Immediately after Yahoo! Sports’ Marc. J Spears broke the news that the New Orleans Hornets’ switch to become the “New Orleans Pelicans” was a go, as was the case last month , eyes immediately shifted over to Charlotte to wonder if that city’s NBA franchise would take on the discarded name. From 1989 until 2002 the Charlotte Hornets were a teal-affixed fixture, and the current Charlotte franchise (the Charlotte Bobcats, which began play in 2004), has the unfortunate link to being partially named after the team’s former owner in Robert “Bob” Johnson. All signs seem to be pointing to the Bobcats becoming the Hornets under current owner Michael Jordan, in the same way the “expansion” Cleveland Browns were created by the NFL in 1999. Charlotte just re-did its uniforms, though, outfitted its arena to reflect the changes in style, and they do have a pretty entertaining team despite all the losses. Would owner Michael Jordan, as we discussed in December, be quick to pull the trigger on a second re-design in as many years? Would it make much difference, to fans that would prefer to see them crack 40 wins for the second time in the team’s nine-year history, if the Bobcats made the move? The team plans to find out. From the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell : [The Bobcats] hired Harris Interactive, a nationally prominent polling company, to survey both current Bobcats customers and the general Charlotte sports market about a possible change.
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