Hornets Hype

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Archive for the ‘ CrowdWatch ’ Category

NOEngineer posted this in the comments, and it really is a pretty cool take on how NBA teams are doing, and definitely a different take considering the Hornets came in third to last on Forbes’ recent list of the most valuable NBA franchises. So, if you had $285 mil, hell, you could buy them. They’re that cheap.

What it is: a chart that takes into account a whole bunch of factors like attendance, payroll, ticket cost, and size of the market… and spits out the Hornets as a monstrous statistical outlier. So basically, if you are a Hornets fan and you go to games, the return on your investment is WHOLE INCHES beyond what the rest of the NBA teams are doing. Check out the graphic here.

So, valuable according to Forbes? No. But are they valuable to us? Absolutely. I am very pleased to be getting such bang for my $1(000) buck(s). And imagine, they didn’t even take into account the dollar beers.

Anyway, guys, I’m too busy right now to post anything else. I’m sitting here on my couch watching ESPN and trying to decide who I love more: Brandon Roy or Paul Pierce? Seriously. I will be awake all night trying to figure it out. SERIOUSLY. Oh my god, and now they are trash talking each other. On my TV. It’s madness.

I’m out like the Phoenix Suns’ run and gun game…

  • ALL IS WELL. So ESPN is all, “Tyson Chandler Sprains Ankle.” People, I just got back from the game and I am telling you he was on the bench all night. I’m not sure he ever left. Not only was he on the bench, but he was goofing around, standing up and down, and generally looking like it wasn’t a big deal. So don’t believe the hype. Or, believe the Hype but not the hype. Or… yeah. Anyway, don’t panic.
  • I said this summer that I was going to officially believe in Hilton Armstrong this year, since no one else wanted to, and that is going excellently thus far, thanks! 14 pts in relief of Chandler
  • 14,000 people at a preseason game is certainly one way to start.
  • When you think about it, if David West played 22 minutes and scored 19 points, that’s almost a point per minute.
  • There is most definitely Abita at the arena. I saw Amber, Purple Haze, and Jockamo IPA.
  • Get this. So last year, all I wanted out of life was a Tyson Chandler jersey, and they had all the starters but him. This year, all I want is a David West jersey…. and they have no D. West youth jerseys. They have everybody else, including Tyson and JuJu. I could not make this up. NO DAVID WESTS!!!?? How? Why? Wha–?
  • Whoever the Hornets play next needs to watch out. JuJu totally wanted to dunk it crazy all night, and fate kept intervening. I would not get between that man and his dunk. Because it’s going to happen.
  • Posey and JuJu both wear the headband and the tall socks, and play at the same time. This is a dilemma. Really I found the best way to tell them apart is that Posey was also wearing black knee pads of some kind. Um, or the fact that one of their jerseys has the number 41 on it and one has the number 32…
  • Oh, and the Hornets beat Golden State 106-103. The #2 unit looked good. Sims, Jordan, Butler, and Marks did not play. Mike James played the 1 and Devin Brown played the 2. Hilton Armstrong played big minutes, as he was called upon to replace Tyson Chandler early.
  • Maybe I really will buy tall socks.

Tickets to Paradise

By ticktock6 on September 23, 2008

A roundup of all the Hornets ticket info I know:

  • If you sign up for Bee Mail, you will get emailed a link and the password for single game tickets in the pre-sale that starts Wednesday 10/1 at 10:00 AM. This is basically the same format they used for individual playoff tickets. Really, there’s no point in not signing up. They don’t email you a lot, and when they do, it’s usually good stuff. You might get to find out about some promotions before they go on the site (although it’s definitely not as timely or special goodie-filled as the season ticketholder email, which unfortunately mW gets and I don’t).
  • If you don’t have Bee Mail, then general tickets go on sale Saturday 10/4 at 10:00 AM.
  • There will be $8 tickets this year. Obviously for the rows in the way, way top of the upper bowl, but this is still a slight price drop from last year, when the cheapest tickets were $10.
  • Half Season ticket packages are currently on sale. You can pick Plan A or Plan B. I suggest going to the site to check out the breakdown of which games you would be getting with which package.
  • 10 Game packages are also on sale. For more details about these packages, here’s the official page.
  • Of course, you can still buy Full Season tickets if you want to be cool like the other 10,300 people. But not in the lower bowl, as I believe it’s sold out.
  • Additionally, tickets for the two home preseason games are already on sale. That’s Golden State on Sunday, 10/5 at 6:00 PM, and the Pacers on Tuesday, 10/21 at 6:00 PM. We, of course, will be there rocking out in Lower Corner C. You can also trek to Mobile for Hornets/Heat on 10/23.

HOLY CRAP!!! October 5th! THERE’S A GAME NEXT WEEKEND!

As a wise man once said…. “Woo!”

In the distance, next to the Superdome, the Hornets’ arenaSo we’re up to 2:30 PM on the second-to-last day.

Three years ago today, two days before Hurricane Katrina hurtled through the Gulf as a Category 5 and changed everything, it was a Saturday and I was lying out in my backyard under a clear blue sky. Nearby was my 1990 Honda Accord, which got destroyed when slate tiles off the roof sliced through both metal and windshield. In the next chair over was my former roommate, one of many friends who have moved on and away since the storm.

This is how it goes, on each anniversary. I can’t help counting down the days and the hours in my mind. It’s like how people remember where they were when Kennedy was shot, Challenger exploded, or 9-11 happened.

I remember what I was doing on the second-to-last day.

I write this post both in memoriam, and in explanation, hopefully, of why it hurt so much every time a new misinformation-riddled article from an out-of-town writer came out last season saying the Hornets weren’t going to make it in New Orleans. Because every time they said those guys who bore the name of the city across the front of their teal jerseys weren’t going to make it, what I heard was, “New Orleans isn’t going to make it.” Maybe it was wrong to take it personally. But, on the other hand, it was the taking it personally that led me to make this blog.

On the second-to-last day we rented videos. And we bought a case of beer. Basic hurricane prep, right? (The part that makes this different from any other weekend of your life is that you still have the videos, in their clear plastic boxes in the entertainment center forever, because the store has never re-opened.)

Maybe you thought it was cheesy when ESPN and the like decided to dramatically announce (after “forgetting” the team existed for the first three quarters of the season) that the Hornets were playing for an entire city. It was, and it was also drastically oversimplifying what happened here. But it’s not their fault. It’s hard for people who weren’t here to understand this whole thing. And I’m not trying to be condescending, to make out like we’re some exclusive club you can’t be a part of (you wouldn’t want to be a part of it). But it’s like that trite old saying about people who live in glass houses not throwing stones.

Canal StreetOnly you don’t know your house is made of glass until it comes shattering down. If the National Guard was parked on the road keeping you out of your house for four weeks, and there was no power in your neighborhood for months anyway, and you’d already run down your savings, and you needed to put down a deposit on an apartment in a new, northern city, would you take the $4,500 check from FEMA? Would you stare numbly at the highway flowing past under the car, wondering what happened to your life? Would you feel guilty because you were upset about losing your clothes and books and car, when other people lost so much more?

We’re up to 7 AM on the Last Day. The city officials hold a press conference on TV. I watch it in bed. Katrina has strengthened to a Category 5. The levees cannot hold a Category 5. Evacuation is mandatory. All citizens with vehicles are to leave immediately. Get out. Just get out.

The members of the New Orleans Hornets are expected to be ambassadors for this city, and indeed the current team is full of high-character guys who’ve gotten involved in service this season, but they don’t know. As far as I’m concerned, except for David West, the only player left from the pre-Katrina roster, they’re in the strange and unfortunate position of dealing with the aftermath of something they were never here for. Only the minority owner is local. Chris Paul, drafted in 2005, hadn’t even arrived in New Orleans for training camp when abruptly his new life in the city was over before it started. Is it the team’s fault? No. Can you understand the slight undercurrent of resentment from some New Orleanians early last season? Yes.

12:52 PM on Sunday, August 28, 2005. I take a break from packing (and what would you bring if you had two hours to choose?) and sit down at my computer to quickly blog. This is what I write, at 12:52 PM on the Last Day:

This morning we woke up to sun shining through the slats of the blinds. The palms and magnolias on my street are swaying with the strengthening breeze. The heat bakes the slate roof tiles on the house next door. I look out over roofs that have been there for a hundred years. The cars are parked on the neutral ground. The streets are ominously empty.

We meant to ride it out, but…

Mandatory evacuation of Orleans Parish. It’s a Category 5 storm with winds of 175 miles per hour. The officials are saying there’s no longer a question that the levees will be overcome by the water. It’s so strange, really. It just seems like a pretty Sunday. Last year they said Ivan was going to be The One, and it wasn’t. They said the city would full up like a giant fish bowl. They said this was the price of living in the past.

I don’t know. I know I don’t want to leave, because, no matter how I want to deny it, there is a very real possibility that it won’t be here when I get back. I suppose at a moment like this what you feel is admiration and wonder: at the persistence of the people who settled here, who braved malaria and ungodly heat, who watched the river swallow their homes and then improbably built again in a swamp, at the women of two hundred years ago who did it all in floor length skirts. At least that’s what I think about. Goodbye to my green streetcars. Goodbye to the sweet still air that smells like flowers. Goodbye to the grand old ladies of St. Charles Avenue, with their iron lace and graceful tall shuttered windows and delicate porches, to whom my heart belongs. If this is your end, I am glad I won’t see it. Stubborn old city. It’s funny, somehow I see it making it… It’s very quiet outside now. I’ve taken the pictures down from the walls. We’re evacuating north to Nashville.

Goodbye, city. Good luck.

This is what I write, and then I fold up my laptop and put it in my bag.

Free GumboBut, three years later, and this is the important thing, this is more than a story of a hurricane. It’s a story about the resilience and grim humor of people who learned they had to rely on themselves. It’s a story about stereotypes: about people who heard they were supposed to be an inhuman bunch of looters, who were told they were stupid for living in a place that was their home (sometimes, ludicrously, by people who themselves lived above a fault line or on a tornado-prone plain), who were accused of stealing FEMA money from taxpayers. They said, “Good riddance.”

8:00 PM and you’re in the car, forehead leaning on the glass, rain collecting in ominous puddles along the side of the highway, car headlights stacked to the horizon, gas running low.

Then this winter they said, “New Orleans doesn’t care about the Hornets. New Orleans doesn’t want the Hornets.” And you know what I say to that? I say, “Fuck you. Don’t tell me what I want.”

Don’t tell me what my city needs and does not need. You weren’t there. You came to party, but you didn’t want the baggage. You weren’t there with the doors hanging open and banging in the wind, up and down an eerily empty street littered with debris. You weren’t there when the traffic lights didn’t work for a year. You weren’t there when the Saints scored a touchdown 90 seconds into the first home game after Katrina, and a whole city leapt up in unison, and it meant something.

You didn’t see all those little kids dressed in Chris Paul jerseys.

You weren’t there the night I heard an indescribable roar, and I looked up from the court, and realized New Orleans Arena was full, from bottom to top.

Home4:00 AM, and you’re sleeping on the ground outside at a rest stop in Alabama. Only you’re not sleeping. You’re staring up at the still-clear sky. You’ve outdriven the storm. You’re almost to Birmingham. The traffic has thinned. The rest stop is scattered with quiet people with Louisiana plates. The air is humid. It’s August 29, 2005.

What do we want? We want to forget the Saints were ever in San Antonio; we want to forget the Hornets were in Oklahoma City. We want the Hornets to make it, because our pride can’t take it if they don’t. Because every sellout this spring was a cry of victory for the city. We are not who you think we are, you columnists with poor research skills in bland Midwestern cities. We want you to stop telling us what our fate is going to be. We want you to write the damn follow-up article, the one about the 10,000 season tickets already sold for 2008-09.

We want you to understand why it says “New Orleans,” not “Hornets,” on the front of those jerseys.

Louisiana State Police. 9-9. Zero dead inside.

Louisiana State Police. 9/9/05. Zero dead inside. We're still alive here.

Fill it up with gold!CrowdWaaaaaatch: Because, after all, this site was born out of a fit of righteous rage over such things, I can’t believe I haven’t posted an update about the Hornets’ ticket status. So here it is: season ticket sales are going REALLY well. As of this week, I’ve heard there are only a couple hundred seats left in the lower bowl. Total season ticket sales are just short of the 10,000 mark and should keep on going throughout the summer! Consider that, back in December, it wasn’t out of the question for there to be 10,000 or fewer people in the building total

Your city is not stealing the Hornets.

I told you.

Slideshowin’ It

By ticktock6 on May 18, 2008

Just a quick something I threw together. You can think of it as a love letter of sorts. To the Hornets, from the fans. 18,000 strong, baby!

From us to you. 21 hours.

You know what you gotta do.

The Spur Who Cried Wolf

By mW on May 16, 2008

I’d like to clear something up. There’s been a lot of mudslinging from Spurs fans to Hornets fans and vice versa this series. To be expected. But one thing in particular, I feel the need to address: the booing for Spurs players who fall to the ground and stay there. I guess after the “Horry, Horry” chants last night for Cheap Shot Bob, I feel the need to explain to those who don’t get it.

Flop!!!!We’re not hoping anyone gets hurt. Not at all. Rather, this is the case of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Right from the start of this series, in Game 1, Bruce Bowen took a hard foul from Bonzi Wells and went to the court hard. He then ended up on the floor for several minutes, nothing noticeably wrong, not really grasping anything or writhing in pain, but just laying there, face down. A lot of us couldn’t see the play; he was in a crowd when it happened. But believing him to be a flopper–and still not forgiving his earlier-in-the-season assault on Chris Paul–the crowd booed when he got up, rather than cheered. Some people, especially those not present at the Arena, were confused by this booing and thought that we hoped he was hurt. Not so.

Consider that when Bowen finally got up, he looked perfectly fine. He showed no later effect from the play. So some reporter asked Bowen about the incident after the game, and he had this to say: “I just want to be sure that the officials can see what’s really going on.” In other words, he faked it to make sure he got the call. And he did. A flagrant no less. A good tactic, you say? Probably. I don’t mind a little psychology. But at the same time, Bowen opened the door for us, as a crowd, to not fall for it and call his bullshit, even if the refs continue to be duped.

So, ever since, the New Orleans home crowd has been merciless to any Spur who hits the deck. With Bowen’s admission, we just assume you’re looking for a call. And to our collective credit, we’ve been right every time so far. Each Spur who’s gone down and stayed down has managed to pop right up after a few minutes, with no discernible injury.

In contrast, Tyson went down in Game 5, stayed down, and then came out of the game and didn’t return. When West got knocked down in Game 5, and stayed down, he came out of the game and didn’t return. These were real injuries. And let me tell you, if we saw some Spur get helped off the floor and come out of the game, legitimately hurt, those boos would turn to applause.

We may be a vicious home crowd, but we’re not classless. And by this post, I hope not to just explain this to those who aren’t present at the Arena, but to hopefully remind those who are going to be there of the difference. So stay classy, New Orleans.

And go fuck yourselves, San Antonio.

I say awesome. I have no shame.

And yes, he missed both free throws.

If I was Tony Parker I would’ve cracked up

Poor guys :-(Unexpected, this is. And unfortunate.

You know how much I love seeing the Hornets get media hype. You know it’s the mission on which this site was built.

But there’s such a thing as overhype. I know, unbelievable, right?

Even I was rolling my eyes at the torrent of articles last week talking about the meteoric rise of the Hornets, the Changing of the Guard, and how Chris Paul is the Next Coming of Whoever and the Savior of Basketball. Partly because, well, yeah, the Hornets are up-and-coming. Thanks for finally noticing. But I thought it was overhype. It was too much too soon.

I thought, “Well, the Hornets needed playoff confidence, so maybe it’s OK?” But there’s a difference between confidence and believing your own legend. And maybe the Hornets started believing their legend, a little too much. See, that’s the thing about the media. They’re not content with you and your story. They’ve got to spin it, they’ve got to enlarge it, they’ve got to shape it into something else more exciting. That story? That’s not you. It’s something they made, and then called by your name. But you’re in trouble now. Now the Spurs believe their own legend. And if you’re the Hornets, that is the very last thing you wanted to let happen.

You thought the Spurs were going to be content to win one game in their castle? You thought they were going to roll over for you? You thought this was going to be easy?

And now here we are, tied 2-2, with essentially a must-win Game 5 at home. Simply put, if the Hornets drop this game, I’m not sure I believe they can pull this out. I went on one of the forums last night and had to sign off in disgust. Supposed Hornets fans, bragging about how they’d picked the Spurs in 6 from the beginning? Why would you brag about that? Jesus. “Let me go on a fan forum and brag about my own total douchebaggery.” Yeah, no thanks. With fans like that, who needs enemies? Is this how it’s going to end, before it’s even over?

No. That’s not the way to go. That’s not the way the Hornets are going to go. Dropping 4 straight? That hasn’t happened all season.

It comes down to this.

Tell us what we have to do.

It’s come down to this before. And before, and before. If you were there, you remember. You know what the power of the mob can do. The Hornets are 17-1 at home going back to February. If you want us to boo, we’ll boo every time they’re touching the ball. If you want us to scream, we’ll scream. If you ask for gold, we will give you gold. (And, in fact, more gold shirts are on the schedule for Tuesday night.)

And so, here’s my message to the Hornets: We’re your home advantage. You created us. You made us, from 8,000 half-assed people in the lower bowl to what we are today. It’s your advantage. You earned it. Just like you earned the right to be in a best-of-3, this week, with the defending champions. Me, personally? I will do whatever it takes. But unfortunately, guys, I don’t get to be on the court playing the game. That part’s up to you.

I somehow feel arts and crafts time coming on… and you know what that means.

FAN UP OR SHUT UP.

On this day of many posts and more to come, I just want to send a huge shout out to the airport crew, the Asylum, the BeerGardeners, the G.B.ers, the boarders, the ladies at the Abita tap on the 100 level (you rock!), the Back Row (represent!), 247, At the Hive, and all the awesome people we’ve met over the course of this season!

And you know, when I started this blog, I had a sinking feeling that New Orleans would never come through for this team. And they’d never meet the benchmark. And just when things were starting to get great, the team would leave. Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be my final CrowdWatch of the year, because last night’s sellout put the Hornets’ attendance over the benchmark of 14,735 for the first time.

56-26.

Now breathe. And get ready to take it higher.