{"id":1846521,"date":"2026-03-25T17:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1846521"},"modified":"2026-03-25T17:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:48:40","slug":"if-nba-expands-to-las-vegas-what-would-the-team-be-called-we-have-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1846521","title":{"rendered":"If NBA expands to Las Vegas, what would the team be called? We have ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As many expected, NBA governors have given the league the green light to formally explore potential expansion<\/a> in Seattle and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Seattle has been waiting for a franchise for nearly two decades since the team moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder in 2008. It would be a major surprise if any franchise in Seattle wasn\u2019t named the SuperSonics.<\/p>\n

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But Las Vegas is a different story. While the league has increased its presence in the city via NBA Summer League and the NBA Cup, an NBA team has never called Sin City home.<\/p>\n

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If Las Vegas gets an NBA franchise, what should it be called? We asked The Athletic<\/em> NBA staff for their suggestions, with one instruction: Have some fun. (And if you have a suggestion you want to share, let us know in the comments.)<\/p>\n

Las Vegas Jokers<\/h2>\n

This is the NBA. It is never too soon to start tampering, even if Nikola Joki\u0107 will be 33 to start the 2028-29 season, when many expect a new franchise in Las Vegas would begin play. Plus, can you imagine Joki\u0107 in Las Vegas? It would either be a delightful odd-couple situation, or he would immediately retire because he doesn\u2019t want to play in what he considers the ultimate North American hedonistic wasteland.<\/p>\n

Either way, I\u2019ve decided it needs to happen. \u2014 Eric Koreen<\/em><\/p>\n

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Blackjacks of Las Vegas<\/h2>\n

I have always been a fan of sports teams in a market with some level of synergy with the other teams. Chicago has the Bears and the Cubs. Philadelphia has the Eagles and the 76ers. Houston has the Rockets and the Astros. This has held up in the WNBA\/NBA teams as well: Suns and Mercury, Wizards and Mystics, Timberwolves and Lynx. The WNBA has the Aces, and the NHL team has the Knights.<\/p>\n

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So, in playing the card I\u2019m dealt here, I\u2019m going with Blackjacks of Las Vegas, with the team name preceding the city in the way that the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim debuted. Now I will solicit complaints about how a team name is too closely associated with gambling, while putting a team in Las Vegas. \u2014 Law Murray<\/em><\/p>\n

Las Vegas Sharks<\/h2>\n

Before the Las Vegas Aces became a WNBA force, basketball excellence in Sin City was defined by the late-great Jerry Tarkanian and at UNLV. He was known by some as \u201cTark the Shark,\u201d so why not honor the coaching legend? A shark mascot running around with a towel in its mouth would be cool, and I\u2019d definitely buy some Shark merchandise. Going with a gambling name is too easy, even though I wouldn\u2019t be mad at the \u201cLas Vegas Strip\u201d as a name, but there\u2019s probably some legal reason that can\u2019t happen. \u2014 Jason Jones<\/em><\/p>\n

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Las Vegas Oasis<\/h2>\n

Water. Splash. Buckets. Pulling straight from the definition, an oasis is fertile ground where water is found. An NBA team in Las Vegas is bringing in fresh faces and competition in an area with a thirst (haha) for more. And the city itself, like an oasis, is meant to be a place of respite. Also, come on, it just sounds cool as hell. \u2014 Shakeia Taylor<\/em><\/p>\n

Las Vegas Diamonds<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s elegant, it\u2019s clean, and there\u2019s synergy with the WNBA\u2019s Aces. Maybe Arizona\u2019s MLB team would have something to say about such a similar moniker, but oh well.<\/p>\n

I like that Diamonds makes me think of the Vegas of old \u2014 not the place that Robert De Niro\u2019s character at the end of \u201cCasino\u201d likened to \u201cchecking into an airport.\u201d \u2014 Christian Clark<\/em><\/p>\n

The Vegas, Babies<\/h2>\n

The comma is doing a lot of very important work here. An ode to \u201cSwings, \u201done of the seminal motion pictures of my youth. We\u2019re gonna be up five-hundy by midnight! Vegas, baby. Vegas<\/a>. \u2014 Jon Krawczynski<\/em><\/p>\n

Las Vegas Dealers<\/h2>\n

A great team name should be distinctive. It ought to be a name that no one else has. Preferably, it should have some connection to the city or region it represents.<\/p>\n

So I don\u2019t want to hear anything about \u201cSharks.\u201d In a vacuum, that would be a great name for the Vegas expansion team. But the San Jose Sharks already exist; that franchise gets dibs. The Los Angeles Dodgers. The Seattle SuperSonics. The Pittsburgh Steelers. Those work, and they wouldn\u2019t work anywhere else.<\/p>\n

And I sure don\u2019t want any more alliteration. We\u2019ve got too much of that in sports already. The Philadelphia Flyers is a great name. The Vegas Vegans? Uh, no.<\/p>\n

Being a \u201cDealer\u201d is a quintessentially Vegas profession. And get your minds out of the gutter, people. I\u2019m talking about dealers for card games at a casino, not something more untoward. \u2014 Josh Robbins<\/em><\/p>\n

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Las Vegas Dealers (again)<\/h2>\n

The NBA isn\u2019t hiding its affinity for gambling, so it should be OK to embrace it without being too specific. I\u2019m a fan of team names being related to the city, and everyone associates Las Vegas with gambling.<\/p>\n

\u201cGamblers\u201d would be perfect, but the headlines would write themselves if a scandal took place. At least with \u201cDealers,\u201d there\u2019s enough of a subtlety there, and it symbolizes running the show. And it would be cool to say, \u201cLas Vegas is dealing out butt whoopings.\u201d \u2014 James L. Edwards III<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many expected, NBA governors have given the league the green light to formally explore potential expansion in Seattle and Las Vegas. Seattle has been waiting for a franchise for nearly two decades since the team moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder in 2008. It would be a major surprise if any franchise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1846521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1846521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1846521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1846521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1846521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}