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so i've been wondering this for a long time how do the nba teams come up with the team names
because some of the team names make absolutely no sense for where they are actually located
for instance what is a los angeles laker i see beaches i see hollywood and i see palm trees
so what is a laker and what exactly is a clipper i mean those are just two names i don't get
and i've been to california a lot and i haven't seen either of those things floating around the
hollywood stars okay sorry for that rant but usually a team name is based by their location
which becomes their team nickname and that's the thing that we are going to discuss today
again like i said you probably don't get it i don't either imagine somebody who doesn't
have a clue about basketball so let's start with the oldest team in the nba sacramento kings they
started in 1923 as the rochester sea grams i'm not even going to try to find out what a seagram is
but anyway let's get back on track when they joined the nbl they renamed themselves as
the rochester royals and in 1957 they moved to cincinnati and then in 1972 they moved to kansas
city and because of the baseball team the kansas city royals they had to change their names to the
king then in 1985 they moved to the west coast of sacramento detroit pistons the detroit pistons
were actually an original team that was a part of the nbl in 1941 they were called the fort wayne
zoner pistons because the owner of the company had pistons and that is how they have the name
they didn't make enough money with the lack of support by the community so they made the move
to detroit in 1957 atlanta hawks the atlanta hawks were originally the buffalo bisons in 1946 when
being a part of the nbl so they only attempted to play in buffalo for 38 days and then once they
thought they weren't getting any support they left davenport iowa not really sure people were going
to be that interested in basketball especially a pro team when it wasn't as exciting as it is today
so then they went to a different location where they turned into the tri-city blackhawks in 1951
they moved to milwaukee and shortened that name to hawks and then said milwaukee wasn't it and then
they moved to saint louis where they had a little dispute over the arena space and scheduling so
they got sold and moved to atlanta boston celtics this one isn't as complicated as the previous
teams in 1946 they were part of the baa in the name celtics came from celtic or celtic depending
on who you ask so in short many irish people moved to boston and it's basically a perfect fit for the
name golden state warriors they were based out of philly and were a part of the baa in 1946
1962 they were purchased by another owner and made the move to california majority of their games
were played in oakland but they did play a few games in san fran and just decided it would be a
better representation if they represented the area and statewide as a whole so in 1971 they called it
golden state which happens to be the nickname of california new york knicks nyx is short for
knickerbocker and this was in reference to dutch settlers and it was used to describe most people
in new york so there you have it the new york knicks philadelphia 76ers they were in the nbl in
1946 and they were called the syracuse nationals and they made a move in 1963 right after the
philadelphia warriors left timing is everything right they had a contest for the rename of the
team and the choice was the 76ers los angeles lakers in 1947 the detroit gems were taken over
and relocated to minneapolis and thus the name the lakers because of the 10 000 lakes after low
attendance and low fan support the move to la was made in 1960 and even though the name doesn't fit
it's one of the biggest and most successful franchises in nba history
washington wizards the first nba expansion team here's a quick breakdown because this one is ugly
found in 1961 chicago packers and then in 1962 the name changed to the zephyrs in 1963 they moved
to baltimore and became the bullets then moved to dc but called themselves capital but then changes
to washington bullets in 1974 then in the mid 90s switched to their wizards that was a lot
but we got it done on to the next chicago bulls chicago bulls started up in 1966 and the name
has stuck since and you might heard of them before because of a guy who was pretty good i think his
initials are mj brooklyn in 1967 new jersey americans was an aba team they couldn't be
in new york where they originally tried to be because the nba pressured them out of the state
in 1968 they switched over to the new york nets because of the move to long island they chose the
nets not only because it relates to basketball but the other new york teams were mats and jets
so it made perfect sense right then they moved back to new jersey and kept the next
name and then in 2012 they moved back to new york and there we have it the brooklyn nets
denver nuggets denver larks denver rockets this is what the nuggets were named while in the
aba but in 1974 when making the move to the nba they changed it to the nuggets from the rockets
it also paid respect to the mining industry and also because there was already a team named at
houston rockets 1967 in san diego the rockets were discovered and the team got relocated
and the rocket's name worked perfectly because of close ties to the space industry indiana pacers
originally a aba franchise team in 1967. pacers name comes from the way horses run and also the
pace car that's used for the pace of a race hey that rhymes anyway moving along oklahoma
city thunder formerly known as the seattle supersonics in 1967 they were the first sports
franchise and then they relocated to okc where they became the thunder san antonio spurs in 1967
this team was called the dallas chaperones basically it was named after a hotel room
wild i know but in 1973 made the move to san antonio and became the spurs which sounds a lot
better milwaukee in 1968 they held a contest to name the team and it turned out to be the robins
but that didn't sound appealing at all so they went with the state animal and named it the bucks
phoenix suns in 1968 became the first major sports franchise in arizona they held a
contest and they tried the rattlers scorpions and thunderbirds the name sun started to make more
sense because it is one of the hottest places in the 50 states if you haven't been there you won't
understand when you touch down here cleveland cavaliers in 1970 they were a new expansion team
and a fan vote for the name of the team with something like the jays the foresters the towers
the presidents cavaliers ended up being the name it never changed portland trailblazer
in 1970 the trailblazers were born that's where i'm going with the story let's move forward
los angeles clippers in 1970 buffalo braves owners swamped teams with boston celtics
and this owner lived in california so he moved buffalo braves to san diego
which now was renamed clippers for the selling ships then once the team was sold they moved
them to la utah jazz in 1974 the new orleans jazz was the perfect name for the location and
this would have stayed perfect if they wouldn't have made the move to utah financial troubles
prompted the team for the move they kept the name and as of today they are still the jazz
dallas mavericks in 1980 they became an expansion team and the dallas mavericks were named after
the tv show maverick charlotte hornet in 1988 the original team name was charlotte spirit and they
had another contest in the hornets one in 2003 the bobcats became a new team and then michael jordan
came in around 2010 and basically the bobcats named in last which then revived the hornets miami
in 1988 miami heat were named the heat beating out names like sharks barracudas and beaches minnesota
timberwolves in 1989 fans decided between two names polars and timberwolves they figured
timberwolves would be more marketable than the polars orlando magic this orlando team in 1989
started playing and the fans chose the name magic and there we have it toronto raptors
originally from the baa they were the toronto huskies so they decided that the fans should
decide and they came up with the raptors kind of reminds me of jurassic park memphis grizzlies
in 1995 vancouver grizzlies came from the fans and then in 2001 they moved to memphis
and kept the name new orleans when the charlotte hornets were allowed to move into new orleans
they kept the name the new orleans hornets the team temporarily went to oklahoma city when there
was a hurricane in louisiana after the new owner purchased the new orleans hornets they decided to
change the name but they changed it because they weren't able to keep the hornet's name
due to the old charlotte team and they wanted a better name for the region so they went with
the state bird which is a pelican and there you have it all the nba teams and pretty much how
they got their names i'm tired i'm gonna go take a nap hope you enjoyed this video
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