Last night the Hornets threw a party on Fulton Street downtown. Well, I’m not one to miss a good party, so here’s a recap of the event… with pictures!

We got there just as the team was taking the stage. Rob Nice introduced the players one by one, and they came out tossing shirts to the crowd. Then Byron Scott took the mike and said a few words. They announced that the giveaway for Saturday night is a free t-shirt—here’s what it looks like: guess they decided to go for the “teal-out”– and stressed that you are supposed to put them ON. Then the team was out, high fiveing fans as they left. Oh, except Jeff Bower, the NBA’s most anonymous GM, who, as usual, didn’t leave but instead slipped into the crowd unnoticed by pretty much everyone except our group.

All the TVs outside the bars were playing the Hornets’ season montage over and over (I could watch that thing all day, I swear). There were performances from the Hornets Drumline, the Honeybees, and the Used to Bees. There was also a band, who got murderous “not amused” looks from us for bringing up LSU way more often than acceptable at a Hornets rally. They had a couple of bars set up outside, some tables where you could win prizes, and a small merchandise booth. FYI, we were told the Southwest Division T-shirts are available at the Arena now, if anyone’s interested in grabbing one. Poydras Street has Hornets signs hanging from all the streetlights, and that building with the dome on top is lit up in teal, gold, and purple.

They gave away some nice swag at the rally, the best freebies being lawn signs (there I am with mine below) and “Geaux Hornets” window decals. Because we are dedicated to bringing the Hype, I debated snagging 20 or so of the signs and sneaking around at night sticking them all over the neutral ground on St. Charles, but it would have been hard to hold a beer with a stack of 20 signs.

I decided to make a HornetsHype Flickr account, so you can go there to check out the rest of the pics from last night.

Finally, I’m going to be in Tampa through Sunday morning, so I leave you in the capable hands of mW. (Yes, I’m missing Game 1. Don’t get me started.) I’m on the plane now, and the guy two seats over is reading today’s Times Picayune. I noticed from looking over his shoulder that there appear to be at least two editorials on the Hornets in the Metro section, a measure of how far things have come.

Behind me, a woman is lifting her little kid up to the window to watch the other planes taxi down the runway at MSY. “No, no,” she says. “We haven’t taken off yet. But we will in just a little bit. And then we’re going to go higher and higher.”

Sounds familiar.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 10:59 am and is filed under Around Town, Hornets, Playoffs 08. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.