More than three decades after it nearly became reality, the Swamp Dragons are finally getting their moment.
The Nets will host Swamp Dragons Night on Jan. 29, 2027, when they face the Clippers, paying tribute to the famously quirky team name that came close to replacing “Nets” in the 1990s.
The special theme night, which will include a bobblehead giveaway, is part of the franchise’s 60th season celebration.
“One of the most memorable ‘what ifs’ in basketball history will come to life as fans celebrate the unforgettable identity that ‘almost was,’” the team said in its announcement.
It is hard not to imagine how different the franchise’s story might have looked had the Nets actually become the Swamp Dragons, a name so unusual it sounds more like a minor-league baseball club than an NBA team.
While playing in New Jersey, team brass considered changing the name in an attempt to entice more fans.
Former Nets president Jon Spoelstra told ESPN in a 2016 article that he liked the idea of a “Dragons” nickname after it emerged as a finalist for the expansion Toronto franchise.
The swamp angle played homage to the team’s home in The Meadowlands.
“The 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, ‘Every 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?’” Spoelstra told ESPN.
“He just said, ‘I don’t think that’s very nice. What about Swamp Dragons?’ I loved it. Dragons are mythical, and fun.”
But one very important NBA person had some qualms: then-NBA commissioner David Stern.
“David told me, ‘This is the stupidest f—ing idea I’ve ever heard,’” Spoelstra told ESPN.
Stern ultimately allowed the Nets to proceed if all seven of the team’s owners would agree on the change and all seven OK’d the name, per the ESPN article.
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They reportedly agreed to proceed forward, and the NBA spent $500,000 “to protect the name and any markings they would produce,” according to ESPN.
The team’s logo would have featured a teal, purple and black dragon twirling a basketball on one claw while they breathed red fire, which would have aligned with other logos at the time.
The original Raptors logo is similar in its portrayal.
The Nets next had to get a supermajority from the league’s 27 owners to green-light the change, but some backlash reportedly emerged about using the word “swamp.”
Spoelstra told ESPN that an individual from then-Gov. Christine Whitman’s office called them and said they didn’t like the term being used.
The owners didn’t mind the backlash and reportedly OK’d the change in a 26-1 vote in what should have been a grand moment.
But that one vote somehow came from the Nets co-owner David Gerstein.
“We voted against our own name change,” Spoelstra told ESPN. “I thought (Stern) was kidding. If your own team votes no, you can’t go ahead with something like this.”
Gerstein indicated in 2016 that not proceeding was the right call.
“I don’t recall the vote, but we all thought it was inappropriate in the end. The name just wasn’t right,” he told ESPN. “I mean, would they be the Brooklyn Swamp Dragons today? The rest of the league would have done whatever we wanted, but we decided collectively to vote against it.”
The Nets ultimately changed their logo in 1997, and have since ditched The Meadowlands and moved to Brooklyn and undergone even more logo changes.