The NBA postseason trophies have a new look. On Thursday, the NBA announced six trophies got a makeover, including the Larry O’Brien Trophy, which is given to the winning team of the NBA Finals. Additionally, the league announced there will be trophies for the Eastern and Western Conference MVP. The Eastern Conference MVP trophy will be named Larry Bird, and the Western Conference MVP trophy will be named after Magic Johnson.
“Our minds were on what the trophy should look like and how heavy they should be,” Christopher Arena, the NBA’s head of on-court and brand partnerships, who spearheaded the project, said in a statement. “We wanted to explore and start a new 75 years and bring some aesthetic consistency to that and have some meaning behind all the trophies we had.”
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“Symbolically, the trophy represents the end of a journey that these athletes go on, and I felt the symbols to celebrate the players had been under-celebrated,” Victor Solomon, the artist who help designed the trophies, said. “It was very exciting and unprecedented to be able to push the boundaries and (figure out) what materials need to be and don’t need to be associated with it and what we needed to do to create a cohesive collection of trophies. Here we have every trophy having a relationship with the other one.” Here’s a look at the resigned trophies.
NBA Finals Trophy
One person wrote: “This is cool because it has enough space for the next 25 champions, then by time that comes around it’ll be the 100th anniversary and they’ll probably change it again.”
Eastern and Western Conference MVP Trophies
One person responded: “And the finals MVP award should be changed from Bill Russell’s name to Michael Jordan’s seeing as he’s won it the most times.”
NBA Finals MVP
One fan wrote: “So fitting that MVPs are named after players that played their whole careers with 2 of the greatest NBA franchises ever to have MVPs named after them, Kobe has All Star MVP named after him, Bill Russell has the Finals MVP named after him, now Magic & Larry after Conference MVPs.”
Conference Championship Trophies
One fan said: “I really don’t get it with these conference finals awards. Nothing wrong with them, just why tho? Is it for people on Twitter to award pad their favorite player when they are making a case for how good they are?”
Larry Bird’s Reaction
One fan said: “I always found Bird a pretty funny guy. I am still kinda amazed at the lack of respect he still gets from some younger/young-ish basketball fans and even some older ones.”
Magic Johnson’s Reaction
One fan responded: “You are a humble living legend that changed the game ( showtime) and showed us how to laugh and smile while taking on the biggest challenge at that time ( Bird and the Celtics)We [love] you and always will.”
Overview
And this fan wrote: “I’m ok with everything but the NBA Championship Trophy and The Bill Russell FinalsVP Trophy changes. It wasn’t broke why did you fix it?”
