{"id":336237,"date":"2026-09-02T19:39:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336237\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T19:39:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:39:30","slug":"brooklyn-nets-to-celebrate-almost-becoming-the-swamp-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336237\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets To Celebrate Almost Becoming The Swamp Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"brooklyn-nets-swamp-dragons-night\"Brooklyn Nets<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets announced on Wednesday that they are having a special night to celebrate the time they almost became the Swamp Dragons back in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Wait, what? The Nets<\/a> almost became the Swamp Dragons? Yes. Yes, they did. They came really, really close to becoming the Swamp Dragons.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most memorable \u2018what ifs\u2019 in basketball history will come to life as fans celebrate the unforgettable identity that \u2018almost was,\u2019\u201d the Brooklyn Nets said in a press release.<\/p>\n

Swamp Dragons Night will be one of six special nights next season for the Nets<\/p>\n

The celebration will take place on Jan. 29 as one of the \u201cEras Nights\u201d<\/a> during the franchise\u2019s 60th season. According to the Nets, the Eras Nights will be \u201ca six-game series that will transform game day at Barclays Center into different chapters of Nets history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nov. 18 will be ABA Night honoring \u201cthe championship teams, innovations and the Julius Erving<\/a>-led era that helped establish the Nets as one of basketball\u2019s most forward-thinking organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

80s Night will take place on Dec.18 and honor \u201cthe franchise\u2019s move to New Jersey and the emergence of homegrown stars such as Buck Williams.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Jan. 9, the Nets will celebrate 90s night, \u201chonoring one of the most influential eras in franchise history.\u201d<\/p>\n

2000s Night will occur on Mar. 15 and celebrate \u201cthe franchise\u2019s most successful era on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on Mar. 31, Hello Brooklyn Night will mark the franchise\u2019s arrival in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Each night will feature a special giveaway, including Julius Erving, Buck Williams, Drazen Petrovic and Swamp Dragons bobbleheads; an Eastern Conference Finals mystery box featuring bobbleheads of the 2000s-era Nets; and a mystery giveaway celebrating the Hello Brooklyn era.<\/p>\n

\"brooklyn-nets-eras-nights\"brooklyn nets<\/p>\n

But wait, what about the Nets almost becoming the Swamp Dragons?<\/p>\n

According to The Athletic<\/a>, the Nets almost changed their name to the New Jersey Swamp Dragons in 1995 after then-NBA<\/a> creative director Tom O\u2019Grady received a new branding idea from team president Jon Spoelstra, the father of current Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. <\/p>\n

After relocating from Long Island to New Jersey in 1977, the Nets had terrible attendance in the mid-1990s, and Spoelstra felt his team was having trouble emerging from the shadow of the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n

Spoelstra told ESPN<\/a> in 2016 that he liked the \u201cDragons\u201d team name after it was as a finalist for the expansion Toronto franchise that became the Raptors. He added the \u201cSwamp\u201d in homage to the Meadowlands, where the team played its games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dragon came up right away, but we needed something to identify it locally. I was sitting in my office with Jim Lampariello, our vice president, and I just said, \u2018Every time I look out the window here, I see this swamp. And every time I think of swamps, I think of swamp rats. What about that?\u2019\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n

\"brooklyn-nets-swamp-dragons\"brooklyn nets<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just said, \u2018I don\u2019t think that\u2019s very nice. What about Swamp Dragons?\u2019 I loved it. Dragons are mythical, and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone loved the idea. In fact, then-NBA commissioner David Stearn told Spoelstra that it was \u201cthe stupidest f\u2014\u2014 idea\u201d he had ever heard, but he let it be put to a vote.<\/p>\n

The NBA board of governors approved the name, logo, and color change by a vote of 26 to 1. All seven New Jersey owners had already approved the rebranding before the board of governors meeting, but David Gerstein, a Nets co-owner who voted that day, ultimately voted against it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe voted against our own name change,\u201d Spoelstra recalled. \u201cI thought (Stern) was kidding. If your own team votes no, you can\u2019t go ahead with something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets announced on Wednesday that they are having a special night to celebrate the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,21,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-336237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}