NBA Commissioner Finally Addresses Finals Court Debate Before Game 2

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Spencer Ostrow | Last updated Jun 7, 2025 12:34 PM ET

Every year during the NBA Finals, fans point out the same thing: there’s nothing on the court that shows it’s the Finals.

The league used to place a large Larry O’Brien Trophy logo at center court, giving the series a unique look. That lasted through 2009. In 2010, the NBA switched to a smaller "The Finals" script logo along the sideline, but even that stopped in 2014.

The chatter from fans has continued through these NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. With two smaller market teams facing off and no Finals logo in sight, Game 1 felt more like a regular-season game.

On Friday, two days before Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver finally addressed the topic while attending an NBA Cares charity event at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County.

Silver admitted the league will look at bringing the Finals logo back next season.

"I think for a media-driven culture, whether it’s people watching live or seeing those images on social media, it’s nice when you’re looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that trophy logo or some other indication that it’s a special event. So, we’ll look at it," Silver told reporters via Sam Amick on The Athletic.

Silver also shared the reason the NBA stopped putting the Finals logo on the court, citing "slipperiness."

"One of the reasons we moved away from the logos on the courts is — whether it was perception or reality — there was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court, and it was a change sort of on the court that was coming just at the time of the finals," Silver added.

"Maybe it’s for superstitious reasons or just a sense from teams that we shouldn’t be changing things around such important competition. That’s largely why we stopped putting the logos on the court."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: