Following the death of NBA legend Jerry West a few weeks ago, the news was full of stories about how he was the unacknowledged silhouette in the iconic NBA logo. I took that as the perfect opportunity to confess that a well-known tennis player also inspired the logo for this site. That post also launched a contest challenging people to correctly identify the player. Carol Williams and Steve McGinnis are our two winners, and their highly coveted Fiend at Court embroidered hats are in the mail.
The correct answer is Nick Kyrgios. In fact, the artist used the following image as inspiration. The resemblance is striking. (I cannot help myself.)
One clue that put some people on the right track was mentioning that the artwork was initially created for BleepingTennis.com. That generated several reasonable guesses of John McEnroe. Another fact that could have put people onto that player is a post about how the idea for this rules-oriented blog came to me while listening to a “Sleep Story” about the rules of tennis that McEnroe recorded for the Calm app.
One of the things I like about my logo is the ambiguity of what the player is doing. That was reflected in several of the well-considered guesses. For example, if you think the player is finishing up a buggy whip follow-through, it could certainly be Rafael Nadal or Steffi Graf. The idea that the stroke might be a serve likely inspired a guess of Pete Sampras. Of course, with the disclosure of the photo in this post, we all now know that the player is smashing a racquet.
As a fun aside, I once had an actual graphic design artist offer to “fix” the logo to make the tennis stroke look “more natural.” I told her I love the logo exactly the way it is and have no plans to change it.
This is also a chance to observe how good Kyrgios is as a tennis commentator. I have been impressed by his work at the ATP Finals, the Australian Open, and recently at Wimbledon. He brings a refreshing and insightful perspective to tennis in a candid and irreverent style.
As it turns out, that is exactly what I am trying to deliver with this site.
