Hornets Hype

So it’s hard to see right now. It’s really hard to see.

And yet if you asked me when I began this blog in January, I would have told you, “All I want? At least second round and the team stays in New Orleans.”

Guys, it’s going to happen. It’s happening all around you. Back in January, it was flat-out the only thing I cared about. Eighteen thousand people knew it last night. Eighteen thousand, in a building that only four months ago used to echo hollowly with the cheers of barely half that. Thank you, New Orleans.

And then I come home from the game and flip on the TV, only to hear Chris Paul saying, “It almost brought tears to my eyes, because the fans… I think that’s the thing about our team is that we’re really upset that we lost, but I think the thing that hurts the worst is the fact that it’s summer now. You go your separate ways. We don’t get an opportunity to come in before the game and see the thousands of gold t-shirts, the thousands of white t-shirts, and hear our fans going nuts. We gotta wait a few months to hear that again, and I think that’s the part that hurts so bad.”

You come back strong next year, CP, you hear me? Because you know what? We’ll miss you too.

Chris Paul will win a championship. Book it. The Hornets could very conceivably be in the Finals within the next 2-4 years.

But I won’t forget this team.

And I know that’s no consolation right now for a guy like CP3, who is 100% a competitor. Kobe Bryant may have a trophy that says he’s MVP, but he isn’t, and will never be, The Guy Who Saved Basketball in L.A. Whoever wins the title this year, they are not, and will never be, the Team That Saved Basketball in whatever city.

Believe that, and know that we won something here this season.

I didn’t mean to fall in love with basketball. I didn’t mean to start a blog. But here I am, and, even hungover on a Tuesday morning after staring blankly at a computer screen until 3 AM, I can’t say I’d take back any of it. It’s hard to know that you have everything you wanted, and still feel this way.

Am I going to be here next year? Well, I’m not sure I knew how much I was signing myself up for here. Because if “Higher and Higher” is going to be what I say about the team, then we’ve got to go higher too. I’ve got to figure out what I want to do with HornetsHype. There will probably be some changes and additions over the summer. In fact, for one thing, I can pretty much guarantee that this blog will not have a “Demands” section next season, though the S#*t List will stay. Let’s check them out:

• “More games on national TV.” No doubt the NBA knows what they have here now. Right now that sound you hear is them scrabbling to hitch themselves to Chris Paul like they hitched themselves to D-Wayne Wade. Check.
• “Actual articles about the team from the national media.” Man, we seem so far from the days of the negative and derisive attendance article, don’t we? And yet it’s just three months. Check.
• “Recognition of the Greatness That Is Chris Paul.” Check x10.
• “More Julian Wright.” Oh, no doubt. He stepped up big for the Hornets toward the end of the season, and I look forward to seeing him incorporated to a greater degree next year. Check.
• “Better coverage from the Times Picayune.” This is a huge one for us here at HornetsHype. They finally stepped it up, but T.P. Watchdog will continue to monitor the situation warily when football season starts. Check.

See? All I wanted.

It just really, really sucks right now. I don’t really have the heart to link up any articles, because I can’t deal with reading more than a couple of them. I’m done with the postgame video. Watching Tyson Chandler talking in the locker room, red-faced and avoiding the camera with his eyes, was more than enough heartbreak for me.

In the end, maybe it’s more about experience than we Hornets fans wanted to admit.

You live, you learn.

You take this morning. And you learn who you want to be.

that the Spurs are a better team. I’m sorry. There’s nothing anyone can say. I know at this end of the season moment is where you’re supposed to be gracious. Where you’re supposed to wax poetic about how great of a season it was. That’s not going to happen here. Check back tomorrow for ticktock’s post if you want that.

All game, we and the people around us were screaming about the calls. But we thought, a real champion overcomes bad calls. We thought, the Hornets couldn’t make a shot. They were outrebounded. They were outdone from the 3 point and free throw lines. But that said, the Hornets kept fighting and refused to surrender. That being the case, the Hornets were still within 4 points with 3 minutes left in the game. The Spurs made every fucking shot they could and they were still only up by 4. Then a touch foul. Take two free throws. People in the stands go nuts. And suddenly, when you’re that close, you realize that with all the calls that went against you and you’re still there, that suddenly, not just “all” those bad calls made a difference, but any one or two might have changed the game. Suddenly, you’re thinking of the 2nd quarter when you had a 1 point lead, and then a timeout, a missed shot, and a touch foul turned it around.

The refs can’t throw a blowout, but they can change a close game. Take for example this switch. CP goes to the basket and lays it in. Traveling call. Seriously? (Anyone see the 3-4 steps Lebron took at the end of his Game 7 and still got the and 1? Yeah. ) Then the Spurs march down and score. So it’s not just a 2 point switch, it’s 4. Add to that the 187 steps Ginobli takes at the other end of the floor, moving from one side of the paint to the other somehow, which brought the entire back bowl out of their seats–a violation that was NOT called–and the subsequent basket and 1 and it’s a free 3 points. Crazy. You have Mo Pete slapped on a three miss, D-West and Tyson and CP driving and no and 1s, while Parker, Duncan, and Ginobli get them time and time again. Now I have to listen to the idiots on NBAtv say Robert Horry has the experience, and the young Hornets don’t, after the cheap fucking shot he took the other night. After all the pulls and pushes and grabs that Bowen got away with, he’s savvy. Fuck, a few calls go different and they’re all saying the Spurs are too old and we’re the next dynasty.

Fuck the Spurs. I’m sorry. I know already how most of the Hornets blogosphere will react to this, let alone the rest of the country. But I don’t care. It’s my blog. I was there. And this is my opinion. My take. Two games in a row were decided by refs, when the Hornets were up 3-2. You say the Hornets lost it, but when they couldn’t get a call on their OWN HOME FLOOR, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. It’s easy for the Spurs to be gracious. They’re moving on. But after watching the Celtics get fucked by the refs, and bailed out by Paul Pierce, and the Hornets get fucked tonight, it’s obvious that the calls ordained for the first 20-some games of the conference semifinals were on the reverse in these game 7s. The NBA has a long history of conspiracy theories and there’s a reason for it. People are saying Lebron is king, so they want him to win. People are saying the Spurs “aren’t a dynasty” because they’ve never won consecutive championships. Fuck, well, then, just give them one more.

I don’t care. You can’t tell me otherwise. The Hornets were the better team. Were they beat? Yes. Were they beat by a better team? No.

All 14 of the players (and those of you who were on the team and are now elsewhere), the coaches, trainers, and assistants, I salute you. You guys are the best team this city has ever seen. Mr. Shinn, the Hornets organization, you’ve been amazing. As far as the Spurs go, you’ve won 4 championships. Congratulations. But this series, you stole it. No one can convince me otherwise. I hate you.

It’s almost refreshingly simple. Almost. Two roads diverged in a wood.

Tonight there are only two outcomes, two paths: Win, and go to the Conference Finals. Or lose, and the season ends.

Tonight the New Orleans Hornets have the opportunity to take the next step, a step that wasn’t supposed to come until next year, or the year after. A step that was supposed to come after a gradual building process. Lots of young teams come out of nowhere to have playoff success, but they’re 6 or 8 seeds. Few go from missing the playoffs entirely to finishing the season as the #2 seed in the toughest Western Conference race in years. The Hornets skipped a step in the 3 year plan, as it were.

And tonight? It’s just one more step.

But how ironic that it’s fallen out in this particular fashion. Game 7 against the one team that could possibly deserve the title of “dynasty” over the past decade. Game 7 in a once-empty arena, an arena these Hornets filled. Game 7 to determine, decisively, if you’re really ready.

Because you already know the truth. If the Hornets are ready, there is no way they lose this game at home. They flat-out do not allow that to happen, because champions (or future champions) don’t. If they’re not ready, no one’s going to hold it against them– they’re simply not ready. But if this team is ready, then they know what has to happen here.

I’m jittery, man. I can’t really focus on anything. This week has been an emotional rollercoaster. You’re up, you’re down. You lose, you win. The season is over, it’s just beginning. What do you think about? What do you write about, on this day that might be the end of a season or the beginning of an era?

I find myself thinking about this season, about the moments that shone. Peja from the corner, forcing overtime against Dallas. And– it seems funny now to think of, doesn’t it?– possibly the defining moment of the season against the Spurs, the 102-78 road spanking that made people sit up a little and take notice, that drew 15,600 to the arena on the following Monday in what I consider to be the game that signaled the turning of the tide attendance-wise. The night that made people in New Orleans think, “Maybe I don’t want to be missing this.” Peja again in double OT at Phoenix. The night we booed the Boston Celtics off the court. Chris Paul vs. the Chicago Bulls. Chris Paul vs. the Dallas Mavericks. Chris Paul vs. the World.

The Suns are done, man. The Mavs? Done. The Spurs… they might have a couple more years left in them. But they’ve got to know they’ll fade, and the Hornets have got to know they’ll be clinging hard tonight.

But Chris Paul just turned 23. Tyson Chandler is 25, and David West 27. You better believe the Hornets have been building for this. As Chris Paul said the other night, “This is what we play for.”

Game 7, and here’s what it comes down to: You go down– and there’s no shame in that– to the defending champs.

Or you step into your future.

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.

Today we’ve got a guest post from one of our regular commenters. This is his story of how he became the Hornets fan that he is today…

“I wasn’t born one. There. I said it.

It was the fall of 1998. I had just gotten divorced and was nursing my wounds in a one bedroom apartment about an hour north of Sacramento, CA. My next door neighbor bore a striking resemblance to Will Ferrell and his personality fit one of his movie characters perfectly. He was also a diehard Lakers fan. Growing up in San Francisco, I was raised to despise all LA teams as if they were Satan incarnate. It just so happens, the Lakers were playing the Kings that year. I became an immediate Kings fan since they were playing the Lakers. I followed the Kings and rooted them on. I still have a license plate frame on my car from their 2001 season.

I moved to New Orleans and arrived New Years Day 2004. One of the first things I was told is that it was pitifully easy to get into Hornets games. Coming from around Sacramento, this did not compute. You couldnt get into Arco Arena without a second mortgage AND knowing someone. Nosebleed seats could be found on Ebay for $200+. I never saw a Kings game at Arco. For Christmas 2004, my brother gave me tickets to the Hornets-Kings at the Arena. Best present ever! My first basketball game with my fav team and my local team (who was #2 to me at the time). This was the season where the Hornets were on their way to the worst record in basketball history. They had 8 wins at that point, I think. The Kings LOST. I lost all respect for them. They traded my favorite players (including Peja). They brought in Artest. ‘Nuff said. Supporting my local team became a LOT easier. I saw a few games as I learned that basketball is more fun to watch live than on TV.

Then came that little storm we had. Overnight, I became militant New Orleans-proud. I got cushy job offers across the country that paid well. No thanks, I like my FEMA trailer. I went to all the games they had here when they were in OKC. The first game back was the Lakers. We lost. I didn’t care, they were BACK. I’ve been to as many games as I could reasonably pull off since then. Almost bought season tickets with some spare insurance money. This year was special from the start. They were looking GOOD. I became a Hornets booster. I suggested everyone should go to the games. Go to the games or we lose the team. Go TONIGHT! Just $10 and there isn’t a bad seat! GO! NOW!!!!! As the season progressed, it started to work. More and more people started going!

Then it hit me. I knew something as a former Kings fan Hornets fans didn’t know. Peja can hit three-pointers all day long, but he tended to choke rather badly in the post-season. I’ve seen him get 5 points in a game in Sac. Just when you thought you could count on him to put a game away, whiff. Airball. Dare I say something? Maybe if I ignored it, it wouldn’t happen again. After Game 1 with the Spurs, I told someone my fears. I prayed I didn’t jinx anything. 22 points. I don’t think he made 22 points in his postseason career in Sacramento.

God bless The New Orleans Hornets.”

This is one fan’s discovering-the-Hornets story. If you have one too, write it up and send it to me at ticktock6@gmail.com. I’ll post it on the site. The Hornets are converting people everywhere this season, and the Movement grows!

Because someone mentioned it last week… the New Orleans Globetrotters! I was at this game. There was a long timeout due to the net being ripped during a stunt, but instead of everyone having a fit over it a la The Ring of Fire, the players started clowning around. I wish they’d gotten JuJu going crazy to “Jump On It” and Josh Childress trying to lick Tyson Chandler, but alas, those gems seem to have gone untelevised.

Okay. So as ticktock has astutely pointed out, the critics say we’re going to lose. The faces on our tickets say otherwise.

In the regular season and playoffs the Hornets are 9-2 when CP is on the ticket face (game 1), 6-0 when D-West is on the ticket (game 2), 4-1 when Peja is on the ticket (game 5), although only 2-3 when Mo is on the ticket face (game 7).

What does this say?

It says we can expect to win games 1, 2, and 5. So if we steal ONE game in San Antonio, the series is ours. And as I’ve already gone on the record as saying, we’re going to fucking win if it is game 7 at home.

So there it is.

… Speaking of Peja on a Stick, and when are we not this week? I JUST saw the new flash intro on the Hornets website for the Spurs series, and I almost spit water all over my laptop. I missed it the first time. Just wait for it to load, and don’t do what I did at first and click right through to the regular site.

Just. Wait.

Ball Don’t Lie wanted some of that Peja on a Stick today. (What should I say? We got BDLed? Doesn’t quite lend itself to verbmaking the way “We got TrueHooped” does.) Coincidentally, they’ve also picked Hornets in 7. And SI’s got Hornets in 6. See, now, the reason I was so PO-ed about everyone picking the Mavs and giving the Hornets no love was because, hello, the #7 over the #2 seed? Like the Hornets tripped one morning and fell into the #2 seed in the West by accident. But the Hornets only have home court against the Spurs by virtue of a tiebreaker, and the Spurs are the defending champions (even though they only win in odd years). Just when I wasn’t gonna be particularly militant about the national media picking the Hornets to lose this one… go figure, they start getting all trendy and picking them to win.

And finally, via the T.P. and falling under the broad heading of “Only In New Orleans”…

Yesterday we got TrueHooped. (Since I was home from work sick, that was a fun activity for my afternoon… just reloading the page and watching the traffic double, then triple.) Which is kind of the be-all and end-all of NBA blogging. The good news was that the site dealt with the extra traffic smoothly, despite my cheapskate ass hosting three domains on one account. It was a good day all around.

And then the Hornets made it better.

Could you have scripted a better first playoff series for Chris Paul? Old Guard vs. New Upstarts. Falling Back vs. Rising Up. And David West with another 25-point “Oh What? You Thought I Was the Fluke All Star?” night. (As my 7th grade class would say, “That’s cold.”) And no one but Hornets fans could have predicted how Jannero Pargo has gone off in this series. In fact, most media experts predicted that #7 seed Dallas would win the series, with virtually no one saying the Hornets in less than 7 games.

Honestly, I saw this happening. Not, you understand, as a definite, but as a probability I could see unfolding. “Seriously?” I thought. “If the Hornets win this series, it won’t be in 7.” I think, realistically, this series was over after Game One. Yeah, yeah, yeah, “you say that now,” but think about it. It was how the team came out after the half, down 12 points. And as they played, as Chris Paul dismantled the Mavs and took the game over, it was like watching a team realize they belong. And once you’ve got that, you don’t let it go.

If you’ve watched this team all season, you know they were capable, young, and hungry. But the thing is, most people haven’t seen this team. Until last week, the Hornets had only had 5 or 6 nationally televised games.

Well, you’ve seen them now. Get used to it.

Get used to the names. Get used to the faces. These are the faces you’ll be seeing over and over again for the next five years.

As SLAM Online wrote this morning:

Has there ever been a franchise that’s been a complete afterthought, draft one player and then all of a sudden they are a powerhouse. Chris Paul is (insert over the top praise). The Hornets season has been a smashing success. No matter what happens from here on out. The worst thing that can happen to them is they learn hard lessons. And that’s not even a bad thing.

“It’s not a blog. It’s a movement.” That’s what we here at HornetsHype like to say. Well, the movement has picked up a lot of strength. It seems as if our goals–and the team’s goals– are being accomplished every day. But I’m not going to stop blogging.

And the Hornets aren’t going to stop playing.

New Orleans Hornets vs. San Antonio Spurs. Game One. Saturday, May 2, 2008. 9 PM.

Higher and Higher.

First off, this short video feature from TNT, which interviews several New Orleanians about the team. It’s only 1:50, so you should go watch it, if only to see the Hornets doing their get-psyched-up dance in the hallway of the arena. I love how Julian Wright is right in the middle, because you know when there’s any kind of crazy dance going on, JuJu is all over that.

Second, there’s some pretty random Hornets stuff on YouTube. I’ve picked you a real gem to start off with today. This takes place in the Staples Center locker room when the Hornets played at the Lakers last fall and features Jannero Pargo rocking a beater and a tie (Ely: “You should see the tie he has on. It matches nothing he has on now”), and Melvin Ely trying to explain Justin Timberlake’s Dick in a Box without actually saying any dirty words.