NBA's New Jersey Swamp Dragons/Fire Dragons

[tron1013]

Good read on the four-letter network's website about the rebranding that never happened, complete with a bunch of pics I've never seen before.

Story Here

[mjd77]

I remember the rumors about this from the '90s.  I guess a look like this would have fit in perfectly for the time, but it would be a disaster by today's standards. This is the first time I've ever seen pics associated with the rumored change.

[Old School Fool]

Oh god.

[panthers_2012]

That design screams 90s.

[The_Admiral]

Jacket looks like someone bought some blank Diamondbacks prototypes and made up a team for an episode of My Brother and Me.

[Sport]

Favorite part: 

 

I thought, "Oh, cool, I get to draw a dragon!" They said, "No, a swamp dragon." I said, "What's that?'"I didn't give a whole of thought to the swamp. I was just excited to draw a dragon. I called him, "Swampy."

 

What happens when marketing people think too hard. You get the New Jersey Swamp Dragons and Washington Wizards. 

[Guy with Machete]

Looks like the lovechild of the 90s Pistons and Phoenix Coyotes.

 

[MellowTheMyth]

All I can think when I see this is Dragon Tales.

[mjd77]

Even by '90s standards that color palette seems like too much. It screams arena league football to me.

[Josh.0]

The font is atrocious -- but, why didn't they just go with the New Jersey Dragons? That's pretty solid in it's own right. But, as horrible of a name that 'Nets' is, I am glad they stuck with it. 

[The_Admiral]

BILLY PAIGE, FORMER NETS DIRECTOR OF MERCHANDISE AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND APPARENTLY ALSO THREE KIDS STACKED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER UNDER A TRENCHCOAT: Everybody likes dragons. Dragons are cool.

[Gothamite]

Holy  .  Look at the uniform.

 

 

As delightfully hideous as this particular rebrand would have been, I do wish they'd have dropped the name "Nets", either then or in the move to Brooklyn.  Never liked it.

[frosty06306]

A damn shame they stuck with the awfully bland Kidd era set. The possibilities for this brand were endless.

[The_Admiral]

The Nets name is just fine. Would have been interesting if they had gotten the Cavs' redesign with a net in it while the Cavs went with, I dunno, not that.

[Sport]

Also this gave me a LOLZ: "

SPOELSTRA: David called me screaming, "What the f--- is going on?" I asked what he was screaming about. He told me the vote came in, 26-1, in our favor. Well, that's terrific. What's the problem? He told me: "No, that isn't terrific, because the one dissenting team was you -- the Nets."

 

We voted against our own name change. I thought he was kidding. If your own team votes no, you can't go ahead with something like this."

[Pirate]

Anyone willing to clean-up that logo and keep it true to it's original look? I'd love to put this in NBA 2K16.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

18 minutes ago, the admiral said:

The Nets name is just fine. Would have been interesting if they had gotten the Cavs' redesign with a net in it while the Cavs went with, I dunno, not that.

 

The design on the side panels of the Kidd-era uniform was that of a net.

 

This is the uniform which the team wore for more than a decade, the longest tenure of any look in its history.  Upon the move to Brooklyn, if the Nets weren't going to go back to the classic Erving-style uniforms, then they should have kept this beautiful and dignified set.

[Sport]

I don't mind the Nets name because of its origins in New York and how it rhymes with Mets and Jets (I think there was also a World Team Tennis team called the Sets). That's a cool origin story and I'm willing to give the Nets a pass because of it. It's not like they just pulled that out of nowhere. 

 

I also really like the rebrand they went with in the late 90's even if the primary logo featured a rim that was missing a net. The argyle pattern was perfect for them and the navy, red, and silver was a really attractive color scheme. The blue road jerseys were my favorite 

 

[BlackBolt3]

Boy, they REALLY looked for some way to be "cool". They could've been the team for the new millennium because everything in the late 90s' had to be futuristic:

"But they played with other logos, including some with the lettering rendered as electronic wiring -- an early attempt to play on the word "Internet," which, of course, contains the word "net"

 

Just thought about it makes this whole process a gem that we may never see again. From Swamp Dragons to the New Jersey InterNETS.

[sc49erfan15]

Seriously - how long would "Swamp Dragons" have stuck around?

 

I doubt it would've lasted 10 years. The closest example for that era would have to be the Wizards, who have gone back to being Bullets in all but name. Nets would've made a return by now.