Nets and Wizards

Dana Auguster of the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast joins us in this edition of my education to talk about the uniforms of the NBA Bullets and Nets of a few decades ago.

It wasn't that long ago, prior to the mid-1990s that the Washington Wizards went by another name in NBA circles, that is the Bullets.  The name was changed around 1995 when franchise owner Abe Pollin, renamed his team's moniker to the Wizards because of the violent overtones of the word "bullet." As my friend Dana Auguster so eloquently points out in the podcast above on the Nets and Bullets uniforms of the 1970s and 80s, the Washington Bullets were known as the Capital Bullets when they first moved from Baltimore right before the 1973-74 season commensed per the NBA's website history of the Wizards. Now the name Baltimore Bullets has an interesting bit of history to it too. You see the franchise moved to Baltimore from Chicago (we will get to that in a moment).  According to a 2010 articl on the websiteD.C. Sports Blog the Baltimore Sun in a 1944 article said this about the name choice which was in honor of a fledgling basketball organization called the American League squad in the city;

"The club will be known as the Bullets, which is hoped to be significant of their explosive talents and speed in humbling the opposition. President Stan Behrend announced that the team's colors will be maroon and gold, in which they will don white jerseys with maroon numbers and gold pants for home appearance, and maroon jerseys and white numerals on the road."

That American Legaue and its franchise of the Bullets faded into obscurity. In 1961 though a new team in a different pro hoops league the Chicago Packers was created. The Packers, probably because a Packer can not be truly endeared in the Windy City due to Gridiron renderings, moved themselves to Maryland in the early 1960s. So it is the legacy of Packers to Bullets to the eventual Wizards path that this NBA franchise has traveled through three different Cities.

The the other team that Dana speaks of, who are today known as the Brooklyn Nets, also have an interesting path to the name on thir uniforms. The franchise started out as Dana said being called the New York Nets in 1967 in the American Basketball Association of ABA. The original owner Aurthur J. Brown ran some other teams of AAU hoops around the Big Apple called the Americans. Brown figured he could play as the New York Americans in the new ABA, but the NBA's New York Knickerbockers, already well established in the City persuaded venues to not allow Brown's club from a new rival league to play in their town. The trucking magnate then had to find a home court somewhere and the Teaneck Armory in nearby Teaneck Jersey was a willing site to sign the club. That first year the team was known as the New Jersey Americans eventough they were technically the New York Americans on the books.

They Americans played well enough for a chance at a home title game with the Kentucky Colonels but unfortunately the Teaneck Armory was booked for that night. The game went on as planned but the venue was out on Long Island for the contest. When the teams arrived at the court they found there to be inadaquate padding and even missing floor boards which forced ABA Commisioner, George Mikan to rule the court unplayable and resulted in the Americans forfeiting the game. 

The next season proved to be just as troublesome to find a home court suitable to play in but finally the franchise landed in another court on Long Island and became known as the New York Nets. Why the Nets, you may ask? Wikipedia states that that name was chosen because:

"The name "Nets" was used because it rhymes with the names of two other professional sports teams that played in the New York metropolitan area at the time: Major League Baseball's New York Mets and the American Football League's New York Jets, and because it relates to basketball in general, as it is part of the basket."

In 1976 after some banner seasons and star players, the team relocated back to their former home state, as the New Jersey Nets. In 2012 the team moved again to the Prospect Heights region, in one of NYC's buroughs to become the Brooklyn Nets as we know them today.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of Members of the 1963–64 Baltimore Bullets. From left to rightː Rod Thorn, Charles Hardnett, Walt Bellamy, Gus Johnson and Terry Dischinger. Photo was taken by an unknown photographer.

Special thanks to Dana Augsuter for his contributions and inspiration as well as the Basketball-Reference.com, Stathead.com websites and the websites linked above