National Basketball Association

Sacramento Kings: New Logos Named Finalists for Logo of the Year

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:12 p.m. ET

Fansided, Andrew Greenblatt/FanSided via Golden Gate Sports

Several new Sacramento Kings logos are up for a national award from Sportslogos.net as finalists for the logo of the year.

The Sacramento Kings have undergone a major transition as a professional basketball team in 2016.

Not only do they have a new coach and some new players, they also have a shiny new downtown arena. To complement their new digs, the Kings rebranded for a new era of Sacramento basketball.

This rebrand involved retiring their old shield logo, and creating a new wordmark to represent the team.

They kept their main color scheme of purple, black and white. Their new primary logo is essentially a reprise of the old Kings logo that featured a ball with a crown modernized for the digital age.

To go with this new primary logo, the Kings came up with a lion logo that looks very similar to that of a European soccer club. There is also a lone crown, and a lion head on a basketball.

The logos were received well at the time of release, and have all been featured on the new Kings uniforms this season.

Now that 2016 is coming to a close, the popular logo and uniform news site SportsLogos.net has announced the finalists for its own Best New Logo of 2016 Awards.

The finalists are based on user ratings on the site, which range from 1-10. There are several categories for the awards, including Primary and Alternate. The Kings new logos are up for two different awards, as announced early this week.

Here's the big one — your finalists for the best new primary team logo throughout sports in 2016 #CreamerAwards pic.twitter.com/U4CUnZUltm

— Chris Creamer (@sportslogosnet) December 19, 2016

As you can see above, the Kings new primary logo is up for one of the awards. With nearly 600 votes cast on the site, SportsLogos users have rated it an 8.0/10. Most users who commented had positive things to say about it, with many appreciating the retro feel of the new logo. The Kings face some stiff competition, ranging from the quirky Savannah Bananas and the Hartford Yard Goats to the streamlined Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Kings alternate logo is also up for an award, as the field of Best Alternate Logo finalists was unveiled.

Here are the finalists for the best new alternate/secondary team logo of 2016 #CreamerAwards pic.twitter.com/IDGqZnV7ro

— Chris Creamer (@sportslogosnet) December 19, 2016

The Kings alternate lion ball logo also has a lot of strong competition in this contest, with the San Jose Sharks coming in hot with their new logo. With multiple hockey and baseball teams in the pool of finalists, the Kings are one of the only basketball teams represented. The Kings alternate logo has over 300 ratings and holds an 8.6 rating. The comments section is overwhelmingly positive, with most glowing about how well this logo compliments the primary crown ball logo.

Now that the finalists have been named, the voting is out of the hands of users. The winning logos will be determined by a committee of highly-esteemed logo and uniform critics, including CSN Bay Area’s own Ray Ratto. Many other national writers and designers have been included on this panel.

It is expected that the panel will announce their winner sometime within the next week, so a few lucky teams may just wake up with an extra gift under the tree. The winners will receive none other than the glory of boasting that their logo was the best of 2016, and that will certainly be worth some internet buzz if nothing else.