Denver Nuggets: What are the best logos in franchise history?
By Sean Carroll
Ranking the Denver Nuggets’ logos #5 1994-2003
And immediately, the first one on the list, and I feel like I’m stepping on eggshells here. The 1994-2003 logo takes the last position in a tough competition.
When I see this logo I get two thoughts: Dikembe Mutumbo grabbing the final rebound in the first round of the playoffs to beat the one-seeded Seattle SuperSonics and then wow, gold, red, and navy… that’s a hard color scheme to sell.
The latter takes me to the first grading point, design. The logo has the right idea here; encapsulate a mountain, throw in a homage to the Colorado mining boom in the 19th century with the gold (not that the name gave it away already), and heck, while you’re there, throw a banner atop the mountain with the city name. Does it have to be such dark, depressing, 90s colors? I guess it has to, it was the 90s.
Iconicness, well I’ve spoken about the eight-seed upset with Dikembe Mutumbo which then went into a seven-game series loss to the Utah Jazz, still a great feat for an underdog. Those Mutombo teams had Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, LaPhonso Ellis, Jalen Rose for a cup of tea, and a few nice role players.
After that era finished, the Nuggets weren’t great for the rest of this logo’s lifetime. Between 1996 and 2003, the Nuggets nearly tallied the fewest wins by a team ever (11 wins in the 1997-98 season) and tied what was the NBA’s all-time single-season losing streak at the time with 23 losses. Not great.
Accompanying jerseys, well you’ve got the Mutombo and Adbul-Rauf but they both played in some of Denver’s better jerseys anyway so if you want one of their jerseys, do yourself a favor and pick the cooler one.