I've been a fan since I was a kid who moved to Atlanta in 1992. Thirty-plus years!

I was on NBA.com just now looking at standings, and I noticed something that I never have before…I finally saw the Hawks logo the way it was meant to be seen.

My whole life I've been viewing it right to left. It always looked like some predatory Pac-Man-esque creature, like a hawk with a single tooth and open beak snapping at prey or something.

But today, for the first time ever, I viewed it left to right. And it's clearly just… a hawk. In flight probably. That's it. That's the whole thing.

I feel like an idiot. Thirty years. I can't be the only one. Right? Right??

38 comments

  3. That was my perception of it as well when I was growing up! i also saw the old school Falcons logo as a falcon standing (sitting?) upright with a weird anvil-shaped head instead of in flight and in the shape of an “F” lol

  11. You’ll forget the moment you first saw the Hawk, but you won’t forget the feeling. I noticed it for the first time like 10 years ago, funny how it can happen at such a random time and now you won’t see the evil pac man anymore.

  14. I want you to know that you’re not alone. I too, as a Cavaliers and general NBA fan, thought “wtf is this Pac-Man shit” to myself for years.

  15. You’re not the first person to see the angry Pac-Man, but you’re the first person I’ve heard admit to only seeing the angry Pac-Man.

    I just can’t imagine how bizarre you thought the logo was this time. Because the Pac-Man side is a terrible representation of a hawk.

  16. I thought the same thing for a long time. I might have been in high school when I figured it out.

  17. I’ve heard the Pac Man comparisons many times before, so no, you’re not alone. In fact, the logo is often casually referred to as the “Pac Man” logo to differentiate from the secondary logo that has the hawk with outstretched wings. I just never really saw it that way myself.

    And for the fans ITT who oddly seem to be unaware of this common perception, here’s an article from the NBA’s own website announcing the return of the “Pac Man” logo: [https://www.nba.com/hawks/pac-man-here-stay-iconic-logo-officially-primary-once-again](https://www.nba.com/hawks/pac-man-here-stay-iconic-logo-officially-primary-once-again)

  19. Lol, thats hilarious. That’s exactly how I viewed it – from about ages 6-7

  20. Wait until you find out that the Falcons logo is supposed to be an F in bird form

  21. Coming from a guy who took decades to realize the falcons logo was an F, you’re in your own with this one.

  23. Exact same thing happened to me as I always look at it right to left and then one day while watching TNT they showed a 3D image of the Hawks logo and that’s when I finally saw the hawk 😅

  24. When I was a kid, I did the same thing. I finally realized, “Oh, there’s the Hawk”

  26. In fairness, maybe I wasn’t looking at it right to left but my brain just didn’t process the white space as being a hawk!

  27. hawks pacman logo is one of the best logos in the nba. they should literally barely use anything else on uni’s etc. it’s retro and badass.

  30. This and the one before it were pac-man logos, that’s how they got their names.

  31. This is also basically my old HS logo. I find it so weird schools do that. My local town uses the patriots logo.

  32. Typed all that out, read it to yourself, and decided to hit the post button anyway, huh? Kudos for that level of bravery I guess.

  34. Then again, the MLB logo kinda looks like a duck in a pond getting its back scratched so who knows what the brain formulated when we look at stuff.

  35. I had a Hawks sticker on my bathroom mirror as a kid. I remember the moment when I was sitting on the john staring at it and it shifted from a pac-man to a hawk. My life has never been the same.

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