Mikhail Prokhorov has made clear his intention to change the name of the New Jersey Nets, the New York Daily News reports:
Prokhorov’s camp confirmed this morning that they’ve sent a request to the league to change the team’s name.
What does this mean? Maybe nothing.
Changing a team’s nickname, uniform or city name is a long process requiring that the owner gives the NBA notice 25 months in advance. This is to allow time for the creative process and the time it requires to make and market new uniforms. There doesn’t have to be a plan with the proposal, just a desire. It’s basically like putting the NBA on notice for a potential identity change.
So if Prokhorov wanted to change the team’s name for the 2012-13 season (even the city name to Brooklyn), he would have had to submit his notice by Oct. 1. If he submits a proposal, it would have to be approved by the Board of Governors.
There’s no news on what he’s going to change it to, and it could be a simple change to the ‘Brooklyn Nets,’ but the outspoken owner has joked about the ‘Nets’ moniker in the past, so a new nickname is likely.
On “Pardon the Interruption,” Tony Riali suggested the ‘Brooklyn Deckers‘ which didn’t make any sense to me until I did a Google search.
I kind of like ‘Brooklyn Nets.’ The Nets nickname has a lot of history to it and it sounds cool. I’ve also seen the ‘Brooklyn Bears’ and the ‘Brooklyn Dodgers’ mentioned. Or he could go with the New York Nets.
What do you think would be the best new nickname for the team?
