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http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/11624457p-12513960c.html
The Big Easy? Not Quite
The Hornets' move from North Carolina to New Orleans has bottomed out with lagging attendance and mounting losses
By Scott Howard-Cooper -- Bee Staff Writer
Everyone else has a history. The New Orleans Hornets, by way of Charlotte with a side trip through the nine circles of Hell, have a buildup.
They were record-setting popular in their first days - leading the NBA in attendance seven consecutive seasons during the 1990s and establishing new standards of support for basketball arenas - but an embarrassment of empty seats by the end of their North Carolina era.
They had Paul Silas as coach and ran him out in favor of Tim Floyd, who lasted one season. They had growing, basketball-crazy Charlotte as a home but airballed with a series of roster and public-relations disasters surrounding owner George Shinn, then jumped to New Orleans. There, they were met with poor corporate backing and a yawning fan base.
Now comes the culmination. Baron Davis wants to be traded, Jamal Mashburn's career might be over because of a knee injury, Jamaal Magloire could miss three months because of a dislocated finger, attendance continues to go over a cliff, and 11 of this season's first 12 games have been losses as the Kings tonight reach what remains of New Orleans Arena. Britney Spears has had longer honeymoons.
It's a month into Year 3 in Louisiana, of their supposed new beginning, and the Hornets are barely a step ahead of the burning bridges at their heels high above the falls.
They have broken triple digits in scoring once, and that took triple overtime at Golden State after scoring 86 in regulation. Heading into Tuesday, only four NBA teams were averaging fewer points than the Hornets' 88.3. Just as troubling, average attendance was 14,693 in six home games, even with early visits by the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
There is the good news. All those people in Charlotte sticking pins into their Shinn dolls got results. Karma hit the Hornets like the morning after a Bourbon Street binge.
They are struggling in every way possible - little fan backing, fewer wins, unable to generate much enthusiasm even in the first two seasons of pro basketball back in town. Meanwhile, Charlotte has a new team and a new owner the faithful there doesn't consider two-faced. The Bobcats are 3-10 and not even in last place in the Southeast Division, in case no one from North Carolina has had the chance to remind New Orleans management yet today.
In the early days of 2004-05, it has gone wrong for the Hornets in seismic proportions. There is the matter of fate, what with alienating fans at the first stop, demanding a new arena or else, then moving to get all this.
There is the obvious medical impact, with Davis (back), Mashburn and Magloire all hurt. And there is getting thrown under the bus by the league.
Not just replacing the Hornets, the expansion Bobcats' arrival triggered realignment, and it was New Orleans that took the hit. Life in the Eastern Conference had been tough enough, with 47 and 41 wins the first two years in Louisiana accompanied by two first-round playoff eliminations, but now the Hornets would be in the deeper West.
And, it would be in the toughest division of all, the new Southwest. The same as San Antonio and Dallas, both proven dangerous deep into the playoffs, and the same as neighbor Houston, now with Tracy McGrady paired with Yao Ming, and Memphis coming off 50 wins. The doom was predictable, even if not to this extent.
The Hornets' new coach, Byron Scott, arrived from New Jersey with two East titles, but also hearing the drumbeat that he'd be lucky to see the playoffs in New Orleans. The paper there, the Times-Picayune, gave him cowboy garb and a badge, put him against a backdrop far more Barstow than Bayou for the cover of the preview section at the start of the season and called him the new sheriff in town. He was West, all right, no mistaking that.
"I got that sense from Day 1," Scott said, remembering the predictions. "Some of the polls that came out where we were picked 13th in the West out of 15 teams, so obviously people are counting us out. That's great. That's great bulletin-board material for us. It's great motivation for us as an organization and as a basketball team. We have a lot of guys on this team that are veteran guys and very proud guys, and it was a little bit of a slap in the face to them."
Which would have been one thing if they hit back. But then the injuries started coming, then the losses, and surviving was suddenly the new goal.
"I don't think the players who have been here over a three-or four-year period of time are looking at this as something to prove," Scott said. "I just think they all understand we're in a tougher division and we have to play better basketball each and every night. That's the point I'm trying to get across. That we can't take nights off."
Said forward P.J. Brown, a Louisiana native: "I think we've got a group of guys who are going to compete this year, and they're going to give New Orleans a winning team. And I think the fans are going to come out and support us. I really do. I think they want NBA basketball, and I think they believe that basketball can make it in that town. I have faith that this team is going to get it done and that the community is going to step up."
It has become a twofold problem by now, of course, having to do well in the standings because the Hornets also need to drive interest. The average attendance in 2002-03, with the NBA back in New Orleans for the first time since the Jazz left for Utah in 1979, was 15,651. Last season, it dropped to 14,332, ahead of only Atlanta. Heading into Tuesday, and hoping for a boost with the Kings and champion Pistons next in, the Hornets were the fourth-worst draw in the league.
"We knew it would be a challenge in terms of attendance," commissioner David Stern said. "But our other metrics, in terms of their lease, their television, their sponsorship and the like ... we think that New Orleans is going to turn the corner this season."
Stern said the Hornets are doing "pretty well" economically, and turning the corner would certainly be welcome on any front, on the court or in the stands.
Except these are the Hornets, and the uncertainty of what's around the corner becomes the potential for new trouble.
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The Big Easy? Not Quite
The Hornets' move from North Carolina to New Orleans has bottomed out with lagging attendance and mounting losses
By Scott Howard-Cooper -- Bee Staff Writer
Everyone else has a history. The New Orleans Hornets, by way of Charlotte with a side trip through the nine circles of Hell, have a buildup.
They were record-setting popular in their first days - leading the NBA in attendance seven consecutive seasons during the 1990s and establishing new standards of support for basketball arenas - but an embarrassment of empty seats by the end of their North Carolina era.
They had Paul Silas as coach and ran him out in favor of Tim Floyd, who lasted one season. They had growing, basketball-crazy Charlotte as a home but airballed with a series of roster and public-relations disasters surrounding owner George Shinn, then jumped to New Orleans. There, they were met with poor corporate backing and a yawning fan base.
Now comes the culmination. Baron Davis wants to be traded, Jamal Mashburn's career might be over because of a knee injury, Jamaal Magloire could miss three months because of a dislocated finger, attendance continues to go over a cliff, and 11 of this season's first 12 games have been losses as the Kings tonight reach what remains of New Orleans Arena. Britney Spears has had longer honeymoons.
It's a month into Year 3 in Louisiana, of their supposed new beginning, and the Hornets are barely a step ahead of the burning bridges at their heels high above the falls.
They have broken triple digits in scoring once, and that took triple overtime at Golden State after scoring 86 in regulation. Heading into Tuesday, only four NBA teams were averaging fewer points than the Hornets' 88.3. Just as troubling, average attendance was 14,693 in six home games, even with early visits by the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
There is the good news. All those people in Charlotte sticking pins into their Shinn dolls got results. Karma hit the Hornets like the morning after a Bourbon Street binge.
They are struggling in every way possible - little fan backing, fewer wins, unable to generate much enthusiasm even in the first two seasons of pro basketball back in town. Meanwhile, Charlotte has a new team and a new owner the faithful there doesn't consider two-faced. The Bobcats are 3-10 and not even in last place in the Southeast Division, in case no one from North Carolina has had the chance to remind New Orleans management yet today.
In the early days of 2004-05, it has gone wrong for the Hornets in seismic proportions. There is the matter of fate, what with alienating fans at the first stop, demanding a new arena or else, then moving to get all this.
There is the obvious medical impact, with Davis (back), Mashburn and Magloire all hurt. And there is getting thrown under the bus by the league.
Not just replacing the Hornets, the expansion Bobcats' arrival triggered realignment, and it was New Orleans that took the hit. Life in the Eastern Conference had been tough enough, with 47 and 41 wins the first two years in Louisiana accompanied by two first-round playoff eliminations, but now the Hornets would be in the deeper West.
And, it would be in the toughest division of all, the new Southwest. The same as San Antonio and Dallas, both proven dangerous deep into the playoffs, and the same as neighbor Houston, now with Tracy McGrady paired with Yao Ming, and Memphis coming off 50 wins. The doom was predictable, even if not to this extent.
The Hornets' new coach, Byron Scott, arrived from New Jersey with two East titles, but also hearing the drumbeat that he'd be lucky to see the playoffs in New Orleans. The paper there, the Times-Picayune, gave him cowboy garb and a badge, put him against a backdrop far more Barstow than Bayou for the cover of the preview section at the start of the season and called him the new sheriff in town. He was West, all right, no mistaking that.
"I got that sense from Day 1," Scott said, remembering the predictions. "Some of the polls that came out where we were picked 13th in the West out of 15 teams, so obviously people are counting us out. That's great. That's great bulletin-board material for us. It's great motivation for us as an organization and as a basketball team. We have a lot of guys on this team that are veteran guys and very proud guys, and it was a little bit of a slap in the face to them."
Which would have been one thing if they hit back. But then the injuries started coming, then the losses, and surviving was suddenly the new goal.
"I don't think the players who have been here over a three-or four-year period of time are looking at this as something to prove," Scott said. "I just think they all understand we're in a tougher division and we have to play better basketball each and every night. That's the point I'm trying to get across. That we can't take nights off."
Said forward P.J. Brown, a Louisiana native: "I think we've got a group of guys who are going to compete this year, and they're going to give New Orleans a winning team. And I think the fans are going to come out and support us. I really do. I think they want NBA basketball, and I think they believe that basketball can make it in that town. I have faith that this team is going to get it done and that the community is going to step up."
It has become a twofold problem by now, of course, having to do well in the standings because the Hornets also need to drive interest. The average attendance in 2002-03, with the NBA back in New Orleans for the first time since the Jazz left for Utah in 1979, was 15,651. Last season, it dropped to 14,332, ahead of only Atlanta. Heading into Tuesday, and hoping for a boost with the Kings and champion Pistons next in, the Hornets were the fourth-worst draw in the league.
"We knew it would be a challenge in terms of attendance," commissioner David Stern said. "But our other metrics, in terms of their lease, their television, their sponsorship and the like ... we think that New Orleans is going to turn the corner this season."
Stern said the Hornets are doing "pretty well" economically, and turning the corner would certainly be welcome on any front, on the court or in the stands.
Except these are the Hornets, and the uncertainty of what's around the corner becomes the potential for new trouble.
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