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"Brooklyn Nets"? Team name questions remain

Nets Daily reports on a Fox Business News interview with CEO Brett Yormark, who acknowledged that, while "Brooklyn Nets” is the team's "working title," and “most people assume it’s going to be the Brooklyn Nets," owners still must "validate that” with some "research in the field."

Yormark, on message, cited Bruce Ratner's "vision and plan to bring sports entertainment back to Brooklyn," as opposed to, say, the vision and plan to gain what Chuck Ratner of Forest City Enterprises called a "great piece of real estate."

"Brooklyn" still solid?

In April 2006, there was some media speculation about whether the team might get a new name, such as the "Brooklyn Accents."

Yormark then told the Courier-Life chain that “Brooklyn will be the predominant [city] brand, but we’re not sure of what the last name will be.”

Interestingly, NetsDaily points out that the Nets hold trademarks for both Brooklyn Nets and New York Nets. Could the name "Brooklyn" be dropped without Borough President Marty Markowitz threatening to self-immolate at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues?

As I noted last year, Forest City Ratner once more enthusiastically promoted the "Brooklyn Nets," as in the original December 2003 press release or a 2004 flier (above), which proclaimed "And we get the Brooklyn Nets." Now they're a bit more tentative.

And, as Scott Turner of Fans for Fair Play pointed out earlier this year, the team has already started ditching New Jersey and plumping road uniforms sans location.

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