Brooklyn Dodgers? Fuggedaboutit!

Jerry Greene is a retired columnist for the Orlando Sentinel who occasionally writes for ESPN's Page 2.  He decided it would be a good idea to ask ESPN reader for their suggestions on a new name for the team.  After all, Mikhail Prokhorov had solicited ideas from other reporters he met last week.  Greene asked only that readers "choose a name that honors or ridicules the team or the state or the NBA itself" and is "clever".

The winner, writes Greene is Brooklyn Dodgers!  (We guess "clever" got lost in translation somewhere along the line.)  Problem is there is a baseball team in Los Angeles that still owns the trademark to that moniker for, among other things, "caps, hats, shirts, T-shirts, baseball uniforms, jerseys, sweatshirts, jackets, socks, hosiery."  They're not giving that up.

Other possibilities were also a bit on the predictable side: Brooklyn Bridges, Brooklyn Bear or Bears, Brooklyn Revolution and a few honoring the Garden State: New Jersey Turnpike, New Jersey Springsteens.  Our two favorites: New Jersey New Jerseys and New Jay-Z.  No one has the trademark on those.

• Mikhail Prokhorov! We Have Nicknames! - Jerry Greene - ESPN