The Best and Worst Mascots of the NBA

Now that the NFL season is over many people are searching for things to talk about. And of course none of us want to hear the media talking about the Patriots quest for perfection next year.

The NBA season is now well underway and approaching the All-Star Break, so I figured I would give my take on some of the team's mascots. I randomly chose 10 teams and evaluated their mascots in 5 categories on a scale of 1-10. Counting down from #10 we start off with the San Antonio Spurs.

10. San Antonio Spurs

Name: 3; The Coyote

Head: 2; The eyes are unnecessarily big and the head is not shaped like a coyotes.

Clothing: 1; No pants and chicken legs? This isn’t No-Pants-Sunday!

Color Scheme: 4; Not flashy at all.

Other: 3; This thing looks extremely gay and really doesn’t have anything going for him.

Total: 13

9. Sacramento Kings

Name: 7; Slamson

Head: 2; Slamson probably has one of the worst looking mascot heads in all of sports.

Clothing: 5; Wearing the teams jersey is not too original.

Color Scheme: 5; Basic lion colors and normal kings jersey provide nothing special

Other: 6; Lions are the king of the jungle, so I guess this mascot makes sense.

Total: 25

8. Philidelphia 76ers

Name: 4; Hip-Hop

Head: 1; Hip-Hop’s head is not proportionate to this large body.

Clothing: 9; 76 is a clever number and the sunglasses and bandanna combo is really badass.

Color Scheme: 5; If I had to choose, I would give him a red body rather than a dull gray.

Other: 6; He looks like a wrestler with the huge guns and bandanna and the buckteeth look like they could do some serious damage.

Total: 26

7. Orlando Magic

Name: 8; Stuff the Magic Dragon

Head: 7; The blue unibrow and stars on top make a great trademark.

Clothing: 5; His pinstripe shirt with his name on the front is pretty average.

Color Scheme: 4; Stuff would look much better if he were blue instead of green.

Other: 3; Pink wings? I’m not feelin’ it. And he looks too similar to the Philly Phanatic.

Total: 27

6. Houston Rockets

Name: 6; Clutch

Head: 3; I’m not sure if Clutch looks more like a Teletubby or a Care Bear.

Clothing: 8; 00 is a sweet number and the shoes are classics.

Color Scheme: 7; Basic but effective.

Other: 4; Clutch is probably one of the least intimidating mascots in the league. Bears = Rockets? I have to admit the beer belly is pretty original.

Total: 28

5. Toronto Raptors

Name: 4; The Raptor

Head: 7; Intimidating head with lots of big teeth.

Clothing: 4; He should have raptor feet with claws instead of tennis shoes.

Color Scheme: 7; The red is very attractive and I’m glad they cut out the purple.

Other: 9; The Raptor also has an Ollie-like form, which you can see dancing here.

Total: 31

4. Indiana Pacers

Name: 10; Boomer

Head: 9; The long whiskers and yellow mop head really make Boomer interesting.

Clothing: 5; The pacers have sharp jerseys and 00 is a good number choice but the basic tennis shoes really hurt Boomer in this category.

Color Scheme: 8; Boomer’s covered in the team’s different colors and really makes him a flashy mascot.

Other: 7; I can’t really find many flaws in Boomer. He looks pretty athletic and would most likely dominate all other mascots in a real basketball game.

Total: 39

3. Seattle SuperSonics

Name: 9; Squatch

Head: 8; Looks like Chewbacca.

Clothing: 6; Wearing nothing but the jersey is a good call for a Bigfoot type mascot.

Color Scheme: 7; Dull but very realistic hair.

Other: 10; Squatch gets bonus points for his number being a foot. He also looks like the thing from the beef jerky commercial.

Total: 40

2. Utah Jazz

Name: 3; Bear

Head: 10; I think the squinting look makes him look tough and the bandanna makes him look like a warrior.

Clothing: 10; The camouflage outfit puts Bear above his competition.

Color Scheme: 8; I have nothing against a brown bear.

Other: 10; He has an Ollie-like partner that apparently does really sweet things like standing on his head.

Total: 41

1. Phoenix Suns

Name: 8; Go the Gorilla

Head: 8; Looks like a real gorilla.

Clothing: 8; Gorillas don’t really need clothes so the warm up shirt does the job.

Color Scheme: 8; One of few teams that don’t add ridiculous colors to the costume, which is a good thing in this case because Go the Gorilla would look strange if he wasn’t all black.

Other: 10; One of the most prestigious mascots in all sports, he is well known for his dunk through the ring of fire. Go was part of the inaugural class inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame.

Total: 42

Go ahead and comment with your favorite NBA mascot. Stay tuned for the MLB version in a few months.