The franchise held a name-the-team contest on their website where fans could vote on one of the four finalists: Lightning, Fire, Coyotes, and Mad Ants. The winning name of Mad Ants was chosen as a salute to the city's and fort's namesake, General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. For the 2007–08 season, the Mad Ants were affiliated with the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers. The Pistons were founded in Fort Wayne by industrialist and piston manufacturing company owner Fred Zollner as the Zollner Pistons, before moving to Detroit in 1957. The Mad Ants added the Milwaukee Bucks as their third affiliate for the 2008–09 season. The Bucks were previously a parent club for the Tulsa 66ers until Professional Basketball Club, LLC purchased the 66ers to be Oklahoma City's exclusive affiliate. In 2012–13, the Mad Ants, in addition to their affiliations with the Pistons, Pacers, and Bucks, were also affiliated with the Charlotte Bobcats. In 2013–14, the Mad Ants made it through to the D-League Finals for the first time with a 126–118 victory over the Sioux Falls Skyforce, winning the second round series 2–0. The Mad Ants defeated the Santa Cruz Warriors 2–0 in the Finals series to claim their first D-League title in franchise history. Following that season, the Mad Ants were affiliated with the remaining NBA teams that did not have exclusive affiliates, after the Phoenix Suns and the Orlando Magic associated with the Bakersfield Jam and the Erie BayHawks respectively, and D-League teams were created for both the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks. In September 2015, Pacers Sports & Entertainment purchased the Mad Ants, thus making the team the Pacers' one-to-one D-League affiliate. Brian Levy was named General Manager by PS&E. In 2017, the Mad Ants changed their colors to navy blue, gold, cool gray and white, the same colors as their parent club the Indiana Pacers. The Mad Ants were featured in the 'MyCareer' mode in NBA 2K19, a basketball game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports.
In the television seriesOne Tree Hill episode "You've Dug Your Own Grave, Now Lie In It", James Lafferty's character Nathan Scott receives an offer to coach the team. The episode originally aired September 29, 2008 on The CW Network.
In the video game NBA 2K19 the Mad Ants are featured in the MyCareer gamemode.
