Bring back the New Orleans Hornets.

I like the Pelicans, but I don’t love them like I loved the Hornets. I want my Hornets back.

by MATT STOKES | FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Ten years ago, the New Orleans Hornets won an epic game in double-overtime on the road against the Phoenix Suns in a game that was widely considered the best of the entire NBA season. Led by Chris Paul—who would finish runner up to Kobe Bryant in a very narrow race for the season’s MVP—the Hornets had the best regular season in the team’s history.

It was the team’s first season back in New Orleans full-time after two seasons in Oklahoma City as the awkwardly-named New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, exiled because of Katrina. A city of football fans who previously had barely been aware of the presence of an NBA franchise caught the Bee-ver, as the arena saw regular sell-out crowds to end the season. A magical playoff run ended in a surprising Game 7 loss in the second round to the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, but the team of young stars seemed destined for many successful seasons that should ultimately result in a championship.

But it turned out to be the height of what the team would achieve. Before anybody knew it, injuries and mismanagement brought a premature end to the Chris Paul Hornets and, indeed, to the New Orleans Hornets themselves. The franchise was sold to Tom Benson, who re-christened them the Pelicans. The Hornets name, meanwhile, was sent to the Charlotte Bobcats, who re-branded their team as the Hornets, because the franchise now known as the Pelicans originally started in Charlotte as the Hornets and there is still nostalgia in North Carolina for the name. The New Orleans franchise also sent its “history” in Charlotte to the Charlotte franchise, so the current Charlotte Hornets recognize the 1988-2002 as part of their own history, and the Pelicans’ history only goes back to 2002, even though the organization itself goes back to 1988. (Got that?)

The 2008 Hornets were the team that drew in the people who largely make up the hardcore Pelicans fanbase today (Yes, it exists.). We fans speak wistfully about the ’08 team, saying things like, “Remember that amazing stretch where we went 5-1 on the road?” The love for that team extends even beyond New Orleans fans and to the broader NBA fanbase. The 2008 Hornets are one of those great “almost were” teams that sports fans like to reminisce about—teams like the 2009 Orlando Magic or 2013 Denver Nuggets who never managed to win a championship, whose fates quickly turned, but who nevertheless left a great and memorable mark. Teams like the ’08 Hornets brim with possibility but their story ends in potential never realized, which is why fans love them.

And, apparently, the players from the ’08 Hornets feel the same way. According to Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, Chris Paul himself has been chasing that team since he left New Orleans:

Paul adored those 2008 Hornets, the rollicking team dinners at his condo downtown and the heated game nights at Tyson Chandler’s house in the suburbs. They traveled in packs a dozen deep, like on one Saturday night in Toronto, when they rolled into a popular club called Muzik. At midnight, early by T Dot standards, small forward Bonzi Wells noticed Paul paying the bill and calling the cars. “O.K.,” Wells sighed, “I guess it’s time to leave.” The Hornets solemnly filed out of the club, then throttled the Raptors the next day for their 50th win. They hung together and scrapped together.

 

…

 

Paul refers to many of the 2008 Hornets as “VCR friends,” because they can pause communication for six months and pick up where they left off.

RASUAL BUTLER

While I was writing this, news broke that Rasual Butler and his wife Leah Labelle had been killed in a car accident.

Rasual Butler was on the 2008 Hornets team but he was considered a disappointment and kept off the playoff roster. However, the following season, he improved his game and won the starting shooting guard position. His story was one of the more compelling ones during this era of the New Orleans Hornets.

As a young adult at the beginning of his professional career, Paul didn’t properly appreciate his ascent with the Hornets, assuming the good times would go on and on.

Two nights before the 2008 playoffs the New Orleans Hornets gathered in a ballroom at Harrah’s, a hotel and casino on the edge of the French Quarter, to toast 56 wins and conceive 16 more. It felt like a rehearsal dinner, players flanked by wives or girlfriends, everybody encouraged to stand and speak. Point guard Chris Paul took his college sweetheart from Wake Forest, Jada Crawley, and even she shared a few words. But the most enduring speech was delivered by small forward Morris Peterson, who had come to New Orleans after seven forgettable seasons in Toronto. “Cherish this team, this opportunity,” Peterson said. “You may think it’s always going to be this way, and you’re always going to have a shot. But I’ve been around the NBA a long time, and you don’t always have a shot. Things happen in this league. Injuries happen. Trades happen. You don’t know if you’ll ever be in this position again.” Paul, then 22 and in his third season with the team, eyed Peterson as if the vet had ordered too many Sazeracs.

RASUAL BUTLER

While I was writing this, news broke that Rasual Butler and his wife Leah Labelle had been killed in a car accident.

Rasual Butler was on the 2008 Hornets team but he was considered a disappointment and kept off the playoff roster. However, the following season, he improved his game and won the starting shooting guard position. His story was one of the more compelling ones during this era of the New Orleans Hornets.

Hornets fans figured the team would contend again, and even though it never did, the remaining years of Chris Paul’s time with New Orleans were utterly fascinating. Those frustrating years produced teams who won more games than the current iteration of the Pelicans—even with superstar Anthony Davis (arguably a more talented player than Paul)—have managed to do.

The Hornets were owned by evangelical self-help guru and accused sexual predator George Shinn, but Shinn literally ran out of the money needed to continue running the organization in 2010, so the NBA had to take over ownership of the team. Eventually, Saints owner Tom Benson purchased the Hornets and brought it into a management structure alongside the football team, and appointed Saints general manager Mickey Loomis to oversee basketball operations in addition to his football duties.

It’s an unusual business scheme and Pelicans fans often accuse management of prioritizing football over basketball, but it’s undeniable that the team under Benson has undergone considerable professionalization. The team finally got its state-of-the-art practice facility. The Pelicans as a name and idea are focus-group-perfect for the area, where Hornets never made sense. The New Orleans Arena found a corporate sponsor and became the Smoothie King Center. The team struck a new TV deal, moving its games from rinky, standard-definition CST (Which wasn’t even available in many parts of the state, including in the New Orleans suburbs.) to the brand-new Fox Sports New Orleans. The team also moved on from its long-time broadcast team of Bob Licht and Gil McGregor, who were the pinnacle of goofy homer announcers, and replaced them with the polished and steady team of Joel Meyers and David Wesley.

The Benson regime has been a major upgrade in terms of business operations. The basketball operations have not been as well managed, but for a team that for so long was the embodiment of tin pot operation, fans should consider themselves fortunate.

But I don’t feel very connected to the Pelicans. Fandom depends on history and continuity. It’s a story, and the most emotional parts of that story for me (and for most Pelicans fans) happened during the Hornets years. They asked us to transfer our emotions to an entirely new brand, and that should be easy, because it’s just a brand, but it hasn’t taken for me. I miss the crappy Hornets uniforms. I miss Bob and Gil and their dumb nicknames and enthusiasm for everything. I miss Bee-fense and Hugo and the Ric Flair WOOO!!