “Pac” logo. This potential for misinterpretation was part of the logo’s appeal.

It’s still attractive though, and maybe more simplicity will do Atlanta good. Being a secondary logo that was just introduced, it’s tough to tell how prominently it’ll be used: it might end up largely unseen apart from fan merchandise.

There aren’t many other NBA teams that are good candidates for a similar logo restoration. Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee and Minnesota all have primary logos from their past that could be returned with minimal or no tweaking. But those four teams would benefit much more from an overhaul to accompany the logo resurrection, as opposed to just adding an old logo to the fray, like Atlanta did.

The two teams best suited to following Atlanta are Philadelphia and Phoenix. The 76ers could return their 1963-77 primary as a secondary logo. It’s an obvious fit with their current logos. Importantly, it’s simple, which would be a nice alternative to the annoyingly clunky primary they use now.

The Suns could bring back a slightly altered version of their 1968-92 secondary. It’s a slightly random but charmingly simple logo that could fit their current look with some tweaking of the font and colours. As a bonus, it could replace Phoenix’s current, unsightly secondaries. Like the Hawks’ new secondary – but unlike the 76ers suggestion above – this Suns logo wouldn’t really fit with the team’s uniforms. But with so many potential locations for secondaries, that’s no problem.