The Indiana Pacers aren’t usually considered “cool” by the NBA mainstream, but it is nice to see Grantland’s Zach Lowe not throw Indiana under the bus in his NBA logo power rankings.
The Pacers’ art is all no-frills, and that works in a state where the quiet choreography of the game has always been more important than the noise around it. The Pacers have the league’s smallest center-court logo, and this primary mark is so clean, it doesn’t even include the state’s name. It doesn’t have to. The ball flying over the word “Pacers” guides us to all the associations we’re supposed to make — speed, pace cars, the Indy 500, and the state of Indiana.