The New Jersey Nets will not likely be the New Jersey Nets in two years.
Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the Nets, confirmed on Wednesday that he has filed paperwork to officially change the name of the team, says the New York Daily News.
The league mandates that franchises give 25-months notice when re-naming a team, even if only the city changes, so that marketing and merchandising can be planned.
If the team were to have a new identity for the 2012-13 season, the paperwork would have been due by Oct. 1 of this year.
The new arena in Brooklyn that the team would hypothetically move to broke ground this past march and is on schedule for a 2012 opening.
