Last week, I talked about the meaning of some popular professional basketball teams in the US. This is part 2 of that explanation. Here are a few more team names and their meaning:
San Antonio Spurs: A spur is something that is worn by a cowboy on his boot that is used to hit the horse in order to get it to move more quickly. San Antonio is located in Texas, which is famous for its cowboys. (In fact, the American football team in Dallas is called the Dallas Cowboys.)
Philadelphia 76ers: The number 76 refers to the year 1776, when in the city of Philadelphia, a group of American colonists signed the Declaration of Independence, claiming their independence from Great Britain. Every year on July 4th, we celebrate that event as a national holiday, Independence Day. This team is also sometimes known simply as the “Sixers” which is just short for (a shortened form of) 76ers.
Dallas Mavericks: A maverick is a person who doesn’t follow the rules, who does things his or her own way and is very independent. The state of Texas, where Dallas is located, has a reputation in the United States for being full of people who are very independent and proud, people who like to do things differently. This team is also sometimes called “the Mavs” for short. The word maverick was used also to describe the Republican candidate for president, Senator John McCain, in the last presidential campaign.
Los Angeles Clippers: A clipper is a type of tall ship that has large sails (white pieces of fabric that “catch” the wind in order to move the ship forward). This team was originally the San Diego Clippers before it moved to Los Angeles. San Diego, like Los Angeles, is on the Pacific Ocean, and sailing is a popular sport there.
I could probably do 100 blog posts on professional sports team names, but that’s enough for now!
~Jeff
Here in Brazil we usually see NBA games on television, so I’ve heard a lot about these names and didn’t have a clue about their meanings! nice post Jeff, very clear explanation.
Leandro.
Jeff is king.
Really, to get know about the teams name meaning it’s very cool and interesting even though after a few minutes surffing away from here I migth be forgotten it and have to come back here to recall it, this is still pretty cool to absorve the knownlegde about it.
Jeff, I am very happy with the esl team’s job cause day after day I got felling that your audience is getting bigger and so on, which meanes you guys must be doing that for so longer and continue help us on active our goal.
thanks a lot for all!
As you know Jeff, USA basketball team defeated SPAIN last year in the final match at Beijing (China), and I saw the play despite I usually din’t……I was very sorry, but indeed
usa team was better than ours.
At the news here, there are now always the basketball usa teams results, who has win, or has been defeated, as there are some spaniard players in them, what is always a great honor…., I think.
At least the names are originals and funny sometimes, not like here that nearly always the names of football teams are the same than cities, versus: Barcelona, Madrid, La Coruña, Bilbao, Valencia, and so on.
It is so tiresome to have all the weekends football news, more football news, and more. For many people is vital all what is happening about this matter and to me this has
been always a big mistery. I really can´t understand so much fuss everywhere in the world with football, or similar games.
I´m sorry again, I have tried to be a fan like the mayority but I failed, may be I am out of earth?…It is possible.
I don’t know why american doesn’t love football like other parts of the world
The names of Basketball teams are very interesting and amusing in America. Each one has its own history and particularities which are curious enough to be told everyone. I prefer basketball and it’s certain America got to beat Spain in the Olympic Games’ final. We lacked a little bit of fortune in the last minutes but America has a great team and they managed to get broken Spain’s dream. In every case both teams played very well and finally the best one won, we have to recognize it.
Have a good weekend for eveybody,
Julio, Spain.-
Querido Jeff ¡
Very interesting your explanations about Professional Sports Team Names.
I find it much better than here, in Spain.
Thanks, again.