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Are New Jersey Nets Becoming The "Brooklyn New Yorkers"?


By

John Del Signore

Published Dec 15, 2010

Modified Dec 15, 2010


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By

John Del Signore

Published Dec 15, 2010

Modified Dec 15, 2010


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Someday, after all the lawsuits are dismissed and a desperately-needed stadium and parking lot comes to Prospect Heights, the New Jersey Nets will play world-class basketball in Brooklyn. But they will likely do so under a new name, and it looks like that name may be—drum roll please—the Brooklyn New Yorkers! And the crowd goes wilding. Officials associated with the Nets are denying it, but the Nets Daily has come up with some pretty convincing evidence that The New Yorkers are coming to Brooklyn. Who's their mascot, Eustace Tilley?

Nets Daily discovered that on September 30th, "two lawyers associated with a large Philadelphia law firm sought trademark protection" for the name, the URL brooklynnewyorkers.com has also been registered in recent months by an unidentified party, and the logos seen here are definitely for a basketball team. A spokesperson for Mikhail Prohorov told Nets Daily simply, "Not ours." But Nets Daily notes that the filings were made not long after the team informed the NBA it would be changing its name from the "New Jersey Nets."

If this comes to pass, The New Yorkers will join the ranks of other stupid sports team names, like the Philadelphia Phillies, the Utah Jazz (because of a move from New Orleans), and the LA Lakers (because they used to play in Minneapolis, land of 10,000 lakes). As one CBS Sports blogger puts it, The Brooklyn New Yorkers is a name "so substantive it drowns in itself." But this is the Atlantic Yards project we're talking about, so maybe we should just be glad they're not going with The Brooklyn Blights. But hey, how about the Brooklyn Gentrifiers? Or, considering the borough's hottest trends, perhaps The Brooklyn Canners? The Brooklyn Bullets also has a zippy ring to it. Or fuck it, how about The Brooklyn Queens, just to mess with the other teams' heads?

Tagged

Atlantic Yards

barclays center

brooklyn

brooklyn new yorkers

nets

prospect heights


John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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