Oklahoma City….???
In Monday’s editions of The Oklahoman, we’ll be running the best team names and uniform designs for Oklahoma City’s prospective NBA team that have been sent in by readers over the past few weeks.
The package will be prominently displayed in our Main Event section, which is a two-page spread. Be sure to check it out next week. I’ve combed through a few of them and there are some pretty good ones. I’m still waiting on hearing a better team name than the Oklahoma City Energy. I hate Thunderbirds. It can’t get any worse than Tornadoes. Outlaws, Bandits and Oilers don’t do it for me either.
But here’s my top 10 NBA uniforms:
10) Memphis Grizzlies: The combination of blues is a good look.
9) Golden State Warriors: There’s just something about their yellow on blue road uniforms.
8 ) Boston Celtics: They’ve kept it simple. The alternative green on black is progressive but still classic.
7) New York Knicks: A lot of history and tradition in that orange and blue.
6) Chicago Bulls: It’s good brand management when you don’t change the threads that Jordan popularized.
5) Philadelphia 76ers: Each set of their uniforms are impressive, but the black set is hands down the best.
4) Miami Heat: The way they weave the logo throughout the unifrom is hot. Pardon the pun.
3) Atlanta Hawks: There was a lot of criticism of their new unis, but I like them. They look like the future of uniforms.
2) Denver Nuggets: Their powder blue and gold combo is sweet.
1) Minnesota Timberwolves: There’s no topping their alternate black jerseys.
Here’s my worst five:
5) Dallas Mavericks: The logo is great, but the unis leave more to be desired. Especially the home whites.
4) Utah Jazz: OK, so this one isn’t fair. It’s hard to get fired up about anything dealing with Utah.
3) Washington Wizards: My favorite team has awful jerseys. Period.
2) Charlotte Bobcats: Whoever designed those orange uniforms should be fired.
1) Milwaukee Bucks: I’m all for honoring history. But the new color scheme makes the old purple look genius.
-DM-
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Comments
How about one of these:
Oklahoma City Wranglers
Oklahoma City Outlaws
Oklahoma City 89ers
Oklahoma City Stars
Oklahoma City Coyotes
Oklahoma City Dolls
i don’t think it should be oklahoma city, just ‘oklahoma,’ if at all. i don’t even want this stupid team anymore.
energy? i’m sick of these singular, abstract concepts for teams. whatever happened to something that represents the locale, or is at least tough-sounding? what’s cooler and/or more intimidating, a bull or “magic?” ‘energy’ sounds like a WNBA team name. think about it.
The best part of getting an expansion team is the ability for a region to mold and create their own history and identitiy.
In the old days you could relocate teams and have them take hold in their new regions. The Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, all are teams that were born in other cities.
In todays information world that doesn’t work.
A couple examples:
The Arizona Cardinals have never been a team taken seriously by anyone. The fans, the league, their region, anyone. Why? Many reasons but one of the biggest is that they still have the St Louis Bird on the side of their helmets and a name and colors that have nothing to do with were they play. To this day they still look like visitors in their home stadium. Memphis Grizzlies are another example.
On the flip side the Baltimore Ravens have been embraced and accepted in their region and have had success in no small part due to having a fresh start. They are accepted and flourished.
The Tennessee Titans are another example. Both were able to cut their ties to the uglyness that they would have been known for because they started their own history AND because the cities they were stolen from were made whole.
andy i hear your point. but the cardinals originated in chicago.
and i disagree about memphis. the reason why the griz dont work there is because memphis is a dead market, another unwise and hasty move. there simply was no deep bond between vancouver and the grizzlies. certainly no historical significance. but none the less a very absent minded bussiness move, by the NBA.
Oklahoma City Energy is about the stupidest name I’ve heard so far. It’s gotta be an April Fool’s joke. Seattle should just give up the Supersonic name and instead go by the Seattle Aerospace. Instead of the Detroit Pistons they should go with a more unimagitive Detroit Automobile Manufacturing. How about Las Vegas Gambling or San Jose Technology as possible expansion teams?
Oklahoma City Energy? Oh, please!…Relocation request denied!
i agree with donuteyes. all of these singular names are terrible! the wild, the heat, the magic. and every single mascot in soccer and and ladies basketball. oh, thanks clay bennett! you left us the storm!!
somebody shoot me!!
Energy?…. wow. Please don’t let Kevin Durant play for a WNBA team. How about the OKC Inferiority Complex? I would point out that this team will have no chance of recreating the elegance and simplicity of a Celtics/Bulls/Knicks uni because they lack the requisite history/tradition. No recent expansion team has been able to achieve this.
There is no doubt in my mind that OKC will go with a totally bland corporate logo and team name, most likely the “Synergy”, that will change every few years until the team goes bankrupt and all team gear is shipped to Haitian slums.
And the fact that your favorite jersey is the Minnesota T-Wolves alternate black is less than reassuring.
They need a name that can work with-sell products and sounds good. Animals? Ancient people or charaters. Something that is all inclusive, but not offensive. The mascot would come into play. Something the fans would be proud of and spin-off some fun things to do during the game to involve the audience. Maybe something that has a double meaning. Horses, lords and ladies, round table, honor, chivalry, Camolet, and so on.
Oklahoma City Knights!
Yeah, I love those black T-Wolves jerseys too. Good call. I mean think of all the great memories of watching that historic T-Wolves team. It screams Marko Jaric underachieving, Rashad McCants turning it over, and Kevin Garnett wasting the best years of his career. I can’t wait to see those sweet black OKC uni’s with Energy written across the front. You could have a mascot of an old drunk cowboy spitting tabacco juice on his immigrant farm workers.
at least i could spell tobacco. all you can do is talk crap about oklahoma. that’s it. you’ve got nothing. (most, not all) of the seattle people may think we’re drunk cowboys, and that’s fine. you know what i think of you? nothing.
Oklahoma Shotguns “because they gotta shoot with thier guns”
Oklahoma Pistols “because we like pistols around here”
Oklahoma Tornado’s “because we have them here in Oklahoma”
Hope this helps!!!
How about naming our new team the OKC Crude? Our rowdy fans would be called “The Cru” and the mascott could be a muscled up guy in a hard hat wearing overals. Oklahoma is well known for it’s oil and gas industry, and the name would fit.
I like a snakes theme — either the Oklahoma City Copperheads, Oklahoma City Cottonmouths, or Oklahoma City Snakes. The Ford Center could be known as the Ssssssssnake Pit.
Here are a few suggestions for naming the new NBA team:
I do like the snakes but I think it sounds better as:
Oklahoma City Rattlers, the mascot can be a rattlesnake, the fans in attendance can have a noise maker that sounds like the tail of the rattlesnake. Szzhhhhhhh! The cheerleaders could be called the Lady Rattlers (i.e. the Honeybees for the Hornets) I like the RATTLER PIT instead of the snake pit. But so far the OKC RATTLERs is our favorite!!!!
Here is another example of how you can have fun with the Rattler theme: snake skin fabric on cheerleaders. A snake wrangler. A segmented snake puppet running across the court (i.e. like the Chinese dragons)
A couple of club names could be the Diamond Head, Rattlers club, The VIP Venom, Club Bite, Club Poison or the Poison VIP room.
oklahoma savage
oklahoma riders
oklahoma marshalls
oklahoma centurions
oklahoma sorcerors (dont know how to spell it)
some to keep in mind
Darnell, agreed with the GSW unis….the old City ones anyway (with the bridge on the front and cable car on the back). The new ones I’d say are hands-down the worst in the current NBA. No wonder they go old school so often. I hope those were the ones you were talking about anyway…
Don’t really like the gold-on-black of the Sixers. Lettering is good but no gold. It’s like old Sixers trying to be the Saints.
And I don’t get the new gold of the Wiz. Is that supposed to be revisionist-retro? Like the Heat unis that are all 70s south beach?
Good refreshing post too. A debate we can have a little more fun with