Sonics Shouldn't Change Name They Had As Champs

"SuperSonics" was good enough for Fred Brown and Lenny Wilkens and Jack Sikma. It's good enough for me.

Isn't anyone getting tired of teams changing their names, logos and colors just to be modern and marketable?

"I'll tell you one thing," said Rick Welts, president of NBA Properties, "as long as Red Auerbach is alive, the Boston Celtics won't change anything."

The SuperSonics have filed a request to the NBA to change their name to simply Sonics.

"All we've really asked for," said John Dresel, the team's executive vice president, "is the flexibility to change from SuperSonics to Sonics. Maybe we come up with a logo that couldn't fit Super in it. Now the handcuffs are off."

But why?

The New York Knickerbockers didn't change their name, even though they are known on the street as the Knicks. And their logo says "Knicks." The same is true with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Portland Trail Blazers. They are the Cavs and the Blazers.

Indeed, Seattle's stationery says Sonics right now, as do its uniforms.

No team has changed its nickname since the Braves left Buffalo to become the Clippers in San Diego. Names are somehow sacred in the NBA. How many lakes have you seen in Los Angeles, or how much jazz in Utah? Those were names that came with the teams from Minneapolis and New Orleans.

The Sonics are up to something. Obviously, they want to make a major change to coincide with their return to Seattle in 1995 and the opening of the new Coliseum.

Welts, a former Sonic ball boy and public relations man when the team won the NBA title, now commands a $2.5 billion business, NBA Properties, the worldwide marketing of the NBA. He has offices in New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong and Melbourne.

"It is not unusual for teams to update, to get closer to their fans," he said. "Phoenix did that when it moved into the new America West Arena."

Asked if the Sonics had applied for a change in colors and logo as well as name, Welts said, "No comment. The Sonics will have to tell you about that."

The Sonics say they are exploring possibilities.

"We think it is time to look at our logo and our colors," said Dresel, "and we're doing that. We've been told green and yellow might not be the best combination."

So what is? Silver, black and purple?

The Huskies stick with purple and gold.

Why can't the SuperSonics be green and yellow?

Unlike the Mariners, who changed their logo and colors, the Sonics have a tradition. They won an NBA title. The logo of the city skyline across half a basketball was Seattle when the Sonics came, just after the World's Fair, when the Space Needle was a symbol for space exploration.

The Mariners have so many hats and colors it is difficult to tell which team is which at the Kingdome. Colors come and go; sports teams ought to be forever.

In the 1970s, I owned a Datsun station wagon that was bubble-gum orange, a popular color then. When my kids had to drive it to school a decade later they were mortified.

Times change. Quickly. The color of the '80s, teal, already is on its way out.

A year ago, the Milwaukee Bucks changed from forest green, kelly green, lime and white, to hunter green, purple and silver.

Why?

So they could sell more hats and T-shirts, be more hip, more in tune with a younger audience.

Ironically, the individual teams don't benefit directly from their sales of merchandise. The NBA shares revenues. The Bucks get the same as do the Chicago Bulls, even though the Bulls were sport's No. 1 seller.

"People think we want to change just to make money," said Dresel. "Well, that's not the case."

The Sonics are interested in image. They want to be as with-it as the Blazers and the new franchise in Vancouver. They probably want to have silver and purple, too.

"We won't have teal," said Dresel. "Charlotte, San Jose and the Mariners have used that up."

Uniforms change over the years. The Sonics have changed. They probably need an update.

Perhaps green becomes trendy forest green. That's OK.

But don't change the team's name. Don't change its logo, and be some shade of green and yellow. Don't add black, purple and silver just because they sell.

Celebrate your history. Don't deny it.