The new NBA Oklahoma City franchise (formerly the Seattle Supersonics) has settled on the “Thunder” as its nickname.
As Oklahoma City’s NBA team prepared to reveal its name and logo, the NBA’s Web site showed “Thunder” as the name and the color scheme as blue, yellow and orange.
The franchise planned to formally reveal the team’s nickname, colors and logo at 5 p.m. CDT.
I’m not too keen on the Thunder, as I’m not a big fan of nicknames that don’t end in a “s.” It’s tough to say that Dwight Howard is the best Magic (?) ever or that Kevin Durant will go down in history as the best Thunder ever.
Over the last few weeks I heard several names bandied about; the Bison, the Barrons, the Tornadoes, the Marshalls and the Outlaws, just to name a few. I personally like the Outlaws, but given its tarnished reputation, the NBA is probably shying away from anything associated with criminal activity. Of that list, I think the Marshalls is the next best option.
It’s also a little strange that they settled on blue, yellow and orange colors. I thought they might do maroon and orange to tie in the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
You can see the logo at NBA.com and at the official team website, which, oddly enough, is still is tagged as “Seattle SuperSonics.”
