ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230097
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
The Washington Bullets will have a new name - the Washington Wizards.
The nickname takes effect when the team moves to the new MCI Center in downtown Washington for the 1997-98 season.
Team owner Abe Pollin decided on the change because of the violent connotation of the team's name and Washington's high murder rate. The team has been called the Bullets for 32 years.
``I realized some time ago we should consider changing our name,'' Pollin said. ``I picked up a newspaper and saw the word `bullets' in a headline and thought for an instant the article was about my basketball team.''
Other names considered were the Sea Dogs, the Express, the Dragons and the Stallions.
The team solicited votes from the public, but Pollin declined to say whether Wizards was the winner of the poll, although he did say it was a ``legitimate contest.''
A telephone poll by The Washington Post found that out of more than 19,000 respondents, ``none of the above'' was the top choice. The current nickname ``Bullets'' finished second in the balloting.
WILKINS FINGERED: Former NBA star Dominique Wilkins allegedly paid $100,000 for cocaine to a man whose body was later found burned beyond recognition, according to testimony during a coroner's inquest in Nassau, Bahamas.
A Bahamas police constable, testifying in a Nassau courtroom this week, said the man who allegedly received the money told him Wilkins was cheated and never received the drugs.
``That's the craziest thing I've heard in my life,'' Wilkins, who once starred for the Atlanta Hawks and now plays for a team in Greece, said Thursday by telephone. ``I never gave $100,000 to anyone in my life, other than my mother.''
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines KEYWORDS: BASKETBALLby CNB