Kobe Bryant NBA Logo Petition

Overview

The Kobe Bryant NBA Logo Petition is an online, fan-man campaign to encourage the officials at the National Basketball Association to change the league's official logo to a likeness of the late basketball player Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash in January 2020.

Background

On January 26th, 2020, former NBA player Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.

That day, Change.org ^[1] user Nick M launched a petition to "make Kobe Bryant the new NBA Logo." They wrote:

With the untimely and unexpected passing of the great Kobe Bryant please sign this petition in an attempt to immortalize him forever as the new NBA Logo.

Developments

Online Reaction

That day, Nick M published a link to the petition on Twitter, ^[3] where the post received more than 195 likes and 100 retweets (shown below).

Over the next few days, supporters of the change continued to post mock designs for the NBA logo, showcasing Bryant in different iconic positions from his career. Twitter^[4] user @JWepp posted a number on January 27th, receiving more than 271,000 likes and 123,000 retweets in less than two days (shown below, left). Throughout the week, others shared variations (shown below, center and right).

Within three days of the petition's launch, more than 2.7 million people have signed. According to Change.org,^[2] the petition is "the fastest-growing on Change.org." They continued, "As the world comes to terms with the death of someone as famous and well-known as Kobe Bryant, Nick has given basketball fans an outlet to create a permanent memory of someone who made history in the NBA."

Throughout the week, celebrities also began sharing their support for the change on social media. For example, pop star Justin Bieber shared an alternate logo on Instagram ^[5] with the hashtag #changethelogo. The post received more than 2.2 million likes in less than two days (shown below).

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the petition, including CNN,^[2] Yahoo,^[6] AdAge,^[7] The Daily Dot, ^[8] NBC,^[9] ABC^[10] and more.

Search Interest

Not available,

External References