Posts tagged ‘team colors’

Ernie Grunfeld recently, somewhat, let the cat out of the bag regarding an impending team color scheme change — which was really inevitable anyway, it’s just that hearing a formality from the team president of basketball operations before it comes from the blogging owner of transparency, Ted Leonsis, perks up some ears.

Leonsis made himself available to the media toward the end of Monday’s Midnight Madness, even though I imagine he was pretty exhausted from his travels. He had meetings regarding the NHL, American Express and the NBA in New York City during the day on Monday, and said, “I didn’t think I’d get back here in time. I was really tired, but I walked in and all these kids were screaming and hollering, and now I have a lot of energy.”

I figured I’d ask him about the color change (to red, white and blue), to see if he was ready to make some sort of announcement … that’s not an “as you know” as the end of the press conference.

[As an aside, I think I'm ready to claim "As you know..." as Ernie Grunfeld's go-to equivalent of Antawn Jamison's "And things of that nature ..." and Mike Miller's "It is what it is."

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Back in early August, when it was revealed that the New Jersey Nets had filed paperwork to change their team name, I got curious, did the Wizards do the same thing?

Evidently so, as team president Ernie Grunfeld let it slip this afternoon that the team would be switching their colors to red, white and blue for the 2011-12 season.

When I asked in August, team spokespeople were relatively mum … aside from a “Ted likes red” {wink, wink}. A league spokesperson wouldn’t comment either, other than indicating that, “if a franchise wanted to change its team name or colors, paperwork must be filed 24 months prior to the start of the season when the team wants to make the change.”

Basically, it became understood that the Wizards would eventually change their team colors to incorporate red, but an announcement would be made on their own terms, i.e., with the marketing pizazz that Ted Leonsis has became known for (See: Midnight Madness, PA Announcer Tryouts). Read more »