What's in a name?

[Jon_Bon]

Just a question.

When the NBA comes back to Seattle (I think it's when rather if) do you guys think they will be Sonics / Supersonics?

I know there is a lot of love for the name at the moment, but after a few years do you think that the will / could change now that Boeing has moved it's HQ? I always thought it was a big gamble to name your team based on a company.

Hope the NBA comes back to you guys real soon. As someone who started watching the NBA just as Kemp and Payton got going all always have a soft spot for you guys.

[Ex-hippie]

Well, I would agree that it's dicey to give a team a corporate name (unless you're in, say, Orlando where they won't just move the Magic Kingdom), but Boeing still does have an enormous presence in Seattle, notwithstanding the move of the HQ. In any case the name has lived on for over 40 years and transcends the company by now. The name was a big part of the negotiation between the city and the ownership group and I'm sure any new Seattle team will be called the Supersonics if it's legally permissible.

[jenn_gp]

We definately would keep the name Supersonics I hope. Boeing still produces airplanes in the area. I don't think it should matter at this point if their HQ's have moved..we're talking about an establishment with 41 years of history with the Sonics. The only team to win a professional title in this city...they deserve the right to keep the name even if Boeing's HQ have moved.

Frankly, I wouldn't support a team if they weren't named the Sonics.

[Dick Tate]

When the NBA comes back to Seattle (I think it's when rather if) do you guys think they will be Sonics / Supersonics?

If it's the unlikely expansion team within five years, then the answer is yes. Any other circumstances, the answer is no (thanks to the sellouts).

[BenjaminH]

In the 90s, was the name officially changed from the Supersonics to the Sonics? I'm asking because I don't know.

[Sweezo]

I think it was when the unis were changed to those horrible space needle centric abortions with the red accents, but when Schultz got the team it went back to being the Supersonics.

[jenn_gp]

^I actually liked those unis!
Not as much as the old logo with the Seattle skyline though..that one was the best.

[Ex-hippie]

In the 90s, was the name officially changed from the Supersonics to the Sonics? I'm asking because I don't know.

In the 2004 draft, I noticed that David Stern, when announcing the pick, started to refer to the team as "Supersonics," then corrected himself. Something like this... "With the twelfth pick of the 2004 NBA draft, the Seattle Supers... the Seattle Sonics select Robert Swift, from Bakersfield, California." Emphasizing the word "Sonics." I'm not sure what happened there exactly, but I have been paying attention in every draft since then, and he's just been calling the team the Supersonics. (Even in 2008 when I'm sure he'd have liked to call the team something else.) I don't know what to make of it.

[jenn_gp]

^I remember Stern doing that too. That was weird.

[djthesonicsfan]

Ironically, the supersonic, or SST, was never actually built... our team was named after an aborted project.