What Major Uniform Change Could Be Coming to the NBA?
What’s in a name?
In a true stroke of marketing genius, the NBA is considering allowing the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets to wear jerseys with players' nicknames on their backs, instead of the traditional last names that appear there.
The teams would sport the jerseys in at least one of their four meetings this season.
Heat guard Ray Allen, who says he’d go by Shuttlesworth – the last name of his character in the film ‘He Got Game’ -- is all for it:
It shows growth in our league and it shows we do adapt to what's going on around us. And we're still kids, playing a kids' game. Even though we're now men playing a kids' game, we still remember where we come from. Everybody had a nickname, and it's a way to let the fans in a little bit more."
Players have been asked to choose names they’d like and while some are clear – LeBron James would be ‘King James’ and Kevin Garnett would be ‘The Big Ticket – others are a little more obscure. For instance, the Heat’s Shane Battier wanted Batman, but Warner Bros. holds the copyright for that moniker, so he had to go with ‘Shaneo,’ instead.
[ESPN]