Comments on: The Origins of All 30 NBA Team Names

By: Mitzi Herrell

Mitzi Herrell — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:02:41 +0000

NBA is a favorite of mine. This book looks very interesting. Thank you for the free copy!

By: Raymond Neal

Raymond Neal — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:46:49 +0000

The Cleveland Grovers would have been the most awesome name ever!

By: Jared Ras

Jared Ras — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:59:56 +0000

I think that nationally, the name “Thunder” is absolutely hated. Yes, they sold a lot of tickets the next day, but that’s because they had a name at all. It would have been the case no matter what they named the team. “Thunder” is terrible and generic, as is their logo. Barons was allegedly the most popular on a national scale.

By: Michael Putlack

Michael Putlack — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:19:56 +0000

I always thought that the Bulls were selected in relation to the Chicago Stock Exchange and the “Bull” and “Bear” markets. The Bears of course being the NFL team.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:32:18 +0000

The name Presidents may have been suggested for the Cleveland Cavaliers because Grover Cleveland was a president.

By: Russ

Russ — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:55:53 +0000

\Cougars\ sounds more like a women’s softball team name than \Bobcats\.

By: Matt Beahan

Matt Beahan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:46:49 +0000

A couple of other points – there was a team that played from 1948-50 called the Denver Nuggets. The current Nuggets were renamed after this team.

And the Washington Bullets were so called because they needed a new name after moving to Baltimore from Chicago (where they played as the Packers and Zephyrs). Given that there was a successful team called the Baltimore Bullets in the early days of the NBA, it was an easy choice as a new name. They kept the name after moving to Washington (after playing a year as the Capital Bullets).

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:20:07 +0000

The OK City team should have been named the Bandits seeing that they made off with Seattle’s team. Or maybe the Pirates, Rustlers, or Looters.

Not that I’m bitter or anything….

By: hifidigitalboy

hifidigitalboy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:47:02 +0000

I read somewhere recently that when the Cincinnati Royals moved to Kansas City, they changed their name so not to conflict with the baseball Royals.

By: Teresa is amazing

Teresa is amazing — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:57 +0000

If the Nets changed to the Jersey Garbage Monsters I would totally get on board with that.