caddo man;1718651 said:New Orleans should fight to keep the Hornets, take from a Seattle guy
Kevin Nesgoda is a free-lance writer in Seattle.
Hi, New Orleans. It’s us, up here in Seattle, and we’ve been watching you for a few days. Your situation with the Hornets has us very intrigued and we would be lying if we said that we didn’t want your basketball team really badly, and we are probably arrogant enough to say that we deserve the team more than you do.
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Share 0 Comments I used to think that I’d agree with those sentiments and now that there is a real possibility that we could get your team, I’m discovering that I’m not exactly as excited and joyful as I thought I would be.
I know what it’s like to lose a basketball team. Some of you are old enough to know what it’s like as well, with your experience of having the Jazz leave in 1979. You’ve had five years with the Jazz and the legend, “Pistol” Pete Maravich. Then in 2002 you were bestowed the Charlotte Hornets and you’ve technically had eight years with them and now that run could be coming to an end too.
I had the Seattle Supersonics for 20 years. The Sonics were the first thing that formed a bond between my Dad and I. We’d get pizza and sit on the living room floor and we’d watch Dale Ellis throw up and make incredible shots; we loved how tough the X-Man was and how smooth Eddie Johnson was. We attended numerous games together and watched many, many more on television. I could go on forever about the memories I have of my team. From the first game I watched against the Rockets in 1988 to the day the city of Seattle threw in the towel and let Clay Bennett win, I was standing by my team (and still am).
How many fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, aunts, uncles and grandparents have forged better relationships at the arena or in front of a television set because of the Hornets? If it’s half the number of the stories I’ve heard on how the Sonics brought people together, then the stories in New Orleans could be countless.
Many of you are using the Hornets to bond together after one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States, a disaster that left your basketball arena under water and your team forced to play in the dust bowl that is Oklahoma City.
George Shinn wanted to keep your team in Oklahoma. He later proclaimed he brought it back for the fans, but that was a lie. It wasn’t because of you, the fans, it was because of David Stern's wishes. And now David Stern has said he’s going to give it his best faith effort to keep the Hornets in New Orleans.
I wouldn’t believe him. I really wouldn’t. He said the same thing to us at the start of Sonicsgate. It was a lie. The moment Clay Bennett purchased the team it was as good as gone. No matter what we would have done we could have never kept our team and Kevin Durant. Our basketball team was Oklahoma City’s reward for your misery.
Do you really believe Stern?
He’s used New Orleans as a public relations seminar for the NBA, and now that the charity photo-op is over he has lost interest. He’s looking for local buyers, but he won’t find any. There was a chance to find one with Gary Chouest, but he’s faded away like the size of his bank account. Of course, there are rumors there could be a new group of local investors trying to come together to purchase the team. Same thing happened in Seattle.
Too little, too late.
We have a very wealthy man, a very savvy businessman, a man who is a huge basketball fan and a lover of his community. He wanted the Sonics, but his bid to buy the team was rejected. Yes, Steve Ballmer wants a basketball team and he is flanked by other billionaires who want the same thing. They want the NBA back in Seattle and they want it today.
Seattle doesn’t have an arena, but that appears to be changing soon. Seattle media is reporting that there are arena plans moving forward and it’s to lure the Hornets to "greener pastures" as they’d say. I don’t know how true any of that is and I won’t believe it until a date is scheduled for a groundbreaking of the new Xbox Center in Seattle or Bellevue. I’ve been spurned by false expectations too many times. I do know one thing though: we want your basketball team. We want it bad, we really do.
I know right now you are hoping and praying the Hornets are going to stay. You are reading the headlines in ESPN about how the NBA is going to make it work. We read the same things. We had national support to keep the Sonics in Seattle and a lot of people were very upset in the media when the Sonics were gone. There are still some Sportscenter anchors who take cheap shots at the Thunder during their highlights. New Orleans is not even getting that support early on and it makes me a little bit sad. Take Michael Wilbon on Pardon the Interruption on Tuesday; he mentioned wanting your team in Seattle, just like everyone else, but you.
I and most in Seattle would prefer an expansion team or our team back. We know that’s not going to happen. Not in this economy and not with the threat of contraction in the league.
We will, however, take the consolation prize of Chris Paul and the new Seattle Supersonics.
Writing that sentence makes me giddy at the thought of CP3 in green and gold, playing 41 nights plus playoffs in Seattle and warming up my winter nights with pro ball again. It’s something I’ve been missing for the last three years. However, if it does come to that New Orleans, I’m sorry. I really am. You’re going to have jerks from our city taunting you and doing everything in their ability to make you angry. Same thing happened to us and is still happening to us with people from Oklahoma City.
Most of us are going to be excited, but melancholy at the same time. We’ll have a basketball team, but we’ll know exactly how you are feeling in that loss. If we do take your basketball team, it’s going to be quick (and for some painless, though others not so much). 99.9% of us are going to be sorry and wish it didn’t happen to you guys. Most of us will not be on your fan sites and blogs gloating.
I do hope that you fight for your team. Get into that arena and make sure that you get above the benchmark. Hold rallies before and after games. Make the NBA know you want to stay. Trust me, if you don’t fight and just assume the team is going to stay because David Stern said the team was going to stay, you’ll be sorry and regret it. We in Seattle have warned you.
Fight, New Orleans, Fight!
We want your basketball team and we may already have our hooks in it. We won’t know until March 1st when relocation papers are due or until a new CBA agreement is signed.
But until then, fight.
thats too sloppy to read, u got a link?
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