The New Jersey Nets were almost named the ‘Swamp Dragons’ long ago.
Back before the New Jersey Nets became the Brooklyn Nets, they were a team that was struggling to attract an attendance in an old arena in East Rutherford, that was already difficult enough to get to via traffic between New York and New Jersey.
So like any NBA team in the 90’s, the Nets decided that they were going to try a crazy logo change along with a name change and introduce some vibrant colors to differ from their boring logo that was already in place. At the end of the day, they remained the Nets and kept that navy blue logo with the red trim until they moved to Brooklyn and introduced one of the best looking uniforms and logos in the league.
However, ESPN’s Zach Lowe discovered from former NBA creative director, Tom O’Grady, that the Nets almost became the “Swamp Monsters” during the years when every logo in the league was outlandish.
It’s probably a good thing that the Nets decided to remain the Nets. Swamp Dragons is definitely a lot worse than the plain style that they had at the time.
In today’s NBA, it would have been seen as a huge joke and one of the worst logos ever. The good news is that the Nets now have a crisp logo and uniform set that everyone loves to wear.
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