Wizards Owner 'Open' to Changing Team Name Back to Bullets

Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis said he was “open” to changing the team’s name back to the Bullets. 

Appearing on WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall” in Washington, D.C. on Friday with Breitbart News editor Larry O’Connor and Brian Wilson, Leonsis said he has been doing “a lot of research” on the issue and has taken the issue under advisement. 

“Many fans have suggested it,” Leonsis said. “I”m open to it.”

In 1996, Abe Pollin, who owned the Washington basketball franchise then, decided to change the team’s name from the Bullets to the Wizards, citing D.C.’s gun violence and the death of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. 

Leonsis said changing the team’s name back to the Bullets would be approved by half of the team’s fans. He said the other half have told him, “don’t you dare do something like that.”

His comments come at time when there has been considerable pressure put on the Washington Redskins football team to change its name, which some Native American groups feel is racist. Leonsis said these debates get “overblown” at times and said Redskins owner Dan Snyder would have to do his research before ultimately making what will be his call regarding the Redskins name.