Spring Break
Playing the nice game
Marc Gauthier
Issue date: 2/5/09 Section: Sports
Somewhere out there, in an alternate universe perhaps, Dwyane Wade isn't playing for the Miami Heat.
Now, I'm not talking about a hypothetical situation in which the Detroit Pistons draft Wade over Darko Milicic with the second pick in the 2003 draft. I'm not even talking about the Denver Nuggets or Toronto Raptors selecting him with the third and fourth picks in the draft.
Nope. Somewhere, Wade is playing for the Miami Flamingos, or if he's lucky, the Miami Waves.
I'm talking about 1988. The year I was born, the year George Bush was elected the 41st president and the year Miami got a professional basketball team.
In trying to find a name for the Miami team, the franchise held a "name the team" contest. There were three choices, the Heat, the Flamingos and the Waves. Twenty thousand fans later, the Heat franchise was born.
You can take a moment to think about what it might be like to call yourself a Flamingos fan. Not a pretty picture.
The histories behind the NBA team names vary in many ways. Some are as simple as a 'name the team" contest. Others have historical meanings that date as far back to the 1600s. (The Knicks - originally named the Knickerbockers - are references to the style of pants the Dutch wore when they settled the area now known as New York. Knickerbockers were pants rolled up just below the knee, or the length of modern day NBA shorts.)
In all cases, the names that all NBA fans have come to know are all unique. Here's how some of the NBA team names came to exist.
"Name the team" contests.
Cleveland Cavaliers - In 1970, there were 11,000 entries to name the Cleveland franchise. Choices included the Jays, the Foresters and the Presidents.
Rumor has it, there was one entry for the Cleveland LeBron's, but the name had no meaning in 1970. Forty years later, I think it might have won.
Orlando Magic - One year after Miami was selected to host an NBA team, Orlando was the next Florida city to take in an NBA team. The names in the contest were the Magic, the Juice and the Tropics.
Now, I'm not talking about a hypothetical situation in which the Detroit Pistons draft Wade over Darko Milicic with the second pick in the 2003 draft. I'm not even talking about the Denver Nuggets or Toronto Raptors selecting him with the third and fourth picks in the draft.
Nope. Somewhere, Wade is playing for the Miami Flamingos, or if he's lucky, the Miami Waves.
I'm talking about 1988. The year I was born, the year George Bush was elected the 41st president and the year Miami got a professional basketball team.
In trying to find a name for the Miami team, the franchise held a "name the team" contest. There were three choices, the Heat, the Flamingos and the Waves. Twenty thousand fans later, the Heat franchise was born.
You can take a moment to think about what it might be like to call yourself a Flamingos fan. Not a pretty picture.
The histories behind the NBA team names vary in many ways. Some are as simple as a 'name the team" contest. Others have historical meanings that date as far back to the 1600s. (The Knicks - originally named the Knickerbockers - are references to the style of pants the Dutch wore when they settled the area now known as New York. Knickerbockers were pants rolled up just below the knee, or the length of modern day NBA shorts.)
In all cases, the names that all NBA fans have come to know are all unique. Here's how some of the NBA team names came to exist.
"Name the team" contests.
Cleveland Cavaliers - In 1970, there were 11,000 entries to name the Cleveland franchise. Choices included the Jays, the Foresters and the Presidents.
Rumor has it, there was one entry for the Cleveland LeBron's, but the name had no meaning in 1970. Forty years later, I think it might have won.
Orlando Magic - One year after Miami was selected to host an NBA team, Orlando was the next Florida city to take in an NBA team. The names in the contest were the Magic, the Juice and the Tropics.
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