It’s been hinted at enough by new Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, both when he took over the team in June and on his blog almost immediately thereafter, that a change to both the Wizards’ team name and more immediately, it’s colors, could happen. Leonsis himself has a self-professed affinity for red, a color that the Verizon Center appropriately “rocks” every night that the Capitals play at home.
But it really wasn’t quite official that the Wizards would drop their current color scheme – slate blue, black, white and gold – for red, white and blue until Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld inadvertently told lingering reporters just after he finished his official preseason press conference on Thursday. As it happens, it was really the biggest news of the day.
“The colors are the same,” said Grunfeld, when asked about the new Adidas uniforms that are being rolled out across the NBA and whether or not the Wizards were making any tweaks. “But as you know, the owner plans on changing the colors to red, white and blue next season.”
Actually, we didn’t. We expected it, but that’s slightly different.
The Wizards dropped the old red, white and blue of the Bullets when they became the Wizards and moved into what is now the Verizon Center in 1997. The Capitals, who also rebranded in the same manner, went back to red, white and blue before the 2007-08 season, when Leonsis took that team over.
