Grantland.com’s Zach Lowe on Tuesday appeared on ESPN.com’s "The BS Report" to discuss the worst NBA team names with host Bill Simmons. Lowe said of the Nets having the worst team name, "Does it really need to be explained? It’s a Net. It’s just string, it just hangs there, it’s useless and it does nothing." Lowe noted of the team choosing the name while in the ABA, "They wanted to align up with Jets and Mets and there was even a pro tennis team, when that was a thing, called the Sets in New York, so they wanted to fit in with that." Lowe said the name does not "stand the test of time." Simmons said of the Nets franchise, "When they moved to Brooklyn it just seemed natural to switch the name." Lowe said, "People think that you can just change a name, you know, willy nilly. We’ve seen this with the Pelicans, with the Charlotte franchise going back to the Hornets. It takes time. It takes intellectual property clauses in some cases." Lowe noted of the nickname change in Brooklyn, "They certainly kicked it around. I think they talked about Knights. ... I think they know that Nets is not a great name for a franchise that wants to be the coolest franchise in the league." NFL.com’s Dave Dameshek said the best nickname in the NBA is the Trail Blazers, asking, "What organization doesn’t wish to be perceived as at the front end of whatever is going on?" Simmons said, "Overall, the Portland Trail Blazers have done the best job because the other great thing about that name is you're not just blazing trails, but it actually feels like that city because a big part of Portland is hiking and going on trails so it’s like this double-entendre that’s just everything you want from a name" (“The BS Report,” ESPN.com, 8/20).
