Vipers, BayHawks to wear sponsored jerseys this season...

[Darrin]

Two teams from the NBA Development League will wear jerseys with the names of sponsors.

The Rio Grande Valley Vipers have signed a deal with Lone Star National Bank. The Erie BayHawks are teaming with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The two minor league teams join four WNBA clubs with jersey sponsorships. Such agreements could eventually be considered by NBA teams.

As part of the multiyear partnerships announced Monday, the sponsors also will be promoted through signs in the arenas and on the teams' websites.

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/08/02/d....ap/index.html

[lil_penny]

I hope this never reaches the nba

[CubanMustGo]

Saw this in the WNBA too. Keep that off the jerseys.

[SomeCallMeTim]

I hope this never reaches the nba

Only a matter of time.

I remember when the Grizz were relocating and Louisville was in the hunt. Word was the league was not going to allow them to be called the Colonels if they ended up there because of the cross-promotion tie-in with KFC. I thought I heard something similar about them not being able to be renamed to Express because of the FedEx tie-in.

[MI21]

I love how the NBA jerseys have no advertising on them. The jerseys the players play in don't even have the branding of the official jersey maker on them, which is very cool. The courts are nice and clean too. Compare it to the European way of going about it...

[Darrin]

Only a matter of time.

I remember when the Grizz were relocating and Louisville was in the hunt. Word was the league was not going to allow them to be called the Colonels if they ended up there because of the cross-promotion tie-in with KFC. I thought I heard something similar about them not being able to be renamed to Express because of the FedEx tie-in.

I remember that. They wanted the Fed-Ex forum with Fed-Ex sponsoring the Memphis Express. David Stern ruled, this was close to happening, that we don't sell naming rights. They would be locked into Express for like 10 years under the contract and Fed-Ex would pay the NBA for having the name.