The NBA Forced Knicks Player Iman Shumpert To Shave An Adidas Logo Out Of His Hair

NBA League PassIman Shumpert, who is well-known for his high-top hairdo often has a design shaved in the back of his head. On Friday night, that design was an Adidas logo (see image at right), and the NBA decided that he had gone too far (via SI.com).

By Saturday, Shumpert had removed the logo and posted a picture to his instagram account showing a shaved triangle where the logo had been. The caption on the photo reads "banned...sry @nba didn't realize there were branding issues wit da logo."

Prior to having the logo removed, Darren Rovell of ESPN.com wondered if the NBA would be ok with this type of branding since Adidas is a league partner. But as Ben Golliver of SI.com points out, corporate logos are against the rules except on a player's shoes.

Interestingly, Marcin Gortat of the Phoenix Suns has the Nike Jordan "Jumpman" logo tattooed on his calf. But it does not appear that the NBA has ever made an effort to have Gortat cover the tattoo, although Reebok, his shoe endorsement company, did.

In the end, if Adidas put Shumpert up to this, they got exactly what they wanted even with the ban. They got a lot of attention for both their brand and their player.