1) Miami Heat
2) Orlando Magic

The original plan was for the NBA to expand to either Miami or Orlando. A heated (no pun intended) battle ensued and ultimately both cities were chosen in 1987. Write-in contests were launched to name each franchise with an obvious lean towards Florida-themed monikers among the finalists. You had your native animals (Sharks), your ABA throwbacks (Floridians), your tourist attractions (Beaches), your main exports (Juice), your TV shows (Vice), and, of course, your tributes to local space shuttle disasters (Challengers). Magic was selected to invoke Disney World in Orlando, while Heat was selected to invoke, well, just how hot it is in Miami. This was presumably meant to be taken both figuratively and literally. Both teams therefore joined the Jazz as the only franchises with a name that didn’t end with the letter “s” (later to be joined in that club by the Thunder).

3) Dallas Mavericks

If you’re willing to go stereotypical, Texas-based teams have got to be some of the easiest to nickname. Rangers, Cowboys, Astros, Stars. You know the drill. The Houston Rockets surprisingly were not named after the city’s famous space center (“Houston, we have a problem”) but instead inherited that moniker from that franchise’s beginnings in San Diego, which was also highly invested in the U.S. space program. The San Antonio Spurs were named as such in 1973, when the then ABA franchise relocated from Dallas. When Dallas won the rights in 1980 to start a third Texas NBA team, a local radio station sponsored a naming contest. Over 4,000 entries reportedly poured in, with the finalists narrowed down to Express, Wranglers, and the winning Mavericks. As for their signature blue-and-green color scheme, that was chosen simply to match the seats at their first home arena.

4) Milwaukee Bucks

In a region where the first day of hunting season is basically a state holiday, Bucks seems like such an obvious nickname. But if the fans in 1968 had their way, they would be cheering for the Milwaukee Robins. After more than 14,000 name suggestions came in for the newly award franchise, the first in Milwaukee since the Hawks had left for St. Louis 13 years prior, Robins was the top vote getter. It beat out not just Bucks, but other hunting related nicknames like Beavers and Stags. Management overrode the fan decision and went with Bucks, which had finished in second place. The 45 fans who had suggested Bucks were drawn into a raffle, with the winner receiving a new car.

5) Oklahoma City Thunder

Though Oklahoma City SuperSonics was supposedly never seriously considered, a lawsuit from the city of Seattle ensured that it wasn’t happening anyway. The Oklahoma City ownership team put out 64 options and allowed fans to vote (you’d think with 64 entrants they would have structured it bracket style, but alas). Thunder won, supposedly in a landslide. Wind, Energy, Barons, Marshals, and Bison also received a fair amount of support. The name refers not just to the Tornado Alley nickname of the city, but also its Native American heritage, wherein thunder is considered a mythological phenomenon. While Bison was a runner-up, it did inspire the eventual Thunder mascot, Rumble, a bison that opens games by pounding drums to sound like approaching thunder.

6) Phoenix Suns

While fans were allowed to submit name ideas in 1968 for the new Phoenix basketball franchise, autocratic general manager Jerry Colangelo had final say on the winner. Out of the 28,000 entries, he chose the benign, yet accurate, Suns. This beat out a bevy of Arizona themed entries like Mustangs, Cougars, Gold Nuggets, Scorpions, Thunderbirds, Wranglers (sound familiar?), Mavericks (sound more familiar?), Muleskinners (?!?), and Rattlers (a precursor to the Arizona Diamondbacks). There was also more than one entry for Sun Gods, Sun Baskers, Sun Shooters, Sun Clouds, and, our personal favorite, Sun Lovers. But supposedly only one fan suggested just Suns, and they were rewarded with $1,000 and season tickets for the franchise’s inaugural season. Granted, the Suns finished 16-66 that year, so maybe “prize” isn’t the word for it.

7) Toronto Raptors
8) Memphis Grizzlies

When the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies were set to join the NBA in 1995, they were poised to become the first major pro basketball teams in Canada since the Toronto Huskies of the BAA folded in 1947. Raptors ownership was interested in reviving the Huskies namesake, but were concerned it was too close a logo to the Timberwolves. Meanwhile, the Vancouver Mounties were all set to take the court until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officially objected. Thus, a contest was held nationwide to coin both franchises. Grizzlies just beat out Ravens, another species that’s native to Vancouver. It stuck in their eventual move to Memphis, after David Stern rejected an offer from FedEx to brand them as the Memphis Express. As for Raptors, it beat out nine other finalists that notably included Grizzlies, as well as Hogs, Beavers, Tarantulas, Dragons, and T. Rex.

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9) Utah Jazz

When the Jazz relocated from New Orleans to Utah in 1978, they infamously kept the incongruous nickname. It was a cost saving measure, as the existing jerseys featuring “Jazz” without any reference to their prior locale could be reused. As much as Utah Jazz has become a punchline, imagine if they were the Utah Deltas or Utah Cajuns? Those New Orleans-centric monkiers were amongst the finalists that lost out to Jazz when a contest was held to name the expansion franchise in 1974. Though there’s plenty of money now to rebrand with a new name, and the jokes about the lack of jazz clubs in Utah live on, ownership in Utah has steadily refused to change the team’s name, including in 2012 when the New Orleans Hornets management asked for Jazz back before eventually settling on Pelicans.

10) Portland Trail Blazers

“Pioneers” was far-and-away the winning entry in a 1970 fan voting contest held by team ownership for a new NBA franchise based in Portland. But there’s a reason Pioneers was a name that stuck out in local’s heads, maybe subliminally: It was already being used by the athletics teams at Portland’s Lewis and Clark College. How ownership let it get to that point is questionable but at least they had a solid runner-up to fall back on in Trail Blazers. Another reference to the pioneering spirit of the area, Trail Blazers also doubled as a description of the franchise being the first major pro sports team in the state of Oregon. It was not a popular pick at first, especially amongst local journalists who considered it too long for headlines, but obviously has endured as a Pacific Northwest staple. The winner of the contest received two season tickets for their suggestion.

11) Washington Wizards

There’s two explanations continually floating out there as to why Washington changed its name from Bullets in 1998. Proponents of one will often mock the other, but it’s likely both are true in some sense. They were originally the Baltimore Bullets, a name referencing to the city’s historical landmark shot tower, a structure used in the 19th century to produce bullets and other projectiles. The name carried over in their 1974 relocation to Washington, D.C. but owner Abe Pollin sought out a change starting in 1995, when his friend Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. Also looking to distance the team from the city’s violent crime reputation, Pollin held a renaming fan contest and Wizards won out over Sea Dogs, Stallions, Express, and Dragons. It was immediately derided and continues to be mocked, even after the incidental Harry Potter connection took hold.

12) Denver Nuggets

Original owner James Trindle had already settled on the Denver Larks for his charter ABA franchise, in reference to Colorado’s state bird. But when financial issues forced him to sell at the 11th hour, new owner Bill Ringsby renamed them the Rockets, an ode to the signature “Ringsby Rocket” long-haul trucks with which he had made his fortune. When ownership changed hands again in 1972, a name change was imperative to disassociate both from Rinsgby’s company and from the NBA’s Houston Rockets, with a merger imminent. A fan voting contest was held and Nuggets was chosen. It nodded to the city’s mining industry history and was an ode to the original Denver Nuggets, a franchise that played briefly in the NBA. The new name was part of an overall revamp, which included a new color scheme, new jerseys, a new GM (Doug Moe), and a new coach (Larry Brown).

13) Cleveland Cavaliers

More than 11,000 suggestions were sent in 1970 to name the new pro basketball franchise, the first in town since the Cleveland Rebels of the BAA had folded in 1948. The winning suggestion of Cavaliers came (along with an essay explaining it) from Jerry Tomko, who was promised but didn’t receive a signed basketball. It beat out other finalists that included Presidents (the state of Ohio has produced eight presidents), Jays (the name of the owner’s son), and Towers (referencing the city’s signature skyscraper, the Terminal Tower). Let’s all take a moment of silence now to imagine J.R. Smith in a Cleveland Presidents jersey. Upon the franchise’s 40th anniversary in 2010, Tomko finally received his prize, a basketball signed by the ’09-’10 Cavs roster. In the meantime, his son Brett had become a longtime pro athlete, though in baseball not basketball.

14) Charlotte Hornets
15) Charlotte Bobcats

Luckily it wasn’t up to original owner George Shinn, who would have called his expansion franchise the Charlotte Spirit. This was a religious reference to his close friend Jim Bakker, a local televangelist who was soon after disgraced by sexual misconduct allegations and then arrested for fraud. Instead, we got the Charlotte Hornets, an homage to the city’s stubborn resistance to British occupation during the Revolutionary War, which led Lord Cornwallis to dub them a “veritable nest of hornets.” Aside from Spirit, Hornets also beat Knights, Stars, Crowns, and Cougar (a nod to the former ABA franchise in the city) in fan voting. When the Hornets relocated to New Orleans, the city of Charlotte was given another chance to vote on a team name, this time selecting Bobcats over Flight and Dragons. It was certainly a welcome choice for then owner Robert “Bob” Johnson, but for everyone else the return of the Hornets was a thankful development in 2013, when it was abdicated by the Pelicans.