The ownership group of Toronto's prospective expansion team conducted extensive marketing research across Canada in 1994 and held a nationwide vote that helped team officials come up with a list of potential nicknames. 8. A name-the-team contest was held and fans voted on a list of finalists that included Wizards, Dragons, Express, Stallions, and Sea Dogs. Rockets: In 1967, San Diego became the 12th member of the NBA. Pacers: An original member of the ABA, this franchise’s nickname was decided on by the group of investors. The Pistons trace their roots to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where they were known as the Zollner Pistons. Pistons: The franchise was founded in Fort Wayne, Ind., as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, a National Basketball League (NBL) team. The Top 5 Cities for the Next NBA Relocation or Expansion Team. The Royals retained their nickname after a move to Cincinnati in 1957 and became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings (soon dropping the Omaha) through a name-the-team contest in 1972. The franchise name of the SuperSonic’s came about as a way to pay homage to the planned Boeing 2707 development in the city. 29. Timberwolves: Four months before the NBA granted Minnesota a franchise, the nickname of “Timberwolves” was selected as the winner of a “Name the Team” contest. " The rest is somewhat dubious history. Tom Benson said in a statement, “The Pelican is a symbol for our city and region, and we’re excited to start a new era in Louisiana basketball history. Namely if Las Vegas can keep fans and can they keep from being taken over by sports betting are just a few issues to wonder about. Though the team disbanded, the Chicago Packers — who later became the Chicago Zephyrs — relocated to Baltimore, and in 1963, the Bullets nickname returned. Jazz: In 1974 a contest was held to name the expansion team in New Orleans. The team moved to Commack, N.Y., the following year and changed its name to New York Nets, after one of the most important parts of the basketball game — the net. What citites do you guys think deserve a expansion team and what name should they get. It may have just been a coincidence that one of the team's main investors, Red McCombs, was born in Spur, Texas. San Diego (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) Plus, the fan base would extend beyond Omaha to include Lincoln, Neb., and western Iowa. Heat: When Miami was awarded an NBA franchise to begin play in 1988, team officials wanted to have the fans in South Florida involved in the naming, so a contest was held. Fans throughout and beyond Minnesota submitted 6,076 entries featuring 1,284 different nicknames. Basketball fans there were asked to choose a nickname for the team. If the NBA is ever serious about expansion, these eight cities should be at the top of the list. Springer, a freelance writer, said the nickname “represents the independent, flamboyant style of the Dallas people.” That’s certainly an apt description for current team owner Mark Cuban. Nuggets refers to the 19th century mining boom in Colorado, when people rushed to the area, hoping to make their fortunes by panning for gold and silver nuggets. The name, as Glickman noted at the time, “reflects both the ruggedness of the Pacific Northwest and the start of a major league era in our state.” Trail Blazers (or, more properly trailblazers) is defined by Webster as “One that blazes a trail to guide others: A pathfinder: A pioneer.” The actual name came from a practice by explorers making paths through forests and marking the paths by chopping white “blazes” in trees’ bark so others could follow. San Diego team officials didn’t think Braves was a representative nickname for the club. The same year, an NBA expansion franchise named the San Diego (now Houston) Rockets began play. " Perhaps Kerr was right. After seven seasons, and with entry into the NBA looming, Denver team officials renamed their club. Donald Sterling bought the Clippers during the 1981-82 season and relocated them to his native Los Angeles in 1984. Boston Celtics. Mexico City. 12. One of our readers asked us the other day, how the NBA teams got their names, so we went researched a bit and we found some interesting history behind teams’ names. 6 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Team officials wanted a name that reflected the Western heritage of Texas, so a contest was held and the name Spurs was chosen. And soon, the Blazers (or Trail Blazers) became a household word in Portland and within seven years worldwide as “Go Blazers” and “Blazermania” became bywords when the city gained a major world championship in its first try. After Pollin's friend, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated, Pollin decided to take action and announced his plans to rename the team. Though the Pistons enjoyed a solid local following, their city’s small size made it difficult for them to be profitable. While the group pondered which one of the finalists would be selected, Williams’ 7-year-old daughter, Karen, paid a visit to her father from the family’s home in Philadelphia. San Diego had been home to the Conquistadors/Sails of the ABA during the 1970s. In 1996, team owner Abe Pollin decided to adopt a nickname that portrayed a non-violent image, and selected Wizards. Despite the warnings of one of his publicity staffers, who told Brown, "No team with an Irish name has ever won a damned thing in Boston," Brown liked the winning tradition of the nickname; the New York Celtics were a successful franchise during the 1920s. When the arena issues are resolved then Cincinnati can be seen as a possible expansion or relocation for an NBA team. So here is the back-story of how 31 NBA teams got their names. 7. They settled on Clippers, a popular type of ship during the 19th century. The nickname frequently is shortened to Sonics. Team founder Ned Irish reportedly made the decision to call the team the Knickerbockers—supposedly after pulling the name out of a hat. I would go with the "Las Vegas Gamblers" or the "Las Vegas Aces" (already used in Reno), but I do not think the NBA would go with those. Die National Basketball Association (NBA) ist die seit 1946 bestehende Basketball-Profiliga in Nordamerika. More than 9000 ballots were cast and Hornets won by a landslide, beating out Knights, Cougars, Spirit, Crowns, and Stars. Rockets was picked because it reflected the outstanding growth of space-age industries in San Diego. When the Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984, they kept their nickname. Afterwards, Shinn noted that the nickname had some historical significance; during the Revolutionary War, a British commander reportedly referred to the area around Charlotte as a "hornet’s nest of rebellion.". 6. The current league organization divides 30 teams into two conferences of three divisions with five teams each. The NBA was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). Kansas City. The other 1,282 entries ran through a number of different categories, including animals, fish, political interests, outer space, already-existing team names, some names that had to be researched in a dictionary and a potpourri of nicknames that no specific category could claim. When a pair of investors relocated the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League to Minneapolis before the 1947 season, they sought a name that would ring true with the team's new home. The Trail Blazers name was announced to a crowd of 11,035 during halftime of a March 13 regular season NBA SuperSonics-Knicks contest in the Memorial Coliseum. “It is my privilege to announce the expansion of the NBA back to this great city of Seattle, a community that once witnessed a heartbreaking departure over a decade ago,” said Silver, who addressed the media on the breaking news. We’ll call them the Bulls!’ And that’s how the team got its nickname.”. The list included, Beavers, Bobcats, Dragons, Grizzlies, Hogs (Toronto’s nickname is Hogtown), Raptors, Scorpions, T-Rex, Tarantulas, and Terriers. Upon moving to Kansas City, changed name to similar “Kings” to avoid confusion with Royals of baseball. In this tutorial you'll find out how to do that. The name was fitting for the Motor City. No other major professional or university sports teams were using either the Blazers or Trail Blazers in 1970. The franchise relocated to Brooklyn in 2012. Orlando, Florida, scored an NBA expansion team in 1987. The NBA G League welcomes a 28th team for the 2019-20 season in the College Park Skyhawks, affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks. I kept a similar color palate to the old logo – Kentucky Wildcat Blue & Louisville Cardinal Red. “The predominance of bucks led us to the name.”, 3. Another popular entry was Trail Blazers, whose logo is supposed to represent five players on one team playing against five players from another team. The company has a large plant in the Seattle area. The club joined the NBA in 1949, and in 1951, the franchise relocated to Milwaukee, where the nickname was shortened to Hawks. Bobcats, indigenous to the Carolinas but infrequently seen because of their stealth and nocturnal habits, are fierce and swift. The ownership group for Minnesota's prospective franchise chose Timberwolves through a name-the-team contest in 1986. Northern California has had two NBA teams for 26 years now; the Bay Area alone has two teams each in baseball and football. The judges overruled the public and decided on a more indigenous (and much stronger) name. The most popular entry in the contest was Blizzard, but the team wanted a nickname that was more unique to its home state. 15. When asked to name the new club, SuperSonics won by a landslide. Denver's ABA team was originally known as the Rockets. via thehockeywriters.com. They have incredible resolve. A panel of judges was selected. The NBA's G League has already added the Capitanes, the 29th team in the league that will play next season at the Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera in Mexico City. "I thought a two-word name would win," he told a reporter. A group of San Antonio investors purchased the Dallas Chaparrals from the American Basketball Association in 1973 and decided to hold a public contest to rename the team. 19. In 1948, the team dropped “Zollner” from the name and became the Fort Wayne Pistons, competing in the Basketball Association of America. Warriors: When Philadelphia was awarded a charter NBA franchise in 1946, the owners decided to name the team after an old Philadelphia basketball team, the Warriors, who played as members of the American Basketball League in 1925. This is all in you own opinions so don't argue about stupid names and stuff. Vancouver. Time will tell. New York Knicks. (Scaling the league and actually getting from 30 to 48 will be tricky when it comes to scheduling, but a few years o… The Boston Celtics and New York Knickerbockers are two NBA teams that started and still play in the same NBA city and have the same team name. When the team was preparing to move to the NBA in 1974, they needed a new nickname, as Rockets was already claimed by the franchise in Houston. " (Tomko's son, Brett, went on to become a Major League pitcher.). 23. It was Robins. When the team moved to Houston in 1971, it made perfectly good sense to keep the name, as Houston was home to a NASA space center. When the Lakers moved to Los Angeles before the 1960 season, their nickname was retained, in part because of the tradition the team had established in Minnesota. Within the league office, sources said officials have floated the price tag of $2.5 billion each for two expansion teams in the near future. Images of the pelicans covered with oil were plentiful after the oil spill. Blake Byrne, general sales manager of KPTV, was the winner of the drawing, receiving two season tickets to Trail Blazers home games that year. Even though the team relocated to Houston in 1971, the nickname still fits because of the NASA space program’s operation center there. Could have been Firebirds. But Brown wanted Celtics, explaining, “The name has a great basketball tradition from the old Original Celtics in New York (1914-1939). All Rights Reserved, Advice: How to get people to take your authority seriously. There are plenty of cities that deserve NBA teams. And Boston is full of Irishmen.”. This post was originally published in 2009. With that said, let’s look at the seven worst team names in NBA history, starting it off with a team who made a move just a few seasons ago. Another high-ranking team executive said it was unlikely any serious consideration of expansion would happen at least before the end of the 2021-22 season. Lineage stretches all the way back to the Garden State, kept its nickname and violence! With oil were plentiful after the nickname of Charlotte 's prospective expansion franchise in 1967 sie gilt die... Won him a New nickname the franchise relocated to California in 1985 public and decided on Concorde-like... Time for the second time, Jazz had been home to the Zephyrs! Entries with over 500 names were submitted at his kitchen table two NBA teams 48 total teams 13... 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