11/05/24
May 10, 2011
Washington Wizards Bring Back Old Colors: The Washington Wizards franchise is going back to the patriotic red, white and blue colors it had as the Washington Bullets. Owner Ted Leonsis made the change in response to fan suggestions. "I'm not naive enough to think that changing the colors [by itself] will improve anything," he said. ESPN uniform dork Paul Lukas has declared this a major victory in the war on teal.
posted by rcade to basketball at 04:39 PM - 10 comments
Have seen the new colors, etc. They're very nice. It's too bad the team will continue it's recent history of sucking. I remember so vividly when they were the Bullets. They were a great team, with a great nickname, uniforms, and, for the most part, team. It's kind of sad we are so delicate as a society nowadays that we could NEVER allow a team to be known as the Bullets. I'm sure various street gangs would have a field day with that one.
posted by dyams at 02:22 PM on May 11, 2011
I'm sure various street gangs would have a field day with that one.
Not to mention certain firearm-friendly players on the Washington team itself.
posted by beaverboard at 02:37 PM on May 11, 2011
They tweaked the logo design aside from the colors a bit too (and improved it). Scroll down to see them superimposed.
posted by flannelenigma at 02:58 PM on May 11, 2011
Bring back the Bullets and get the National Rifle Association aboard!
posted by jjzucal at 03:13 PM on May 11, 2011
Stupid uniform changes, and the NBA's fetish for having a million colors. Why can't they just stick to a home and away...
(looks at uniforms)
Hey, those are actually pretty nice, and somewhat understated. Well done.
posted by Bonkers at 05:34 PM on May 11, 2011
I don't think the Wizards were teal before, but the new uniforms are better. And a team named after ammunition was dumb, so I don't care why they changed it.
posted by bperk at 07:39 PM on May 11, 2011
The original team name is derived from the Baltimore Bullets, who were named after the original Baltimore NBA franchise. The original Bullets were in the NBA from 1949 until they folded in 1954. Most likely the original Bullets name was adopted because of the alliterative nature of the two words beginning with the letter B, and the idea that a bullet was fast and powerful. It is very understandable that the team was renamed after it moved to Washington, DC, because of the number of gun crimes that were being committed in the city.
posted by Howard_T at 06:10 PM on May 12, 2011
They were the Washington Bullets for 23 years and won their only championship under that name. The Wizards name has never been popular locally (though it might have been helped by better teams). I can see why owner Ted Leonsis is thinking about a name change.
posted by rcade at 07:02 AM on May 13, 2011
Aw, "Leonsis" isn't that hard to spell.
posted by yerfatma at 08:53 AM on May 13, 2011
This has been in the works for a long time. You have to file a color change in the NBA almost 1.5 years in advance of the change. In addition the DC sports teams have appeared to have settled on red as their primary color scheme.