NBA Finals – The NBA has brought back the Larry O’Brien Trophy image at midcourt for this season’s Finals games at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio and Madison Square Garden in New York, with the Finals script logo returning on both sides. The Spurs and Knicks begin th
SAN ANTONIO — For this season’s NBA Finals, the court is getting its signature look back.
With no fanfare beyond a social media announcement on Sunday, the NBA confirmed that the Larry O’Brien Trophy image—given to the winner of the Finals—will be painted at midcourt for games at both the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio and Madison Square Garden in New York.
Alongside it, the script logo for “The Finals” will appear on either side of the court.
The series between the Spurs and Knicks starts Wednesday in San Antonio. setting the tone for a Finals presentation that fans had asked to see more consistently in recent years. The league has alternated courts for certain events such as NBA Cup games. but for the title series. some supporters had complained that the Finals lacked the kind of distinctive markings that make it feel separate from the rest of the schedule.
This return includes a detail fans may notice immediately: the center-court trophy logo will be integrated with the participating team’s own branding, adding a new twist to the traditional look.
It is also a throwback moment in the NBA’s own timeline. The Finals featuring the trophy logo at midcourt last appeared in the 2009 Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic. Before that. the finals wordmark and logo last showed up on the court during the 2014 Finals between the Spurs and the Miami Heat.
The league’s history of how it has presented the Finals on the floor is specific. The finals wordmark began appearing on the court for the title round in 1989. A combined wordmark and trophy followed in 2004, and from 2005 through 2009, the trophy logo sat prominently at midcourt.
Now, those complaints about missing “Finals flair” get a clear answer—at least for the Spurs- Knicks matchup—and the court in San Antonio will carry the trophy image and “The Finals” branding when the series tips off Wednesday.
NBA Finals Larry O'Brien Trophy San Antonio Frost Bank Center Madison Square Garden Spurs Knicks court logos The Finals wordmark