Iverson is a Sixer again

[OnWis97]

It's a good thing the Wizards aren't still the Bullets.

Rumor around DC has it that Ted Leonsis is thinking about changing it back.

He better. If there's one thing he needs to do (aside from winning a championship, of course), it's to undo the one big mistake that Abe Pollin made in his 40-some years as owner of the team and rename the team the Washington Bullets.

I don't like the wizard name (and hate the identity) and I loved the bullets uniforms. I wish he'd never made the change, but given all the good things Pollin did, I think it's proper to honor his wish that the team not be called the bullets. To turn it right around after he dies seems a bit disrespectful. I don't think they should go back.

[The_Admiral]

While the sediment for Bullets is there for many fans I feel they shouldn't go back to it in respect to Abe.

Yeah, that would be a dirty move.

[IceCap]

No, the old black and gold identity was a holdover from a previous owner who wanted to rename the team the Philadelphia Pirates (seriously). The plan was to slowly introduce the new identity with a black and gold colour scheme and go from there.

What? Where did you hear this?

The Sixers were bought from Harold Katz by Comcast back in '96. The team is run by Comcast-Spectacor, which is chaired by Ed Snider, who owned the Flyers (before his company Spectacor was sold to Comcast.) The new uniforms came after the '96 - '97 season, so it was still under the current ownership. The team "president" (and extreme-minority owner) was local fitness mogul Pat Croce, who very likely inspired the color change, as he was a master of marketing and promoting. He made the arena a great place to be around. After he left (he wanted more power, but they weren't going to make him the chairman of the board, lol) the team has floundered.

At no time have I ever heard about the Pirates thing. I can't believe that Croce would ever have even though of that, since he was a long time fan before becoming a trainer and eventually president. Either way, the black and gold colors were NOT holdovers from a previous owner.

Ah, Pat Croce, that was the guy. For some reason I remember hearing he was the majority owner. Anyway yeah, it was his idea to change the name to Pirates and change the colour scheme accordingly. Croce has an affinity for pirates, and from what I remember hearing his idea to change to the black and gold scheme were the first steps in his attempted rebranding of the team as the Pirates.

I can't remember specifically where I first heard it. I want to say that I read it in an article someone linked in a post here years ago, but I'm not 100% sure.

[chakfu]

It's a good thing the Wizards aren't still the Bullets.

Rumor around DC has it that Ted Leonsis is thinking about changing it back.

He better. If there's one thing he needs to do (aside from winning a championship, of course), it's to undo the one big mistake that Abe Pollin made in his 40-some years as owner of the team and rename the team the Washington Bullets.

I don't like the wizard name (and hate the identity) and I loved the bullets uniforms. I wish he'd never made the change, but given all the good things Pollin did, I think it's proper to honor his wish that the team not be called the bullets. To turn it right around after he dies seems a bit disrespectful. I don't think they should go back.

Did you really like the Bullets uniforms in the latter years? I'm conflicted about whether I liked the striped ones, but either way, they were pretty iconic. But the ones that followed seemed so drab, with the wordmark too small and kind of illegible; I think they cleaned them up in the later years, going away from the star trek font; but I always thought that last Bullets set was awfully drab and amateurish.

[chickenhead]

The Wizards identity would be a whole lot different if they didn't have a logo that looked like a rejected Olympic logo for...Hogwarts or something. But it also can't look like the Magic. Seriously, we've got Gandalf, we've got Zeppelin t-shirts--there's got to be a way to have a cool Wizard.

As for the Sixers, I just don't understand how they got to the black color scheme when we're talking about the cradle of American democracy. Yes, there are a lot of red, white, and blue teams--but the one thing the Sixers have with that scheme is legitimacy. I don't know--maybe I just loved my trip to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, but you should be able to have an iconic design when you literally have icons in your backyard.

[The_Admiral]

"Bullets" is a pretty weak name (sounds too close to Bulls) and has generally accompanied weak identities. Problem is that "Wizards" is even worse, accompanied by soulless '90s relics. Worse yet, the limited lifespan of the Wizards moniker means it's not associated with Wes Unseld or a world championship or what little the Bullets did right, but rather exclusively years of listless moribund submediocrity. If we say, hypothetically speaking, that the Bullets moved away and were immediately replaced, Senators-style, with this expansion team called the Washington Wizards, they'd be one worthless team. Michael Jordan drafting Kwame Brown. Michael Jordan trying to play when he wasn't Michael Jordan. One first round win in 12 years. Bleak stuff.

Needless to say, the murder of Yitzhak Rabin was a horrible tragedy, but I wouldn't begrudge a new owner for reverting the team name if it came in response to overwhelming demand from the fans and came with a nice visual identity that minimizes the whole bullet thing. It's a delicate task, but if they pull it off and wash the bad Wizards taste out of everyone's mouth, it'll be worth it.

[rockngoalie1]

Agreed. Obviously Leonsis wouldn't do anything so soon, since he and Pollin were good friends, but I still see the image of that team changing a lot in the next five years. Hopefully he can do to the Wizards what he did to the Caps.

[The_Admiral]

If they were so concerned about being called the Bullets, maybe they should've come up with a different word for putting the ball in the air in hopes of it passing through a hoop, and had a backcourt that consisted of a point guard and a not-the-point guard. 24-second attempt clock. Fouled in the act of trying.