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You may be alone in that.

If the Bobcats had an identity worth keeping, they would have kept it.

I won't claim I'm in the majority, but it seems as if I'm far from alone.

The Bobcats identity was lost because the team failed to win. The identity was seen as "inferior" to that of the Hornets, who pioneered the teal/purple trend that would take over sports in the 90s. Hornets nostalgia combined with a poor on-court performance? The Bobcats identity never stood a chance.

Which is strange because the original Hornets' contributions to middle school fashion far outweighed anything they did on the court. The nostalgia for a team that never made it past the second round of the playoffs is astonishing.

I agree that winning would have gone a long, long way toward the team being embraced. But there is just something about the Hornets down there...I don't get it. It was a fairly new team that had minimal on-court success. Whether it was the (for the late 1980s) cutting edge color scheme, or what I don't know. Logically there is little reason why this had to happen. But for some reason unknown to the rest of the country it did have to happen for that team to be embraced. While this is, to an extent, about the 'Cats losing, I don't think it's about the 'Cats brand at all. With them losing, the fans were going to pine for the Hornets regardless of their name, unis, colors, logos, etc.

I personally feel the 'Cats had a decent brand. Not top-10 but not too bad. The original wordmark was awful, but easy enough to fix. The secondary logo was nice and the colors were serviceable. The name seems to be the biggest issue. I had no beef with the name. Yeah, the original owner named them after himself. Yeah it was not "unique" (see colleges and high schools), but I'd take it over "Magic" and "Heat" any day. But again, it's not about that; it's about a surprising amount of nostalgia for a short-lived, little-accomplished team.

I don't love this. I don't love that it muddies up the franchise histories (even if we kept the true lineage intact, which we have not). But, regardless of the history/records shift, this probably did have to happen to allow the team to be embraced in the Carolinas.

Regarding the bold: it's funny. That may actually be their biggest contribution. Their gear probably sold more than the other teams (Heat, Magic, T-Wolves) combined in the early 1990s. I was in Minnesota, so the T-Wolves gear was huge, but the Hornets definitely outpaced the Heat and Magic (and probably all non-Bulls/Lakers teams) combined. It was everywhere. That really is what I think of when I think of the original Hornets.

Disclaimer: If this comment is about an NBA uniform from 2017-2018 or later, do not constitute a lack of acknowledgement of the corporate logo to mean anything other than "the corporate logo is terrible and makes the uniform significantly worse."

 

BADGERS TWINS VIKINGS TIMBERWOLVES WILD

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The Hornets 1.0 at least won a good bit of their games, but the Bobcats had the stigma of perineal losers.

It tainted their uniforms.

The nostalgia for a team that never made it past the second round of the playoffs is astonishing.

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At least those 3 teams had longer, albeit not successful, histories. Maybe if the Bobcats had been around for another 10-15 years, the nostalgia for them would be just as great. However, the previous franchise in Charlotte doomed the Bobcats from the start. So the Bobcats may never have reached the same level of nostalgia. We will never know.

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The NBA is a star-driven league and the Hornets had stars in Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning and Mugsy Bogues to market. No matter how good/bad the Bobcats brand was, what jerseys were kids going to buy? Adam Morrison? Emeka Okafor?

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The NBA is a star-driven league and the Hornets had stars in Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning and Mugsy Bogues to market. No matter how good/bad the Bobcats brand was, what jerseys were kids going to buy? Adam Morrison? Emeka Okafor?

I actually LOVED the Bobcats look..hated the nickname though. But if they would've been winning people would've been singing a different tune.

Same goes for the Thunder ironically though. Universal known horrible identity but because they are winning people said they don't need to change because they're a success. Im sorry but for the Thunder and Nets I have the hardest times looking at such atrocities on TV and merchandise.

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I thought they should have went with Flight when it was down to Dragons,Flight, & Bobcats. But once they were broke in for a few years I liked the Bobcats colors and brand. I felt like it was unique. The last few years everything went south. It was time to bring back the Hornets who should have never left in the first place. I wouldn't mind seeing a Bobcats NBDL team in the Bojangles Coliseum now though. I think that would be good enough to bring the brand back given it was never seen as an elite brand either.

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Flight was the worst option available. As for Dragons? I love how the NBA was, for whatever strange reason, trying to push that moniker on one team or another for around a decade or so.

I was told by someone who was involved in the process, that a complete New Jersey Swamp Dragons identity exists somewhere in the NBA Creative Services Dept. offices.

No I have not ever seen it, but apparently the color palette was crazy.

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The Timberwolves were going to move to New Orleans and become the Louisiana Purchase. I hope the concept art was later repurposed for a Cash Money Records album.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Flight was the worst option available. As for Dragons? I love how the NBA was, for whatever strange reason, trying to push that moniker on one team or another for around a decade or so.

I was told by someone who was involved in the process, that a complete New Jersey Swamp Dragons identity exists somewhere in the NBA Creative Services Dept. offices.

No I have not ever seen it, but apparently the color palette was crazy.

It was announced as fact on phila TV/radio that the nets were becoming the swamp Dragons. I was surprised when the nets still were a thing the next season.

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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Flight was the worst option available. As for Dragons? I love how the NBA was, for whatever strange reason, trying to push that moniker on one team or another for around a decade or so.

I was told by someone who was involved in the process, that a complete New Jersey Swamp Dragons identity exists somewhere in the NBA Creative Services Dept. offices.

No I have not ever seen it, but apparently the color palette was crazy.

It was announced as fact on phila TV/radio that the nets were becoming the swamp Dragons. I was surprised when the nets still were a thing the next season.
Don't be surprised if the NBA is still pushing Dragons... gotta move that merch in China.
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The Timberwolves were going to move to New Orleans and become the Louisiana Purchase. I hope the concept art was later repurposed for a Cash Money Records album.

I clearly recall when it looked like the Wolves to New Orleans was inevitable. But I recall nothing about a name change.

(so at this point I acknowledge that I cannot tell whether you are serious about "Purchase")

How awful would "Louisiana Purchase" have been?

Anyway, the NBA blocked the sale...There were certainly some that felt the sale would not have been blocked had been to someone other than Bob Arum and Top Rank Boxing.

Disclaimer: If this comment is about an NBA uniform from 2017-2018 or later, do not constitute a lack of acknowledgement of the corporate logo to mean anything other than "the corporate logo is terrible and makes the uniform significantly worse."

 

BADGERS TWINS VIKINGS TIMBERWOLVES WILD

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http://www.deseretnews.com/article/356861/SLIM-CHANCE-JAZZ-WILL-SELL-NAME.html?pg=all

But there are plenty of nickname nominees aside from the Jazz, which left town for Utah 15 years ago.

Among them: The "Louisiana Purchase," according to Billy Turner, deputy sports editor for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, who said nobody in New Orleans is talking seriously about getting the Jazz label back.

Turner said he's personally partial to the "Louisiana Purchase" because the historic $15 million land swap involved megadollars, like NBA deals do nowadays, though it pales in comparison to the money that changes hands in 20th-century sports-franchise transactions.

Teri Washington, a New York public-relations officer for the NBA, said there's no precedent for an NBA nickname going back to a city once it's left, and she noted that not all nicknames have been geographic fits.

And now look at the thread we're in!

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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The nostalgia for a team that never made it past the second round of the playoffs is astonishing.

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If I'm being brutally honest? The Whalers' logo is the only really "good" logo out of that bunch. That Jets mark only stands out because it's the best the Jets 1.0 managed to come up with, which was never that high a bar. The Expos' logo was great in a sort of QMJHL way, but seemed too "French Canadian" aesthetically for a team whose fanbase was primarily Anglo.

You may be alone in that.

If the Bobcats had an identity worth keeping, they would have kept it.

I won't claim I'm in the majority, but it seems as if I'm far from alone.

The Bobcats identity was lost because the team failed to win. The identity was seen as "inferior" to that of the Hornets, who pioneered the teal/purple trend that would take over sports in the 90s. Hornets nostalgia combined with a poor on-court performance? The Bobcats identity never stood a chance.

Which is strange because the original Hornets' contributions to middle school fashion far outweighed anything they did on the court. The nostalgia for a team that never made it past the second round of the playoffs is astonishing.

It's slightly more than that. The Hornets were the first major pro sports team in the Carolinas, and the organization made an effort to make it everyone's team. Not Charlotte, not North Carolina, everyone's team. That led to the selling out of all home games for years, which, while the team never made it to the conference finals, made good memories.

I get that, and I get that it was associated with winning more so then the Bobcats' identity...This team has always been terrible, and that was cited as a reason why the Bobcats' name had to go. So the on-court performance has been so bad that it's ruined whatever potential the Bobcats' name may have had...and now the plan is to associate that franchise with the name of a beloved former team?

It would be better for the "legacy" of the Charlotte Hornets to just keep it retired. Otherwise? The name is going to be associated with the same sub-par basketball that killed the Bobcats' identity before it even had a chance to connect.

The nostalgia buzz (ha!) was going to get people psyched for the short term, but once that wears off? It's still the same bad basketball team. Only now it's rubbed off on a beloved brand. At least the Bobcats' name could only gone up. The new Hornets are going to smother the good feelings associated with the original Hornets with Jordan's ineptitude.

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In an era where the roundel fad still exists...that Expos logo actually fits in pretty well in today's MLB. Update the stitches, maybe, but other than that, it's your quintessential post-2000 MLB logo.

Smart is believing half of what you hear. Genius is knowing which half.

 

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Flight was the worst option available.

Worse than Dragons? Other than "singular names boo," I can't think of any reason why Dragons would've been a better choice than Flight, especially given that North Carolina likes to claim that whole "First in Flight" thing.

Tradition is the foundation of innovation, and not the enemy.

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Plus, I'd give the flight thing to Ohio over North Carolina, anyway. Best for Charlotte to not try to take too much credit for it, IMO.

Flight could have been interesting with the Jordan ownership. Perhaps they could have used some variation of a jumpman logo in additional to airplane imagery.

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