1) New Orleans Pelicans (Hornets)
2) Charlotte Hornets (Bobcats)

A connection between “Hornets” and Charlotte goes back to the Revolutionary War, when British commander Lord Cornwallis described the stubbornly resistant city as a “veritable hornet’s nest.” It was a catchy name for an NBA team, and combined with their flashy color scheme, the Hornets quickly became popular not just in Charlotte but across the country, or at least wherever Starter jackets were sold. It wasn’t enough for owner George Shinn, who relocated the team to New Orleans in 2002. David Stern promised the NBA would soon return to Charlotte and delivered the Bobcats, which felt like a Hornets simulacrum with their orange color scheme and generic name. Meanwhile, the Hornets were struggling financially in New Orleans, especially after Hurricane Katrina. When Saints owner Tom Benson purchased the franchise, he initiated a full rebrand that included a name change to Pelicans, a bird native to the New Orleans area. In one of the few savvy moves he made as team owner, Michael Jordan then applied to change his team’s name from Bobcats to Hornets, which took effect in ’14-’15. The official franchise histories became a little convoluted but there was certainly no concern over where a championship banner would hang, as neither franchise has ever advanced past the second round of the playoffs.

3) Atlanta Hawks (Bisons, Blackhawks)

Their logo is the predator bird but the Hawks in Atlanta Hawks is technically short for Blackhawks. They actually started life as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946 in the National Basketball League (NBL). By the time the franchise joined the NBA in 1949, they were the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. “Tri-Cities” refers to the cities of Moline, Illinois (where they played most home games), Rock Island, Iowa, and Davenport, Iowa, which sit along the Illinois-Iowa border. “Blackhawks” was a nod to the Black Hawk War, waged in that area in 1832 between U.S. troops and Sauk Tribe leader Black Hawk. As other small market, regional NBA franchises began folding en masse in the early ’50s, the Blackhawks ensured survival by relocating to Milwaukee. That’s where the name was shortened to Hawks, a bird prevalent in Wisconsin. They didn’t last long in the Cream City, relocating again to St. Louis just four years later. Even though the bird is much less common in St. Louis, the Hawks name stayed, and remained again in 1969 when the franchise nested in its current home of Atlanta.

4) Detroit Pistons (Zollner Pistons)

It makes perfect sense for a Motor City team to be nicknamed after a car component but the Pistons name actually traces back to Fort Wayne, Indiana with Fred Zollner. Nicknamed “Mr. Pro Basketball” for his prominent role in the 1949 NBL-BAA merger that formed the NBA, Zollner founded the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in 1937. They were named after his foundry, which manufactured and distributed automobile pistons. Known colloquially in and around town as the “Zollners,” the Pistons won two NBL titles and were one of seven former NBL franchises to join the NBA in 1949. As the newly merged league aimed to shed basketball’s amateurish industrial league past, Zollner agreed to drop the Zollner and call his team the Fort Wayne Pistons. When Zollner relocated the franchise to Detroit in 1957, the Pistons name was an obvious continuation. Even though the Zollner name no longer graces any NBA marquees, it does live on in the Western Conference championship trophy, which was renamed after Zollner in 1999, the same year he was posthumously inducted in the Hall of Fame.

5) Oklahoma City Thunder (SuperSonics)

When Clay Bennett relocated his basketball franchise from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008, retaining the SuperSonics name was a non-starter. As part of the settlement from a lawsuit filed by the city of Seattle, Bennett had to leave behind the SuperSonics moniker, as well as the retired jerseys, the 1979 championship trophy, and several other artifacts. In exchange, Bennett was granted Kevin Durant and the rest of the roster, some arena seats, some office equipment, and a fresh start. For the first full-time Oklahoma City NBA franchise (both the Hornets and Kings had played partially in OKC in the past), Bennett took his time picking a new name. A fan submission contest was undertaken, with Thunder beating out fellow finalists Bison, Energy, and Wind. The NBA eventually returning to Seattle has been a steady assumption for the past 15 years and counting. Whether it’s via league expansion or another team relocating, one thing is for sure: the classic name of SuperSonics will be coming back.

6) Philadelphia 76ers (Nationals)

The original BAA season in ’46-’47 featured 11 teams, only three of which survived into the ’50s. Seven other franchises were added in the meantime that folded almost immediately. The first decade of the NBA was a real feeling-out period, and it’s no coincidence that the teams who survived were mostly the ones based in large cities. The era of regional teams was killed off by the early ’50s, as franchises in Providence, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Sheboygan, and Waterloo couldn’t make it, while the franchises in Fort Wayne, Rochester, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis had to relocate to more heavily populated locales. As the league entered the ’60s it was lean and mean, with teams in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cincinnati (then a serious metropolis), Detroit, St. Louis, and Chicago. The one medium-sized city holdout was the Syracuse Nationals. That staying power in tiny Syracuse can be mainly attributed to the on-court success of the Nationals in the NBA’s early years. Led by Dolph Schayes, considered the second greatest player of all-time after George Mikan at the time, the Nats reached the playoffs in all 14 years they played, winning the title in 1955 and playing in the 1950 and 1954 NBA Finals. They may have held out even longer, if not for the Philadelphia Warriors moving to San Francisco, leaving a huge East Coast city without a franchise. Syracuse became the Philadelphia 76ers in 1963, led by a new head coach in Schayes. 76ers, of course, is a nod to the Declaration of Independence, signed in Philadelphia in 1776. The name Nationals was a patriotic gesture by original owner Daniel Biasone, an Italian immigrant. It languished on the shelf for over 40 years before it was adopted again by Washington’s new baseball team in 2005.

“In essence a fly-by-night league on a shoe-string budget, it was not uncommon for the ABA to see regular city and name changes on the whims of its owners.”

7) Los Angeles Clippers (Braves)

The first attempt at a major pro basketball team in Buffalo ended after a scant 13 games (see #3 above). Attempt number two was technically more successful, but that’s obviously setting the bar pretty low. After fielding just eight teams for a number of years, the NBA responded to the impending encroachment of the ABA by expanding rapidly in the late ’60s, including a franchise in Buffalo. The Braves’ main home was the same as the Bisons’ almost 25 years earlier, the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, which was opened in 1940 and then renovated and expanded in 1970 to accommodate the Braves and a new NHL franchise, the Buffalo Sabres. But in their first few seasons they also played a handful of home games in nearby Toronto, as the NBA eyed a future relocation or expansion to Canada. The Braves floundered in the standings early, but rounded into a contender in the mid ’70s thanks to the efforts of coach Jack Ramsay and star center Bob McAdoo. Despite the positive gains on the court, Buffalo quickly proved unable to support a basketball franchise. Owner Paul Snyder had a deal worked to sell and become the first NBA team in Florida, playing in the Miami area, but the city of Buffalo successfully sued to block the deal. It turned out to be all for naught, as Snyder was eventually able to unload the struggling franchise on John Brown, who used it as leverage to take over the team he really wanted. In an unprecedented move, he sought out Celtics owner Irv Levin, who was contemplating selling his franchise to try to start a new one in California (knowing that the NBA would never allow its cornerstone franchise to switch coasts). The two agreed to an even switch (brokered by David Stern), with Brown taking over the Celtics, and Levin inheriting the Braves, whom he almost immediately moved to San Diego, becoming the Clippers. The Clippers name was an ode to the city’s maritime economy and history and stayed with the franchise six years later when they moved to Los Angeles.

8) San Antonio Spurs (Chaparrals, Gunslingers)
9) Brooklyn Nets (Americans)
10) Denver Nuggets (Larks, Rockets)

In essence a fly-by-night league on a shoe-string budget, it was not uncommon for the ABA to see regular city and name changes on the whims of its owners. Only two ABA franchises never changed names, the Indiana Pacers, who got called up to the NBA in 1976, and the Kentucky Colonels, who were forced to fold after being passed over in the merger. The three franchises that joined Indiana in the NBA from the ABA had all gone through at least one re-branding by that point. The San Antonio Spurs began life as the Dallas Chaparrals, one of the 11 original franchises for the inaugural ’67-’68 ABA season. Attendance was spotty and in ’70-’71 the team became the Texas Chaparrals, playing some games in Lubbock and Fort Worth. When that failed to bring in new fans, the team was sold to a consortium of San Antonio businessmen, who initially renamed them the Gunslingers but eventually settled on the Spurs. Meanwhile, newly minted ABA owner Arthur Brown envisioned a patriotic New York team, so he named them simply the New York Americans and planned on home games at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan. When the Knicks protested that encroachment, he was forced to instead relocate as the New Jersey Americans in Teaneck. They eventually made it back to New York in Long Island in 1968, renaming themselves the Nets to fall into a rhyming scheme with the NFL’s Jets and MLB’s Mets. As for Denver, they were originally called the Larks, after the Colorado state bird, but owner James Trindle had to sell the franchise before they ever took the court. New owner Bill Ringsby renamed them the Rockets, after a branded line of semis utilized by his trucking company. This stuck for seven seasons until 1974 when a merger with the NBA seemed imminent and the new Rockets were worried about having the same name as the existing franchise in Houston. Nuggets was chosen by fan vote, a reference to the area’s gold rush history, and a nod to a Denver-based NBA franchise of the same name from the late ’40s. 

11) Sacramento Kings (Seagrams, Pros, Royals)

There hasn’t been much tangible success in Kings franchise history, but few other teams can claim a timeline as rich and varied. They started life in upstate New York as the semi-pro Rochester Seagrams in 1923, sponsored by the local alcohol distillery. They changed it to the Pros in the early ’40s to try and gain some credibility, and it seemed to work as they were invited to join the NBL in 1945. A name-the-team contest was held and the alliterative Rochester Royals was the winner. The name followed the franchise to Cincinnati in 1957, still appropriate in a place known as the “Queen City.” In 1972 they moved again, this time to Kansas City, and due to the local baseball team already being named the Royals, they changed again, keeping things regal with Kings. The name remained in place when the team relocated to California in 1985.

12) Washington Wizards (Packers, Zephyrs, Bullets)

Opting to expand in 1961 with the league reaching unprecedented new heights of popularity, the NBA selected Chicago as a natural home for a new team. The Chicago Packers became technically the first NBA expansion franchise in ’61-’62, with a name derived from the city’s rich history of meat packing, especially at the Union Stock Yards, which were basically next door to the basketball arena. Despite the presence of Rookie of the Year Walt Bellamy, the Packers struggled to compete against more seasoned teams and ticket sales were flagging by season’s end. Management fretted that sharing a name with a rival NFL team was one major source of the problem, so they changed it to the Zephyrs in ’62-’63, as an ode to the Windy City nickname. But local interest was still lacking and in 1963 the franchise moved to Baltimore. They took on the new name of Bullets, as an ode to the Baltimore Bullets franchise that won the 1948 NBA title then folded in 1955 (the original Bullets derived the name from the historic Old Baltimore Shot Tower, a brick tower that produced shot in the 19th century and was once the nation’s tallest structure). The Bullets moniker carried through the franchise’s relocation to Washington in 1973, but was finally changed to Wizards by owner Abe Pollin in 1997, in response to the assassination of his good friend, Israeli prime minister Yitzkhak Rabin.

13) Los Angeles Lakers (Gems)

Most fans know that the Los Angeles Lakers began play in Minneapolis, and curiously kept the team name after moving from the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” to the land of 10,000 freeways. But it’s a lesser-known fact that the Minneapolis Lakers came about as essentially a buy-out of a folded NBL franchise called the Detroit Gems. The Gems were owned by Maurice Winston, and derived their name from his Winston Jewelers company. They played their home games outside of the city at a high school gymnasium in Dearborn, drawing scant fans as they compiled one of the worst campaigns in pro basketball history. The Gems finished the ’46-’47 NBL season with a record of 4-40, with all four victories coming at home. Two Minneapolis businessmen, who had been previously rebuffed from starting their own expansion NBL franchise, purchased the Gems for $15,000. They moved the team to Minneapolis, renamed them the Lakers, and inherited the Gems’ top pick in the league’s 1947 dispersal draft, which they used on George Mikan. After winning the NBL title in 1948, the Lakers then won five titles in their first six years in the NBA and played in one more NBA Finals in Minneapolis in 1959 before moving to Los Angeles.

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