From the Times Picayune comes a sad story about a kid who died of cancer before he got his wish to see the Hornets play. He asked to be buried in his Chris Paul jersey. George Shinn sent flowers to the family and asked if he could help with funeral costs, and Chris Paul is going to write the kid’s name, Brian, on his shoes when he plays tonight. The article mentions that CP wanted to go to the funeral, but couldn’t because the Hornets have to travel. So, you know, if you weren’t already on board with the whole “Chris Paul is MVP and also a great guy” thing, you will be after you read this story.
Chris Paul doesn’t have to do the things he does. He could be indifferent. But he’s not. When I met him, he was polite and friendly– you could totally see how everyone says he’s a cool guy to be around. Hell, he’d watched all of his MVP videos and he knew exactly which one was ours. He didn’t have to care about this kid and his family, especially during the playoffs. But he did.
Speaking of CP3, this bit about what the various players did during the Game 1 Ring of Fire delay just goes to back up what I said about him in my Chris Paul Blog Day entry.
TNT had to awkwardly fill air time that they did not expect to occur (not their fault), so they performed the tried and true method of panning around the court and commenting on the players they saw. The cameras hit Tim Duncan, who sat on the bench with coach Greg Popovich, holding the skipper’s clipboard, drawing up fake plays that must have been hilarious by the way Popovich was laughing, and simply joking around. The cameras hit Bonzi Wells, who was having his own fun, showboating to the home crowd fans. But then the cameras hit Chris Paul, who simply stood there like mannequin, a steely gaze in his eyes that would have bordered on creepy had he been somebody who I met on the street. Chris Paul was not thinking about the hilarity of the situation at hand. He was not thinking about the crowd, nor was he thinking about the episode of Lost he had tivo’d, nor was he thinking about the ridiculously hot Hornets dancing squad, the Honeybees. He was thinking about basketball. Nothing else. Being a primary topic of discussion, TNT probably had Chris Paul on their cameras about four or five times, and he never lost that gaze.
More Hornets articles… Y’all know I love me some Bonzi. Here’s a nice article about him today from the San Antonio Express News. Damn, I wish I hadn’t read an article about Bonzi. It just reminds me how much I’d love a Red Bull right now. No joke.
Seeing as I started an ENTIRE BLOG devoted to the idea of “You need more Hornets in your life,” my biased self would like to state that HornetsHype wholly supports TrueHoop’s support of the New Orleans Hornets. Me supporting their support… it’s like a little circle of teal. It just warms my heart.
Speaking of TrueHoop, there was an amusing tidbit posted yesterday about how to make your own Manu Ginobili votive candle (skull head, #20 jersey, and all). So yours truly commented thusly: “That’s all right. New Orleans fans’ backyard voodoo altar > San Antonio votives. We put da gris gris on them, bebe.”
Someone in the comment thread asked what that meant, and I represented for New Orleans thusly:
“Gris gris… It’s like… if you took some grave dirt, and some of Manu Ginobili’s hair, and snuck behind the bench and cut off a corner of Tony Parker’s jersey… and put it all in a little bag, and voila!”
So there. You cannot say my mission is not to educate.
Welcome, friendly bandwagoners of America! Talk to me when you’re wearing as much teal as I am (see photo)… I keep saying the HypeMeter is at an all time high, and then it just gets a little higher! Now where to find some grave dirt…
Only Hollingers’s stat machine thinks the Hornets will win. Just the way we like it…
Also, why is it pitch black in NOLA at 8:30 AM? Is the world about to end? Is it a sign? More importantly, are the Spurs waking up at their hotel and wondering if this is the apocalypse? (Silly Spurs… they don’t know that the apocalypse has already happened. New Orleanians know. We were there.)
Just a roundup of the good hype I’ve read over the past couple days:
Holy Positive Attendance Article!In USA Today. Finally. I’ve been waiting for a bunch of these to roll in. Of course, the positive ones have been slower in coming than the negative ones that were all over the place during the winter.
CP3 = King of PER: Chris Paul leads, oh, everyone in the playoffs in PER at 32.36. Kobe and Dwight come in a distant second and third at 28.31 and 28.26 respectively.
Who Made You? with Tyson Chandler:Video here. LOL at lil Tyson looking exactly like now Tyson, minus facial hair.
I Told You TrueHoop Dispensed Hornets Love: And here’s more, in the form of a fun Mike James interview.
And One Bee-llion (Ha. See what I did there) More Links: … located at Hornets247.
And here’s a bonus: If you’re in the CBD and you’ve got a lunch break, there’s going to be a Hornets second line going through the Quarter, starting at Café Du Monde at 11:30 and concluding at Harrah’s. There will be Soul Rebels, Hugo, Honeybees, and our favorite SerbSicles. They’ll be tossing out giveaways (T shirts, car stickers, and such) too.
Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie thinks Kidd should be suspended for his flagrant foul on Jannero Pargo (below). What do I think? I think Pargo’s lucky he has damn good reflexes, or he could have broken his neck. That looked flat-out terrifying, before they showed the replay and I realized he hadn’t actually hit his head. But, for the purposes of the Hornets, I don’t care if Kidd’s suspended or not. Pargo wasn’t hurt, and he bounced back up, even having the presence of mind to calm JuJu (who looked like he was about to hit any Mav within two feet) down and pull him away.
It’s not like the Mavs would really miss Kidd’s 3 points anyway…
Bonus!Hype 1: I guess my mind hasn’t taken up residence in the gutter yet today, because I didn’t notice anything funny about the David West photo at the top of ESPN… but apparently other people did. Haha…
Bonus!Hype 2: If you go over to SLAM Online, today’s playoff wrapup has the headline “Wake Up Mr. West!” Except they’re referring to Delonte West’s big tiebreaker for Cleveland. Oh, see now, that’s not going to fly. Sound bite-stealing wannabe D. Wests will not be tolerated on this blog.
I’m in Tampa at a dinner, and I keep texting for the score. The Hornets are down by 12 at the half. The next time it’s 6. Five minutes later it’s 5. The last time I check it’s 68-65. I leave to go watch the rest of the game in the hotel bar. On the way I get a message from mW. It just says, “Wow… Go Hornets!”
And I know. I just know.
I walk up to the bar, and there in ESPN HD, the first thing I hear is, “Chris Paul has taken over this game.” New Orleans has a six-point lead.
Someone says, “There are still 9 minutes left.”
I said, “You know how many times this season the Hornets have come from behind in the second half at home and then given up the lead? Never.”
And I watch as he smokes a double team, weaves around a third defender, and takes it effortlessly right up the middle to the basket, like a dancer. And I listen as the commentating on this game stops being about Dirk Nowitzki, or Jason Kidd, or about the Mavs at all. With 35 points, 10 assists, 4 steals, and only one turnover, the “MVP!” chants thundering down, Chris Paul has said an emphatic, “Hell no. This is my party.”
The Hornets are so hot right now. Friday’s game clinched a playoff spot and made the front page of the T.P. I thought about it, and I believe this is the best local media showing the Hornets have ever had. I know I haven’t had much reason to bitch at the Times Picayune’s coverage lately, because it’s improved by leaps and bounds over the last two months. The Hornets have claimed space on the front page before, in the box at the top, or on the bottom, or in the side column. But a big color picture like this? First time, baby. The Hornets were THE NEWS yesterday morning.
At the Hive shoots holes in the media’s “Hornets have no playoff experience” argument, complete with graphs and math and stuff. Excellent post to link when someone tries to argue with you. Of course, Sir Chuck was already an idiot for saying that the Hornets “play in a mausoleum.” Better turn your TV to ABC today, there, TNT guys. Get ready for some education.
J.A. Adande thinks we should call the CP3 to TC alley oop “The Big Easy.” I don’t know about that, but they sure do make it look easy…
Sunday Dime, of course, is about the Hornets, since they’re the ABC early game today.
This photo to the left? Why do I have pictures of Bonzi watching random Knicks score? No reason, except that we’re in it. Click to embiggen, then check out the two people next to the dude’s butt underneath the WHERE CHRIS PAUL HAPPENS sign. Oh, hey, folks! Hi!
NBATV just went with us over the Warriors today. Said the Warriors might win if they were at Oracle Arena, but the Hornets are “real strong at home.” Yes. Hear that? The Hornets take a 10-game home win streak into this game.
Tyson Chandler blogs about the CP3 for MVP hype. Proving that the team is just as spoiled as us when it comes to Chris Paul. (”WHAT the hell. He only had 18 points and 12 assists. We woulda put them away so much earlier if CP had had a good game.”)
“It’s funny. I was talking to Jannero the other day, and I was saying that you always turn on the different channels and you get a chance to watch Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Garnett, so you’re a little bit in awe of them. Because you don’t get a chance to see them every day. It’s almost like having that girlfriend that you see every day and you don’t appreciate what you got until you step back and really actually look at things.
We see what CP does every day, so it’s not big to us. But then we actually sit back sometimes and watch his accomplishments, watch what he’s able to do on the floor and what he’s established already as a young player, it’s a little mind-boggling.”
Ready… set… time to show national TV what kind of parties go on at mausoleums here in the N.O.L.A!
Tyson is a man who has destroyed lesser competition this year and tonight was no different. Miami’s frontcourt, apparently made up of actual NBA players, had no answer for the Bees’ big man. He ended up with 20 points on 10/10 shooting, with 10 rebounds thrown in for giggles. The only disappointing thing is that he had I think 14 at halftime and didn’t even take a shot in the third. Oh well. Much love TC.
….
ticktock6: Is Bonzi chewing gum?
mW: Lots of players chew gum.
ticktock6: You think he was blowing bubbles on the floor when they were playing the Celtics? I’m just saying.
mW: I’m not going to answer that question.
34-19 in the 2nd.
….
Oh god. Gil and Bob discussing buying teal seersucker suits for the playoffs. And I think they’re serious.
The Heat closed for a short time but then the Hornets started playing again.
91-70 in the 4th.
….
LOL at Tyson swinging a towel in circles on the bench and hitting himself in the eye with it. They are gonna show that clip all night. When CST latches onto something, they do not let it go. That shit was made for YouTube.
Plus we actually missed the last minute of play or so because CST thought Chris Paul tossing autographed sneakers into the crowd and other bench hijink was more interesting than the game . . . ummm . . . (sudden silence)
106-77 Final.
….
ESPN, apropos of nothing, during Mavs/Warriors game just now:
“How about the New Orleans Hornets? Wow… blah blah… 52-22… can’t see them finishing out of the Top 2… just a great team… 30 games over .500… great record against the Western Conference too… oh, and Dirk just scored.”
YES, HOW ABOUT THE NEW ORLEANS HORNETS!!!
I have seen enough to know that my job here is done.
And that’s a perfect metaphor for Tuesday’s game. These guys didn’t go away, and instead they stole a game they had absolutely, positively no business winning. As a result, they’re still shockingly on top of the West — and games like this make it seem increasingly plausible that they’ll hold that spot til the end.
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