Goodbye SuperSonics, hello Thunder. As in Oklahoma City Thunder, the new name of the National Basketball Association franchise formerly based in Seattle.

Chaz won’t say it, but I will: Meh. And furthermore, blech!

I mean, come on. Can you get any more generic? Especially when matched with a typically boring NBA team logo (which features — of course! — a basketball), it just comes off as though the team’s identity and branding were afterthoughts. Which they probably were: The Bennett group’s aim was simply to have NBA ball played in their hometown; the incidentals, to the extent that they matter in pulling in crowds, are negligible.

But then, that’s the NBA for you. I’ve expressed before my contempt for the roundball league’s lack of creative design aesthetics:

Have I mentioned how God-awful I think the majority of NBA team logos are? The majority do indeed include a basketball as a central graphic element in their designs — and, as a result, look downright pedestrian. And yet, league merchandise sells like hotcakes. I guess my sense of popular entertainment graphical style is too high-falutin’ to have mass appeal.

And that still holds. I’m sure the OKC team will rake in a fair share of merchandising sales, based on novelty alone at the outset. The rest is determined on the court, so what does it matter, really? Therefore, roll Thunder, roll.

I reserve the right to refer to individual players on the team as “Thunderers”. During those rare occasions when I’ll actually pay attention to hoops.