Fans, Mavs players overwhelmingly like the team’s old branding

Eventually, the Dallas Mavericks will update their identity. They’re mired in blasé blue with an uninspired logo that has lasted for nearly two decades. While the NBA is on hiatus—perhaps not to return this season—the Mavs’ social media team has been walking us down memory lane. They’ve posted old logos and jerseys and asked fans to pick their three favorites. The results are telling.

On Instagram, the Mavs posted nine of their previous logos. The first three were from the Don Carter era of the team from 1980-1996. The most iconic logo in Mavericks history, the basketball with the italicized “M” with Carter’s signature white Stetson sitting on top, took the first slot. It was a fan favorite, but it also got some recognition from someone who’s an icon of the franchise in his own right.

Dirk Nowitzki chimed in on the Mavericks’ post and said that the old logos were his favorite. His silhouette is on the court the team plays on and has a street named after him outside of the American Airlines Center. Oh, and he holds pretty much every record in team history. It’s safe to say that Dirk has some sway with the organization. It must be pretty jarring to learn that he played his entire 21-year career in Dallas while not even liking the team’s logo.

“1, 2 and 3!!!” Nowitzki commented.

Even current Mavericks center Dwight Powell chimed in on the post. Like Dirk, he gave his nod to the throwback logos.

“1, 2, and 3!” Powell said.

Many fans agreed with them.

More recently, the Mavs took to IG yet again with another such meme. This time, they posted about the team’s jerseys throughout the years. It started, like the previous post, with throwbacks to the 1980s and 1990s. Then it listed the silver jersey, which the Mavericks only wore for one game (honestly, major kudos for listing it should go to the social team), the green P. Diddy jerseys, the blue remake of those, and the Nike City Edition jerseys from the last three seasons.

Nowitzki, to my knowledge, hasn’t weighed in on this post yet. (If he has, please mention it in the comments.) At least one current player and a member of the coaching staff took the time to express their thoughts. Tim Hardaway Jr. and assistant coach God Shammgod both left comments.

“1, 2, 3,” Hardaway said, going with the old school jerseys.

Shammgod, meanwhile, threw in a curve ball, slightly deviating from all the throwback love.

“1, 2, 7,” he commented.

The No. 7 jersey is the first City Edition jersey the team produced with Nike. It’s supposed to represent the illuminated Dallas skyline at night.

Add it all up, and there’s an overwhelming love for the original duds and logos that the Mavericks rocked before the rebrand of the Mark Cuban era. While a brand refresh is certainly coming now that Nowitzki hung up his Hyperdunks, Cuban has been vocally dismissive of the fans’ interest in seeing the team go a different direction with its logo and jerseys.

“There’s this whole online Twitter thing where there’s a group of people who think that no matter what we do for the jersey, they should have been the ones designing it,” Cuban said during the press conference to introduce Chime as the team’s jersey patch sponsor.

He’s made several other similar remarks.

The Mavericks took to Twitter and Instagram themselves this time. The response might be a rude awakening for some who are holding onto the horse logo (sorry, Champ). It’s hard to refute the fans’ overwhelming support of the older designs, especially when the franchises best player sides with them.