Name Change?

[Zod]

Utah Polygamists?

I would buy a hat.

[Zod]

New Orleans Schinnsplints?

[Zod]

I don't mind the Bobcats name at all. I have a hard time believing the motivation behind the name was ego based. Johnson did not make his first billion by making ego based decisions.

[God]

That settles it. We are now the Charlotte Honkies. We WILL be trading Gerald Wallace for J.J. Reddick.

[King Taharqa]

The fans, you know, the ones who actually foot the bill for your little escape from reality?

This isnt the Panthers Meat. The "fans" (and I use that term very loosely because most of the people bitching aint Bobcats fans) didnt "foot the bill" to start up the Bobcats. There was no PSL system used to finance the team. It came primarily from one individual...Robert L. Johnson. So if Robert L. Johnson wanted to name his team after himself, he has every right to do so. No different than James Buchanan Duke naming Duke Energy after himself, or Duke University (because he put up the majority of the start up money). Nobodys putting a gun to anybody's head and forcing them to buy tickets or support the Bobcats. I would encourage all "fans" who are angered that the team they root for could be named after a black man, find a new team to root for. If you are so distrustful of black leadership and dont agree with the vision Bob has left us, you dont have to pull for this team. We dont want or need your kind polluting our fanbase. Plenty people are happy with this team and are proud of our identity.

[King Taharqa]

I don't mind the Bobcats name at all. I have a hard time believing the motivation behind the name was ego based. Johnson did not make his first billion by making ego based decisions.

At the end of the day when you run a business and you put the money up, you get to make the big decisions. Just like last week, your decision to filter a particular subject. While I didnt agree with it, I respect the fact this is your board that you pay for and its your call.

[Seal (SmittyIsOurSavior)]

Well maybe it wasn't an egotistical decision to name them the Bobcats. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we already have the Panthers, just like New York and their Mets, Jets, and Nets.

[Porn Shop Clerk]

Ok. I'm gonna try to tackle this 'the name means nothing to this area' BS.

Bobcats occur frequently in the southern half of North America but are rarely found in midwestern states. They are common in the mountains of the Carolinas and the coastal plain as far north as the Great Dismal Swamp. Larger populations occur in the mountains and coastal plain than in the piedmont.

Hmmmm.

You guys are aware there is a hunting and trapping season for bobcats? Yes, we have that many in North Carolina.

In fact, that name has over 9000% more to do with this area than the panthers, since there have been no panthers in this area in over 100 years. Or at least since last Thursday.

So, since bobcats are so plentiful in NC that they are legally hunted and trapped, would someone kindly explain how that name has no connection to this area. And while you're at it, please explain the connection the Panthers have to this area. (other than the black pride group)

[Panthers128]

That settles it. We are now the Charlotte Honkies. We WILL be trading Gerald Wallace for J.J. Reddick.

This team has no white players.

[Porn Shop Clerk]

A bobcat will fug you up. Go give one a hug. I dare ya.

[King Taharqa]

Bobcats are elusive and nocturnal, so they are rarely spotted by humans. Although they are seldom seen, they roam throughout much of North America and adapt well to such diverse habitats as forests, swamps, deserts, and even suburban areas.

Bobcats, sometimes called wildcats, are roughly twice as big as the average housecat. They have long legs, large paws, and tufted ears similar to those of their larger relative, the Canada lynx. Most bobcats are brown or brownish red with a white underbelly and short, black-tipped tail. The cat is named for its tail, which appears to be cut or "bobbed."

Fierce hunters, bobcats can kill prey much bigger than themselves, but usually eat rabbits, birds, mice, squirrels, and other smaller game. The bobcat hunts by stealth, but delivers a deathblow with a leaping pounce that can cover 10 feet (3 meters).

Bobcats are solitary animals. Females choose a secluded den to raise a litter of one to six young kittens, which will remain with their mother for 9 to 12 months. During this time they will learn to hunt before setting out on their own.

In some areas, bobcats are still trapped for their soft, spotted fur. North American populations are believed to be quite large, with perhaps as many as one million cats in the United States alone.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/bobcat.html

The bobcat goes along the "underdog/overachiever" ideal thats so popular to this region. The Charlotte Bobcats are like the little brothers of the Carolina Panthers, so I love how the "cat" theme relates to them.

[Matt Foley]

This isnt the Panthers Meat. The "fans" (and I use that term very loosely because most of the people bitching aint Bobcats fans) didnt "foot the bill" to start up the Bobcats. There was no PSL system used to finance the team. It came primarily from one individual...Robert L. Johnson. So if Robert L. Johnson wanted to name his team after himself, he has every right to do so. No different than James Buchanan Duke naming Duke Energy after himself, or Duke University (because he put up the majority of the start up money).

The fans do foot the bill. Are you really this stupid? Yes, Johnson put up a lot of his own money, but so does every other owner in sports. In your own effed up view of the world, only the black guy who does it gets some sort of special status. Got news for you, without fans, your team ain't gonna make it.

Nobodys putting a gun to anybody's head and forcing them to buy tickets or support the Bobcats. I would encourage all "fans" who are angered that the team they root for could be named after a black man, find a new team to root for.

So what color is Michael Jordan? Again, are you really this stupid?

If you are so distrustful of black leadership and dont agree with the vision Bob has left us, you dont have to pull for this team. We dont want or need your kind polluting our fanbase. Plenty people are happy with this team and are proud of our identity.

Vision? Do you know how hard it is to not make the playoffs when you get lottery picks year after year? Do you know how hard it is to screw up the honeymoon you get with a fanbase when you're new, especially when they hated the last guy? This guy had a naming contest and then chose his own name anyway, put his team on a channel where no one could watch them, put a product on the floor that was terrible, and expected loyalty despite not giving any. On top of that he went out of his way to piss off the other team owner in town. Good riddance, Bob. Hello, MJ. Hope you're a lot smarter than the last guy. Only racists like KT followed him.

[King Taharqa]

Meat calling me stupid? Cute. The Dauber Dybinski of the Huddle throwing rocks from a glass house.

This whole name change issue was started by our local newspaper then became a national story. The local newspaper has spent the past 6 years creating an atmosphere of distrust and animosity towards our founder and has always looked to sh*t on the Bobcats as an organization. Their willingness to play on the locals fears & insecurities about black business has hurt this community and fueled the flames of hatred & ignorance. You go to their website and in the comments section you just shake your head and how ignorant and racist people can be. The Charlotte Observer has invested alot of ink into bashing our founder and his vision. The sad thing is, so little Charlotteans and readers of the dying newspaper know about their founder Daniel Augustus Tompkins and his racist vision.

Daniel Augustus Tompkins was an ardent participant in the "New South" movement. He arrived in Charlotte in March 1883. A native of South Carolina, Tompkins had earned a degree in civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1873, had been a chief machinist for the Bethlehem Iron Works in Bethlehem, PA, and had decided to return to his native region so that he might encourage and assist the development of industry and the diversification of agriculture.

Having secured a franchise from the Westinghouse Machine Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the selling and installing of steam engines and other machinery, Tompkins selected Charlotte as the location for his sales office, which opened in 1883.

In 1884 Tompkins established the D.A. Tompkins Company. This enterprise was "at the forefront of machinery manufacturing for the southern textile mills", writes historian Brent Glass. D.A. Tompkins remained in Charlotte until his death in 1914 and helped build a virtual cotton mill empire in the Tar Heel State. As were the other powerful industrialists of his type and time, Tompkins was commited to laissez-faire capitalism and opposed public reforms for better industrial working conditions including the regulation of child labor. He was also a devoted defender of whate he called "Anglo Saxon values," a code name for White Supremacy.

New South industrialists opposed any efforts by outside groups to improve the lot of textile workers. A particularly dramatic encounter arose between Tompkins and Methodist minsister J.A. Baldwin. Baldwin visited the Atherton Mill Village in 1898 and was appalled by the disease, malnutrition, and overall poverty that he insisted existed there. Tompkins responded by telling the preacher that the plight of textile workers was of their own making. They are "of roving dispositions, are shiftless, and improvident," he insisted.

It was the 1890s that extreme racism gained the upper hand in Charlotte and throughout the South. New South boosters like D.A. Tompkins and Edward Dilworth Latta became deeply concerned about the course of political events and feared that their influence over governmental affairs in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina might diminish or even end. They and their compatriots decided to marshal their considerable resources and destroy this threat to their privileged positions.

"The pent-up frustrations of farmers, blacks, and ordinary North Carolinians whose interests had been ignored by the Democrat party exploded in the 1894 state elections," writes historian Paul Escott. The so called "Fusionists" elected 74 members to the NC legislature and sent two of their backers to the US Senate. The insurgents controlled 62 percent of the seats in the General Assembly in 1894 and 78 percent in 1896.

The New South upper class decided it had to fight back and regain control of the State legislature in 1898. What they needed to succeed was a way to convince rank-and-file whites, mainly tenant farmers and mill workers, to quit cooperating with the Republicans, the majority of whom were black. The answer was for wealthy whites to "play the race card" just as they had in the late 1860s and early 1870s.

Most of the local leaders of the campaign to intimidate and disenfranchise African Americans were members of the Young Democrats Club. Composed mainly of middle class professionals in their thirties or early forties, such as attorneys Heriot Clarkson and Charles W. Tillett, the "Young Democrats" organized torchlight parades and held meass rallies to demonstrate their "bare-knuckle sytle" of determination to subdue the Populists and terrorize black voters. As many as 1500 "Young Democrats," bedecked in flamboyant red shirts, rode periodically down Tryon Street at night on horseback, brandishing their weapons, thrusting their chests defiantly toward onlookers, and proclaiming the superiority of the white race.

The Charlotte Observer enthusiastically endorsed the campaign to wrest the vote away from blacks and accordingly called upon the people of Charlotte-Mecklenburg to cast their ballots for the Democrats. The ballot, wrote a reporter in January 1898, "becomes in the hands of the ignorant and vicious classes a most destructive and dangerous element."

The Democrats assured all who would listen that they really had African Americans best interests at heart. Indeed, to their way of thinking, all citizens, including blacks, would benefit from orderly government. What historian Paul Escott derisively calls the privileged "better half" claimed that it alone was fit to rule. "Be it our work, the work of all of us, to hasten the day when the dream of Southern supremacy through Southern prosperity shall be realized in all its fullness," declared the Charlotte Observer on March 6, 1898.

The Charlotte Observer appealed directly to the racial prejudices of white voters as Election Day neared. On October 22, 1898, the newspaper claimed that "the eyes of the nation" were upon North Carolina."...unless the State rights itself at the coming election we are likely to fall under that contempt which is always visted upon cravens," the editors proclaimed.

The Democrat Party emerged victorious from the balloting on November 8th. Predictably, the Charlotte Observer was overjoyed by the outcome. "The white people got together and won the election," the newspaper declared. The shift in votes by precicnt was actually relatively small, but Democrat totals did rise in every box in Charlotte Township, including the two mill boxes and the rural boxes. Just enough whites had abandoned the Populists and the Republicans to produce a Democrat victory. Statewide, the balloting put 134 Democrats in the General Assembly and only 36 Fusionists. "Being in power again," said the Charlotte Observer about the Democrats, "the real people of North Carolina will proceed to enact laws which will be for the well being of all of our people, and we know that hereafter there will be peace and good government in our borders,"

-Dr. Dan L. Morrill, Historic Charlotte: An Illustrated History Of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, p 56-60

The observer is still doing what it did over 100 years ago fueling the flames of distrust, animosity, and anger to sell newspapers.

[Matt Foley]

Michael Jordan is one of the most recognizable African-Americans of all time. If Johnson had sold to Rick Hendrick or some whiter-than-white guy and people wanted a name change, then MAYBE you'd have a point, though it would still be a stretch. But the only point here is the one on top your racist head.

People don't like Bobcats. As much as you want to twist that around into some racist conspiracy, it's really not much deeper than that. Fans finally have an owner they can respect, one that they feel will make basketball decisions that will result in playoff games (see: hiring Larry Brown) and now they want a fresh start with a name they can identify with.