Charlotte Bobcats reportedly considering name change to Hornets

The Charlotte Bobcats have moved quickly in looking into a reclamation of the Hornets nickname. ESPN's Marc Stein reports that the team has been speaking with the NBA and doing its "due diligence" with an interest to taking the name that the New Orleans franchise currently holds.

The news popped up on Thursday, the same day the current Hornets announced they'd become the New Orleans Pelicans following the 2012-13 season.

New Orleans took the Hornets name with them when the franchise relocated from Charlotte in 2002, and a new franchise named the Bobcats hasn't quite taken the same hold in North Carolina. Team owner Michael Jordan said, according to ESPN, that he hears the large group of fans who ask about a return to the Hornets' colors schemes and name.

"It's definitely an interest down the road, but right now it's the New Orleans Hornets," Jordan told the Charlotte Observer. "We would definitely entertain the opportunity. That's as much as we can say right now. We've heard the community ask the question, and we would listen."

According to the Gaston Gazette, Jordan has always voiced an openness to discuss a change back to the Hornets, the name of the Charlotte franchise when it joined the NBA in 1988. The Hornets name refers to British general Charles Cornwallis calling the city a "veritable hornet's nest of rebellion" during the Revolutionary War.

And for the first time since the franchise sprang up in 2004, the name is now available for a change to become a reality.