The Mavericks need a rebrand, but the old cowboy hat logo isn’t it.
Everyone agrees that the Dallas Mavericks are in serious need of a rebrand. Well, everyone except Mark Cuban. They’ve been sporting the blue and white horse logo for more than twenty years. The uniforms have remained essentially the same. Something has to change.
Some fans have been clamoring for a return to the cowboy hat logo of the eighties and nineties. Logos from the nineties are all the rage right now, as seen by the Detroit Pistons bringing back their teal jerseys. I’m here to convince you this is not the way.
The eighties, the first decade of the Mavericks’ existence, was fairly successful. Dallas made the playoffs five times in ten years, and made it out of the first round three of those five postseasons. That era resulted in some of the Mavericks legends we still talk about today, like Rolando Blackman, Brad Davis, Mark Aguirre, and Derek Harper. It’s the second-most successful run in franchise history, outside of the 2000s run that ended with a championship.
Unfortunately, the nineties destroyed all the immaculate vibes the cowboy hat logo had acquired during the eighties. The Mavericks never posted a winning record in the nineties. That’s right, Dallas finished under .500 for an entire decade. They won a combined 24 games in 1992-93 and 1993-94.
They drafted a trio of talented young players in Jim Jackson, Jason Kidd, and Jamal Mashburn, only to see them all leave without finding any success. The Mavericks in the nineties were the epitome of bad basketball. They were the Sacramento Kings before the Kangz existed.
The cowboy hat logo became synonymous with losing.
Dirk Nowitzki arrived in 1998, and Cuban bought the team not long after. The new owner changed the logo and color scheme to what basically remains today. The change to the blue and white horse logo came just as the Mavericks became a powerhouse in the NBA.
Going back to the cowboy hat logo is going back to a time when all the Mavericks did was lose. It’s an important piece of their history, but it needs to stay there. Luka Doncic has brought a new era of basketball to Dallas, and it deserves its own style. The Mavericks need a logo that reminds us all of Luka Magic when we see it a decade from now, much like the horse logo conjures up memories of Dirk Nowitzki dominating in the 2000s.
A new logo should embrace the future, not the past or the present. Make it happen, Mark.