Dan Steinberg goes through the history of the name change from Washington Bullets to Washington Wizards. It's a change a lot of us, myself definitely included, despised at the time and still do. I never bought the late Abe Pollin's rationale for changing the name: that a name change might reduce gun violence. I always thought Pollin's real motivation was to make money from new apparel sales and the Yitzach Rabin angle [the late Israeli Prime Minister, a personal friend of Pollin's, was murdered by a right-wing Jew opposed to his pro-peace policies] has always seemed like complete nonsense to me. Steinberg reveals that the name-change was underway many months before Rabin was assassinated, clearly disproving that tragic event as a motivation.

I've always held out the hope that a new franchise owner -- Ted Leonsis, hopefully -- would change the name back to Bullets -- which is one of the coolest sports team names ever. Unfortunately, the hijinks of Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton have almost certainly made that impossible.

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