On Tuesday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets started off the 2025-26 NBA season with a bang by playing an epic double overtime game, which the Thunder eventually won due to late Shai Gilgeous-Alexander free throws. Prior to the game, the Thunder had celebrated their NBA Finals win from a season ago by receiving their championship rings and lifting the banner to the rafters.
Speaking of championships, one thing that fans have been complaining about for the better part of two decades now is that the NBA has stopped painting the Larry O'Brien Trophy and NBA Finals logo onto the court for Finals games for the last 16 years.
However, on Wednesday, fans who had been clamoring for that to change finally got their wish.
“The NBA will return to painting the Larry O'Brien trophy at center court and Finals script logo on the home team's floor for the Finals starting this season, per sources. The last time the large trophy was painted on court was 2009,” reported ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania on X, formerly Twitter.
Needless to say, fans in the comment section were ecstatic.
“We’ve been waiting for this tweet for 15 years,” wrote one fan.
“Our long national nightmare is over,” wrote another.
There indeed appears to be something both sentimental and iconic about the gold trophy painted over the logo during NBA Finals games that gives the contests a special feel that isn't present in other games. The last time the logos were painted onto the court, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic four games to one in the 2009 Finals to win Kobe Bryant his fourth NBA championship.
Fans of all 30 teams will be hoping this season that the iconic logo graces their court in about eight months from now when the NBA Finals get underway.