Washington Wizards links for May 2: Someone else wants to bring back the Bullets

Theres no doubt that the franchise name Wizards needs to be eradicated. With new starts come new labels. Its no doubt that the name Bullets should have never been changed. A Bullet means a lot more than DC violence. A bullet is a propelled object with accuracy, it helped men harvest meals for their family use bullets to hunt, they are used in ceremonies, they are used by our military when saving american lives.

Mike can we put together a petition or something co-signing the Bullets change? Maybe send it to Wizard/Bullets management.

Theirs no doubt Wizards is synonymous with failure, the name has to go.

Arenas and Dray in Bullets jerseys, wow I think I actually got excited for this Wiz.. ugh excuse Bullets team again.

Everyone should realize that changing the team name will require a substantial amount of resources and effort from Leonsis’s new team. Personally, I would rather Leonsis and his people focus their time and attention on improving the team rather than worry about something as unimportant as a name and the color of the teams uniforms. Lots of NBA teams have names that are just as terrible and stupid as the Wizards. It’s not important.

Plus, Stern’s not going to let NBA teams change their name whenever they want.

seriously, i really don’t give a crap what the name is. We could be called the Washington Generals for all I care, I just want competent individuals and players running this team. and if you want my opinion, i guess i’m kinda young for a wizards fan so I don’t remember the good old bullets days, but i think the old red/white/blue bullets uniforms were butt ugly.

I loved the Bullets name and I was at the Cap Centre in ‘78 and “Wizards” never really did it for me. But respect for Abe and the Pollin family plus the Arenas situation should trump. I’d be fine with another name though and I’m all for going back to red, white, and blue.

because it might incite gun violence—while welcoming back Gilbert Arenas, the local poster-boy for pistol-packing—makes less than no logical sense (incidentally, I want the franchise to be rid of Arenas not because he made that mistake but because he’s a selfish, one-dimensional ball-hog with a lousy attitude toward both team play and his teammates who’s got bad knees and a franchise-crippling contract).

But then changing the name of any sports franchise, thereby betraying that team’s fans and history, makes no logical sense, either, absent a move. Some NBA teams have enjoyed some success with a name change, like the “Thunder”; mostly they do it to reassure their new fans that they aren’t moving back home again. Some, like the “Clippers”, have consigned themselves to oblivion with it. Others, like the Jazz and Lakers, took their history with them and have prospered.

It’s time for our basketball team to get its history back. Without that history, a sports franchise is like a subjugated country—it lacks a true sense of identity. This, as much as bad luck, has plagued Pollin’s franchise since the name change. If it had brought the city a decrease in gun violence in return, then that might provide some sort of argument for continuing it, but since the Bullets became the Wizards, we’ve seen everything in this town from the Beltway Sniper to the drive-by shootings last night that killed 2 and wounded 5. So how’s the sanitization of the word “bullet” working out? Again, speaking entirely logically, it hasn’t made a speck of difference.

In the modern era, no sports franchise I can think of has changed its nickname without a move, not even when, like the “Redskins”, that name is an undeniable affront to minorities; again, that name has a proud history. "Bullets’ seems pretty mild by comparison, and certainly no more violent than “The Sabres” or “The Diamondbacks”. Pollin’s act, in retrospect, was a senile one, like so many of his decisions, and no good has come of it. It’s time to bite the bullet and change it back again.

That may give us more options for a team name.

I might get a lot of flack for this.

BUT WHO GIVES A DARN ABOUT Abe Pollin’s legacy!

Now you can easily take that the wrong way but heres how I break it down.

1.) What he has done is amazing for our franchise and DC, but lets be honest, at times its almost embarassing being a “Wizards” fan. Changing the name would rid this issue and erase any negative connotations with the awful franchise name “Wizards”

2.) Wizards is synonymous with injuries. Trying to be something other than the Bullets doesnt make sense personally. You don’t change the Celtics or Cavaliers, I understand these are “safe” franchise names but regardless they have history.

3) Another thing is with a name change psychologically players may be more willing to join the wagon of a team w/o the Wizards curse stapled to it.

4.) Keeping the Wizards name is only a negative and bad idea when following some of the worst seasons this franchise has seen. New slate, start fresh. You blew up all the players, well time to let the Wizards RIP with those players and its time for a fresh new name for a fresh new team.

5.) Lets keep it real, WIZARDS? Really? It really is ABSOLUTELY terrible.

Just my piece. If some dont like Bullets fine, but please no Wizards, or Wizards colors come next season, please.

PS. Why do the Caps have the Bullets colors! We need them too!

The whole thing was bad: the “vote” on the name, the slim number of names you could vote on (“the Dragons, The Express, The Stallions, The Sea Dogs, and The Wizards”), and that the Pollins did not release the result of what they said was a public vote. They basically self-selected a tremendously stupid name out of a list of self-selected stupid names. A set-up is what it was, and who knows why someone thought that was cool. Irene? So don’t get me started on the value of “honoring the Pollin legacy,” at least only with respect to the team’s name. And the mascot…ugh. So going back to “Bullets” would be great, imo, except for the obvious public opinion problems. I’d say the best way to fix this would be to have another vote, except a real one this time. I’d submit the name, “Constitutionals” into the mix, just to make the change back to “Bullets” a little more likely.

then maybe something more descriptive like:

the goofballs – for arenas
the slackers – for young and his companions
the whiners – in memory of butler
the hurt – for their injuries
the first round and outs – for their playoff results
the unluckies – for their luck in the draft
the chuckers – for george castansa

the Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, OKC Thunder, and Angry Boston Irishmen, we should be… the DC Humidity.