Second Thoughts

No more nice with its logo, team appeals

The new Minnesota Timberwolves logo, designed by Rodney Richardson, isn’t in tune with the “Minnesota Nice” motto that has described the people in the region. Instead, Richardson went with an edgier look that features a wolf howling at a ball.
The new Minnesota Timberwolves logo, designed by Rodney Richardson, isn’t in tune with the “Minnesota Nice” motto that has described the people in the region. Instead, Richardson went with an edgier look that features a wolf howling at a ball.

When designer Rodney Richardson made the trek from Hattiesburg, Miss., to Minneapolis to further his research in the rebranding of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, he heard a familiar phrase over and over again.

The motto "Minnesota Nice" serves as both genuine praise for the genial dispositions of the people in the region and a patronizing pat on the back to those who hang around despite the frigid winters. During his conversations with people inside and outside the organization, Richardson said politeness would eventually give way to urgency when talking about their favorite basketball team.

"I'm tired of being Minnesota Nice," Richardson said he was told again and again in an interview with The Associated Press. "No more Minnesota Nice guy. I'm ready to snarl a little bit. I'm ready to break out."

That undercurrent of tension combined with an excitement about the young team's future to inform him as he went about a months-long process of designing a new Timberwolves logo that was unveiled Tuesday night, featuring a midnight blue wolf howling at a slate blue ball with an aurora green North Star in the seam.

One of the most sought-after designers in the business, Richardson has presided over redesigns for the Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans. What separated the Wolves for Richardson was the amount of Minnesota natives who work for the franchise and yearned to see a more competitive team represent the Twin Cities.

"I sensed it from them. They're hungry and they want this," Richardson said. "That's very much a part of where we are now."

Richardson and his team at RARE Design spent five months researching and sent "dozens of dozens" of iterations of a new logo to the Wolves during the process. In the end, the Timberwolves chose a design that was more "evolution than revolution."

"It pays homage to past marks, it represents some of the look and feel of some of the marks you've seen in the past, and yet it's new, it's fresh, it's modern, it's going to be more of a symbol and an identifier of what the future of the franchise looks like," Timberwolves CEO Ethan Casson said. "You've got to really strike that balance."

Chop, stop

After an interstate highway bridge collapse had already dealt a tomahawk chop to Atlanta traffic, some toy tomahawks clogged up the roadway Wednesday.

Authorities say a load of Atlanta Braves foam tomahawks fell from a truck shortly before noon Wednesday, delaying traffic on a freeway near the team's new stadium.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the toy tomahawks caused delays in the south lanes of Interstate 75 in Cobb County.

Georgia Department of Transportation officials said the boxes that fell and spilled onto the roadway blocked two left lanes for nearly an hour.

The lanes were cleared by early Wednesday afternoon.

On March 30, a section of Interstate 85 collapsed amid a massive fire, leading to ongoing traffic congestion in the city. Reconstruction is expected to take several weeks.

SPORTS QUIZ

What two cities hosted the 1991 World Series?

ANSWER

Atlanta and Minneapolis. The Minnesota Twins, who play in Minneapolis, defeated the Atlanta Braves in seven games for their second World Series title.

Sports on 04/13/2017

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