FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Hey bored or perhaps recently paroled reader...

Just got to work and I'm pretty darn beat from stayin up til the witching hour to watch Eric Mangini smirk his way past the Pats, but I'll be spending the afternoon dreaming up some interesting takes on this weekend's college ball games. 

In the meantime, something I've been thinking about as this NBA season develops- with regards to the recently transplanted and renamed Oklahoma City Thunder.  In this season of change, of barriers smashed and glass ceilings etc'd, it's truly inspiring that finally, after decades of stubbornly adhering to the tired old naming conventions, a pro team from one of the 3 and a half major sports leagues(I don't wannna cause a kerfuffle up there in Hogtown or K-bek, but that half's the NHL, of course) has finally said "enough!"  Enough pro sports teams with names that are:

1. alliterative (Philadelphia Phillies and Flyers)
2. easy and/or fun to say (Buffalo Bills)
3. old timey in a cheerily racist way (Washington Redskins) 
4. old timey in a named-for-the-local-industry way (Steelers, Packers, 49ers) 
5. old timey in a just-plain old timey way (Cleveland Browns)
6. kinda exciting (, Oakland Raiders)
7. kinda makes you think speed or power (...damn Jets, San Diego Chargers)
8. vaguely scary to children and the elderly (New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames)
9. venerated and venerable, and thus immune to ANY criticism based on utter incongruity in the modern era (Boston Celtics, Ottawa Senators)
10. named for intimidating (Lions, Sharks) or
11. not-so-intimidating (Bobcats, Orioles) or even
12. downright snuggly (Penguins, Ducks) animals
13. well, we could go on, I suppose, but I've veered

waaaay off course yet again, and I need to get to work here.  So just to wrap up (for now), my point is that it's about time we see a major pro sports franchise in this country finally have the guts to ignore any of these time-honored naming conventions.  No- as of this year, team nicknames that are intangible, amorphous, singular, abstract, and/or weather-related nouns are no longer exclusively owned by the WNBA (Dream, Sky, Sun ,Shock, Fever) MLS (Dynamo, Galaxy, Revolution, Fire), MLL (Pride, Barrage, Riptide; sorry- that's lacrosse, and the previous one is soccer. Oh, and BEFORE that was women's basketball- my bad).  Congratulations, OK City... and by the way I know the Miami Heat are (is??) named for an abstract concept/sensation and the Orlando Magic for... another intangible concept I guess, but whatever- like I said, it's early, I'm tired, and I'll get you my 1A picks later.