Hornets Hype

The Saturday Skills Competition was awesome, albeit not the Hornets day to shine. Nonetheless, it was New Orleans itself which shined. The first event, Shooting Stars, featured four teams, each which had to make six shots in order, each further back than the former, culminating in a half court shot. No Hornets, as it featured a current NBA star, WNBA star, and NBA legend (retired) from San Antonio, Detroit, Chicago, and Phoenix. San Antonio won. And as it wasn’t said in ANY other outlet I saw, it was the WNBA player, Becky Hammon, who carried them in the first round, and fully pulled her part in the finals to win. That woman can shoot!

Next up was the Skills Challenge, featuring our very own someday-MVP, Chris Paul (picture above). There, competitors had to make a lay-up/dunk, dribble around several obstacles, make a serious of passes, shoot from the free throw line, pass again, and then sprint through more obstacles before making a final lay-up/dunk. Chris dazzled in the first round, to the delight of many Hornets fans, but unfortunately got ousted in the finals by the perfect (and record-breaking) performance by arch-nemesis, Deron Williams. Well guess what, we’ll see what happens on the 29th. Look to see CP3 rebound.

Next up was Peja in the 3-Point contest. Despite being a two-time champion in this event, he started off cold, missing from his usual money-spot in the corner. But then he got hot, passing several competitors, but missed the 2-point ball after making all the other four in the final rack, meaning he fell just below two other players, which proved his undoing, when last year’s champ, Jason Kapono blasted past everyone, knocking out Peja. Kapono went on to win the contest handily. Although we were disappointed, we dare the other five guys in the contest to do that with the game clock expiring and a seven footer in their face like Peja does. We know you’re still the best, Peja.

That left the dunk event, also with no Hornets. Boo. They tried to get Julian Wright in it, to no avail. As ticktock6 pointed out, the only bummer about this amazing event was that it was all gimmicks. So here is our shot out to Jamario Moon, who probably pulled out the most athletic dunk with his first round bounce-down jumping 360 catch and full bring back tomahawk slam that started it all. Dwight Howard, however, was the ultimate winner. And deservedly so.

Hypemeter: although the Hornets didn’t win any events, New Orleans won them all. And so we’re proud of that!

Err…or flag support?  Can we get TickTock6 in here for a grammar check?  Any way, heading into the All-Star Break here in New Orleans, the Hornets are guaranteed at least a share of the NBA’s Western Conference.  Outstanding!  And to top things off, our friend who stayed with us during Mardi Gras got us a Hornets flag as a thank you present!  Here’s the picture of it in our front window, proudly supporting our team.  (And although the pictures wouldn’t show it, it looks great at night too, with light shining through it from the apartment).    So bottom line, we’re hyped and the rest of Nola should be too!

This was one of the better early crowds I’ve seen this season. I attribute this to the Pre-Game Buzzfest outside the arena, which was helped out by the solidly temperate weather. If you haven’t been to a Buzzfest, you should. Dollar beers! The next one is scheduled for Friday, February 22nd, and the party starts rolling at 5:30.

Alternatively, you could buy season tickets for next year. Because that nets you free beers. And we all know the only beer better than a dollar beer is a free beer.

We hung our “THE BACK ROW BELIEVES” banner in its usual spot, but felt weird about it when we realized our fellow season ticket holder neighbors had been replaced tonight by a row of strangers. Well, guys, we believe, and since you’re sitting here, you’re gonna have to by default.

Chris Paul and David West did the intro for the game. Hilarious. CP thanked the fans for their support and said what an honor it is to be in the All Star Game (slightly disingenuous since they weren’t voted in, but I bet half the people in the crowd didn’t know the difference). Then he goes, “I’m sure D West wants to say something to y’all,” and holds out the mike, cracking up because he knows full well D West is freaked out by the idea of saying something to the crowd and is going nowhere near that mike. He shakes his head and throws a salute instead. Classic.

Hello, makeover! The arena is now sporting snazzy signs over every vendor. Signs with cute New Orleans-y names. Clearly this is being added to spice up the arena for the upcoming All Star Game. I hope we get to keep the upgrades when the NBA leaves. The concourse also now sports a couple of much nicer-looking bars.

The Hornets looked a bit lax after pulling out to an early 14-point lead. Playing without Tyson Chandler and Morris Peterson, they still never looked like they weren’t in control of the game. Final score Hornets 112, Grizzlies 99.

HypeMeter: As we speak, the headline on CNN/SI is “All That Buzz,” with a giant photo of Angry David West (might actually be slightly scarier than Angry Chris Paul, due to the size factor).

T.P. Watchdog: Times Picayune Sunday print edition has the better part of 5 pages devoted to the Hornets/All Star Game. Right on. Good job, friends. (See, I can bestow praise where praise is due.)

And one final note.

This was the first sellout of 2008. I like to think of it as the first sellout of the new era. I see a distinct, marked difference starting with the last three crowds. This dates back to the Spurs win, which I believe was the start of something special. If you were there at the Denver game the Monday after… you know you thought, “Wow.” I hope in the future we will be able to point to that game and say, “That’s when it started. And we never looked back.” I hope the hype is rolling, rolling like the Hornets are rolling and can’t be stopped. I hope the word spreads, that there is something happening with this team and this season that you don’t want to miss.

I hope.

And what keeps me hoping is this: Last night we saw New Orleans Arena sell out. And it wasn’t Kobe, it wasn’t LeBron. The Memphis Grizzlies? Please. The Grizzlies got nothing.

17, 231 people came last night to see the Hornets.

… is much better.

To recap. What I said yesterday:

“And here I was having fantasies of CP3 jumping on Peja in color under a headline.”

Naturally I am going to claim full credit for this. You know it. Even though the claim has absolutely no basis in reality. But it’s cool. The Times Picayune doesn’t have to thank me for designing today’s sports page for them. This one’s a freebie. It’s on me.

Consider it my gift to them.

Times Picayune, we need to talk.

As in, we need to have a serious conversation about what is or is not acceptable when you are the hometown paper covering a premier Western Conference team. I get that there are 82 games, and probably every time the Hornets have a huge win the real rabid fans are going, “OH MY GOD that was the biggest game EVER!” Like the previous Suns win? Possibly the biggest game ever. The Spurs win? Undoubtedly the biggest game ever. So I understand that you kind of need to take that kind of attitude with a grain of salt. And being a professional media source, you can’t be freaking out over every big game that happens throughout the course of an 82-game season.

However.

In the past week, the New Orleans Hornets have been seriously slumping, casting some slim shadows of doubt over their overachievingly amazing play thus far in 2008. In January the Hornets were blowing other teams out to the tune of 14-20 points per game. In the last three games, they’ve been blown out. The defense took a break, Chris Paul had one of his worst games ever, and David West struggled after being named to his first All Star Game. It was their longest losing streak of the season. And the last game of their road trip was at Phoenix, the team that recently leapfrogged back ahead of the Hornets for the top spot in the West. It was conceivable, albeit horrifying, that the Hornets could go 0-3 on the trip.

But they didn’t.

Instead the Hornets duked it out with the Suns through two OTs, in a thrilling offensive battle of two top teams and two top point guards, and managed to get the ball to Peja, who made the perfect buzzer-beating shot and got instantly piled on by Chris Paul and all his teammates. And really, all the doubts sort of disappear, don’t they? Because if you can hang tough in that game, you deserve to be where you are. If you’re going to break a 3-game losing streak, is there a better way to do it? And man, this game topped all the highlight shows, and rightly so. It was referred to by several people as the most exciting game of the regular season thus far. (NBA.com: “Hornets Burn Suns in Instant Classic”) Even if you aren’t a Hornets fan, what was not to love about that game?

But did the game end early enough to make the paper? That is the question. And the answer is yes. Oh yes. But as I held the TP sports section distastefully by the corner, similar to the manner in which one might hold a dead rat by the tail, “What,” I said, “is this?” (Click on photo at above left to enlarge if you can’t read what the big story was this morning. Click. I dare you.)

Really only one word comes to mind, and that word is “WTF.” (Which is not technically a word, it’s an acronym, but shut up, I’m rolling.)

Come the fuck on, Times Picayune. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you probably had the fascinating breaking sports news of Tulane and LSU’s freshmen (for NEXT YEAR) already prepared. And look, you saved space on the front page for the Hornets game. Pretty skinny column, though. Almost as if… you expected them to lose. And were only going to grudgingly bestow upon those second-rate losers their allotted one inch of space and no more, dammit. And here I was having fantasies of CP3 jumping on Peja in color under a headline.

But, you say, maybe it was too late and they couldn’t get a picture. Okay, maybe. That’s a valid point. If it were not for the fact that here’s the back (see left). If it was football, you better believe they would have saved the space, late game be damned. How are the Hornets to be expected to grow a fan base without quality coverage by the local media? How can the Hornets be taken seriously by the national media when the local media doesn’t take them seriously?

Maybe the TP lacks experience in covering an 82 game season. It shows. Let me make an analogy. In soccer or hockey, it’s possible that you’ll only have 1-4 scoring plays per game. Therefore each time either team scores, it’s a big deal. In basketball, you’re going to run up and down the court and make (if you’re the Hornets in winning mode) roughly 40-50 scoring plays per game. Do you cover each and every one? Of course not. It doesn’t make sense. So what do you cover?

The plays that swing the momentum.

It’s the same with an 82 game season. Some games are more important than others. If you’re going to cover one of these sports, and cover it in a meaningful way, you’ve got to get your head around the idea of momentum. You’ve got to know that this was as huge a game as it was. You’ve got to recognize them when they come. If you’re going to skimp on coverage of a game, for God’s sake, make it the one where the Hornets bitchslap the Heat or the Grizzlies or the Clippers.

Not a game like this.

I urge Hornets fans to write in, go to nola.com and leave a comment, whatever. The coverage has gotten marginally better, but clearly there’s a long way to go. Demand better coverage.

A marquis matchup and we get Tulane football. In February. Jesus. I’m dying here.

I know the Hornets’ attendance woes are not the Times Picayune’s problem, and it’s unfair either to lay blame at their feet or to suggest that they have a responsibility to hype a product that isn’t theirs. But imagine Peja Stojakovic in color. Imagine large bold letters. Imagine a side article about Chris Paul vs. Steve Nash.

And underneath all this, in a box, imagine: “Next Game: Saturday 7 PM vs. Memphis. Call Ticketmaster for tickets.”

Imagine the world you want to see.

Well, I guess the upside to getting no televised games and less hype from the media than other teams is that ESPN doesn’t seem to have noticed the heinousness of the three game losing streak. No one’s really talking about it, which shouldn’t come as a staggering surprise, given how long it took people to talk about the Hornets when they were winning (ah, back in the older sweeter days of last week).

They still gave us an A+ on the season this morning. The Lakers and the Blazers were the only other teams given top marks in the West.

• Not unsurprisingly, the Hornets drop from #1 to #3 in both Hollinger and Stein’s power rankings today.
• Memo to the Pistons: thanks for that.
• Everyone’s loving the Lakers this week.

You’re like, “It’s not special. It’s from the AP. It appeared in newspapers and on sites all over the country this morning.” In other words, it’s totally generic.

I submit that it is special. And I’ll tell you why. It’s the beginning part right here.

Chris Paul had 23 points, 17 assists, and nine rebounds, and the New Orleans Hornets ran away with their ninth-straight win, 117-93 over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.

A jubilant crowd broke into repeated chants of “M-V-P” in recognition of a masterful performance by the Hornets’ guard, who is New Orleans’ best shot at making the All-Star game here next month as a reserve.

This is the first article that’s mentioned our crowd in a positive way. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a genuine article about the Hornets (our Hornets! these Hornets!) that does not once mention poor attendance, the possibility of moving, and whether they’ll go to Seattle or OKC.

Not once.

And to top it off, it ran everywhere around the country. Since this is one of this site’s major demands, it was worth mentioning!

Who’s giving us love this week? The Monday rankings are pouring in.

Hoopsworld #1

ESPN #1 (Hollinger & Stein)

NBA.com #1

CNN/SI #1

Looks like a sweep of every major power ranking, and rightly so.

But it cannot be stopped.

The defending national champion Spurs thought they could stop it. But they couldn’t stop it. It is unstoppable.

The Hornets put the beatdown on San Antonio last night in a statement-making 102-78 bitchslapping. Y’all got the message? I think it came through loud and clear. I think we stomped a hole through the floor and the people who live in the apartment below us also got the message loud and clear, whether they wanted it or not.

It was obvious the Spurs didn’t have a clue how to handle D West. Early on they appeared to have gotten the CP-TC alley oop under control, but… apparently no one told them it can’t be stopped. Nor can Peja.

National Media HypeMeter: The Hornets got the leadoff on Sportscenter, plus what I deem to be an acceptable amount of hype. The NBATV losers actually hated on us, and for that they will pay.