Hornets Hype

While you’re sitting around waiting for the Super Bowl to start (WHO DAT!), check out Chris Paul’s bowling event, which airs on ESPN today at 2 PM EST/1 PM CST. Here’s a preview:

The Mardi Gras baby creeps me right out. Here, a rare photo of the elusive creature in the wild. Any small children sitting in the vicinity of the courtside seats, I am sure, shrieked in terror at the sight of it.

I’m sure those of you on Twitter have heard me talk about the crazy life size Mardi Gras baby that’s been appearing in one of the Hornets’ timeout “entertainments” during carnival season. Well, last night I put the call out on the Twitterator for someone to send me a picture of it, and here it is.

This description of the phenomenon is from Toney Blare’s SLAM Online recap of the Spurs/Hornets game a couple of weeks ago:

During a break, there appear in the crowd three mascots, each with a large plastic head: a king, a baby, and a jester. We are within breathing room of Mardi Gras, when you eat King Cake, sort of like a super-sugary circle of cinnamon roll. Inside each cake is a small plastic baby, and whoever finds it buys the next cake. Let me say, it gets out of hand in offices all over town for upwards of a month. Now, I’m telling you all of this because I can’t imagine what the Spurs must think. The three mascots “race” down to the court, the baby looking especially ghoulish and slow. They circle through some yellow cones, with the King winning by crossing a purple finish line held by Hugo the Hornet and the Geico Gecko. I didn’t mention him until the end, because he really was the most innocuous of these newcomers. That baby actually scared me, like the clown from IT or some sh*t.

I am not gonna lie, this thing freaks me right out. Maybe it’s because I am also irrationally terrified of the creepy Burger King that lurks around women’s windows in the commercials like a plastic-headed peeping tom. This baby looks way too similar to that for me to be comfortable with it. Maybe it’s like how some people have a fear of clowns. Either way, you better believe that my uneasy truce with the Mardi Gras baby is SOLELY due to the fact that I sit in the last row of the lower bowl, far enough from the court to feel fairly safe from it coming after me.

The baby always loses the race, by the way.

We just had to say congratulations to New Orleans’ other team. Geaux Saints!

And, um, there might be a small, temporary change in the header…

About a week and a half back, I got a ticket to attend the ESPN taping of Chris Paul’s annual celebrity bowling event. Well, here’s my big shiny recap of the day, complete with pictures. Be warned, though, since this is going to be on TV, I can’t tell you who wins. But believe me when I say the ending was about as exciting as you can get in bowling.

The trophy

Upon my arrival at Harrah’s Hotel to catch the shuttle to the event, I immediately see Ludacris wander out (on the phone) and stand right next to where I am. He’s wearing sunglasses and a red leather jacket with his name stitched on it. (I tweet: “Ten minutes ago I was standing right beside Ludacris. He DEFINITELY is not tall. He may be shorter than me.”) Jack Del Rio, coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was also there to bowl, as well as LaMarr Woodley and Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers. (Tweet: “Am standing beside Hines Ward and LaMarr Woodley. I guess they are football ppl or something. They’re not very tall.”) I’m not sure what my strange obsession with celebrity height is. It just seems that every time I meet someone I expect them to be tall, and they’re not. Haha.

Everyone was waiting around for Chris Paul to arrive. Which he did, quite ironically, as I was leaning on a column in the hotel lobby tweeting on my Blackberry about how none of the celebrities were tall. He literally strolled through my field of vision about two feet away. It will probably not come as a shock to you that he is not tall, either. Chris Paul is wearing a Yankees cap and a pair of navy and orange Nikes. I immediately decide to start an obnoxious Twitter rumor about him signing with the Knicks.

We hopped on the shuttles to the event (I was on the one with the Hornets people and PBA people, not the celebrities), which was held on the Belle Chase Naval Base. The audience was basically all servicemen and women, in uniform, and some of them brought their kids. The minute we got there I realized A) the place was really, really small, and B) I was sitting in the front row. I was definitely going to be on TV at some point. Yuck. I pulled my stuff out of my bag and began to furtively tackily do my makeup. Meanwhile, the celebrities and the PBA bowlers they were matched up with started to warm up, as the ESPN crew gave instructions to the crowd.

Jason Belmonte, Pete Weber, and Ludacris

This was the first TV taping of anything I’ve ever been to. I can tell you that it was mostly three things: 1) Hot, 2) Long, and 3) Late. Everything was late. It started late. It ended late. Mostly this was due to the “commercial breaks” they built into it, even though it wasn’t live. So the guy would get on the loudspeaker and tell people they had ten minutes to get food or go to the bathroom. And whenever he did this, the entire audience would– you guessed it– get up. And then it took forever to get everyone back in their seats and continue with the tournament. The event started with a play-in round between Jack Del Rio and LaMarr Woodley to see which of them would be on the fourth team in the main tournament. (I’m not sure that part is going to be televised.) But after that, we didn’t get to take any more pictures, so as not to spoil how it all turns out. Yes, I know who wins, BUT I’M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU. Muahahaha… Chris Paul, however, has never won his own tournament, which, considering the supercompetitor that he is, must really really irk him, so I can tell you he was gunning for it.

Chris & Ludacris

One of my favorite moments involved little CP, Chris Paul’s baby son who was sitting with his parents two rows behind me. At one point, Chris was about to bowl, and little CP starts loudly going, “Da-da! Da-da!” The whole place was silent, so everyone heard him. Chris turned around and gave him a smile and a little wave. Then he bowled a strike. It was super, super cute. My other favorite moment was when Hines Ward dived down the lane on his stomach after making a really big shot. The guys were being goofy and making it fun to watch.

The only other Hornet who made an appearance was Peja, who came for a bit with his five-year-old son. He actually sat right behind me, which is a nice way of saying his knees were in my back because it is really hard to sit on bleachers when you’re 6-10. This is the point in the broadcast where you will definitely see me, because they do a close-up of Peja and put his name up on the screen. And lo, there I will be, trying to look like I’m not looking at myself on the screen across the way. Chris Paul came up and sat behind me and talked to Peja for a bit. Peja was mentioning a present CP had gotten his son for Christmas, I think, and saying his son wasn’t really into basketball (he knows that his dad plays but that’s about it) but ever since then he talks about Chris Paul. Aw. Peja and his son, by the way, do not speak in English to each other.

I did get introduced to and shake hands with both of them. Chris Paul was his usual polite self. I mentioned I had met him before when I won a video contest, and he said, “Oh, that’s right, the MVP video.” (I think this is more a function of there being only one video contest in the last 3 years than Chris Paul having an OMG AMAZING MEMORY, so don’t get too excited. Haha.) I was sitting right in front of the whole Paul family and friends contingent, and they were all very nice.

Me and Hines Ward after he tried to cut me off. Haha

Afterward there was a reception at Harrah’s Hotel. We chatted with some fans, random people, and Hornets employees. I had an entertaining conversation with one of the biggest name-droppers I have ever met (seriously, this guy deserved an award). Hines Ward and LaMarr Woodley amusingly parked themselves at the bar and made themselves the center of the party, chatting and taking pictures with just about everyone who came up to get a drink. They also kept pushing pineapple juice and vodka (ew!) on people. I have one funny celebrity story from that night, and here it is: I went up to the bar to grab myself a drink. After declining the pineapple and vodka, I mentioned that I was going to have one drink, because I had to work the next day. It was only 9:30 at that point. Hines asked me what I did for a living, that I had to be up at 6:30 AM for. I told him, and he informed me he was going to order the perfect drink for me. He turned away for a second, and then turned back to me with…. a bottle of water. I said, “Wait, did you just cut me off?” Him: “Yup.” Other appearances at the party included local artist Amanda Shaw and Danny Glover, who strolled in in a long trench coat and had everyone excited, even Chris Paul.

The event will air on ESPN on Super Bowl Sunday. I recommend watching or DVR-ing if you like:

• actual PBA bowling
• Chris Paul
• glimpses of Ticktock6 looking goofy on national TV
• exciting endings that go down to the very last frame

Below the cut, a gallery of pictures from the event (they’re big, so Scary Loading Time Warning). Huge thanks to Matt of Storm Surge Photography. Please contact him and not me if you’d like to use any of them on your site:

[More]

• Hoops Addict got David West to talk about Michael Eric Dyson, the media, and Byron Scott (although he doesn’t really bite on that one, haha) in a nice interview
• Twitter suspended the fake (and BRILLIANT) Devin Brown for “suspicious activity” yesterday … and there was much sadness
• My fun report (with pics!) about Chris Paul’s bowling event (no spoilers, though) should be up soon
• Dime Mag has Marcus Thornton listed as one of their Top 5 Second Round Steals
• As a resident of New Orleans who experienced Hurricane Katrina, I think we all should be concerned about the devastation in Haiti following the earthquake. Personally, I will always remember the people who sent me checks or donated clothing (try living in Boston in winter without any socks and see how that goes for you… of course I didn’t bring socks when I evacuated, I barely wear socks here) or furniture (we had an empty apartment with one mattress until a lovely couple I didn’t even know donated us their extra stuff). So if you have anything extra to spare, consider donating to Yele (Wyclef Jean’s foundation), or you can make a $10 donation to the Red Cross by texting “HAITI” to “90999? (it’ll be added to your phone bill). I am sort of sketched out by the Red Cross, however, because I believe they are not guaranteed to use your money for a specific disaster. So alternatively, you might want to consider Doctors Without Borders, Unicef, or even, to keep it basketball related, Sixer and native Haitian Samuel Dalembert’s foundation. He personally gave $100,000 and is apparently matching any donations made at the Sixers game tonight.

It’s funny, I spent so much time getting hyped up for “THIS IS THE .500 GAME GUYS, AND WE HAVE THE KNICKS/RAPS/CRAPPY TEAM!” only to have the team continue to lose. And then the Hornets end up getting to .500 in about the most unlikely and unpredictable way possible: 1) On the road, where they were 2-13, B) Against the Jazz (yes, I consider the Jazz the most unlikely road win, even over the Lakers. The Hornets have put together some great wins in LA). And then they actually went into OKC and put in a nice balanced effort last night to string together their first road win streak of the season and a 4-game win streak overall.

It wasn’t until about ten minutes after the game ended that I realized the Hornets were a winning team for the first time this season. I think At the Hive put this aptly when he observed that this year the Hornets have “a very random resilience.” I don’t know if it’s having young rookies with fresh legs come off the bench or Byron Scott getting fired or what, but the Hornets aren’t caving and getting steamrolled when things aren’t going their way quite as badly as they were in the beginning of the season or even last year. They’re winning games they aren’t supposed to win. They’re taking care of business at home. They’ve got to be up there at the top of the list in terms of the percentage of close games they’ve played in/won this season. (Hello, stat people? Does this observation have validity?) And they’re winning games against teams that are ahead of them in the standings, ie: the teams they need to beat to grab a playoff spot. And they have the Nets this Friday.

And… oh, what the hell. Go team.

P.S. I’m going to be at Chris Paul’s bowling event this afternoon. It’s being taped to air on ESPN in February, so I can’t tell you who won or anything. But check my twitter @ticktock6 for updates!

Well played, Hornets. Well played.

Unstoppable (Adjective): 1) Incapable of being stopped.

Chris Paul could not be stopped tonight. He had 30 points, 19 assists, and 9 rebounds. He was 7-7 in the third quarter. He was inside, he was outside, he was in the lane (finally, yes, we can all exhale a bit to see him dominating from there for the first time since his ankle injury), at the line. There was a stretch of the third to fourth quarters in which he had 22 out of the Hornets 24 points. There was a point when the Nuggets made a mini-run to close the gap, and Chris Paul checked back into the game, and his very presence, solely by being on the floor, was magic.

And there it was, in the building tonight, the Thing We Don’t Talk About. The players knew it. The fans knew it. And then in the fourth quarter I noticed something. Namely that Darius Songaila and Emeka Okafor weren’t on the floor, which was a little unusual. And that Devin Brown was, which was also a little unusual (but unsurprising considering neither Collison nor Thornton had a good showing tonight). The Hornets went with a crunch time lineup of Paul/West/Posey/Stojakovic/Brown. I think it is not coincidental that those five guys were all there last April, and were playing inspired and scrappy ball tonight. I think they wanted to close this out. And I think they deserved to.

If you’ve ever seen the movie The Sting, it’s about two con men who get revenge on a big mob boss by running an elaborate con and cheating him out of a quarter million dollars. But, the one character warns the other, taking the boss’s money isn’t going to be enough– it’s not going to change the past. And at the end, the other guy turns to the first guy and says, “You’re right. It’s not enough…. But it’s close.”

Where we semi-regularly give you the best pickings from the Hornets twitter feeds. What’s up with the guys? Well, the weather’s been on their minds, just like all of us regular people. (IS IT GOING TO FREAKING STOP STORMING EVER? Seriously. This is the second straight week.)

@oneandonlyCP3:

Mornin evrybody, headed to shootaround…did anybody else in NO hear that mini hurricane that ripped thru the city last nite?? CRAZY STORM

#igrewupon Starter Jackets (I had the Charlotte Hornets n my bro had Chicago Bulls)

“WHEELS DOWN back n NO…tough loss 2nite against a good Mavs team…we hav to get off to better starts wit our starting 5…which is my job!”‘

@mopete 24: (Hmm, wonder what happened… this tweet just makes me crave a baked potato.)

Had an AWFUL customer service experience today at Port Of Call restaurant in New Orleans. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to ever go there.

@jujubee32:

“Man… It’s raining lions and wolves in the N.O! Don’t even want to drive in this weather…”

“Why is there a huge elephant statue in my subdivision?!?! http://twitpic.com/tn9zx“

(‘Cause ya live in next to somewhere over there Plaquemines Parish, son. Get used to that thing. It’s always parked around there. Haha.)

@Bbrownsix was a little freaked out by the weather, and even posted a vid from what appears to be his rooftop window (And, since New Orleans isn’t exactly a large city, we now know which building he lives in. Haha). He’s also got a new custom background by @ejkiewicz_com.

This rain and wind just woke me up… All I gotta say is Wow!!!!!!

Man I dnt kno wat just hit the NOLA but it was crazy… I need to get back to LA… Geesh

Where I’m from I’m use to Eartquakes and a lil bit of rain.. Not mini Hurricanes and Thunderstorms…Oh Dipppppppppp!!!!!!!

It’s gettin pretty ugly outside…. http://twitvid.com/9E29E

New Orleans Arena Where Amazing Happens!!! Gametime vs Kings.. Let’s get this one fellas…

And, my personal favorite Bobby Brown tweet:

Popeyes…. Where Amazing Happens lol….

Yes, Bobby. Yes, it does. Plus a bunch of the Hornets team and staff went to the Cowboys game on Sunday while they were in Dallas to play the Mavs, and they took a pic on the field:

CP, the Browns, Emokafor & Hilton and Hornets staff

Well, it’s been… random. Follow Chris Paul, Morris Peterson, Bobby Brown, and Julian Wright for more Twitteratin’ fun.

So let’s get back on the hype side of things. Peja’s hosting his bowling event this week, and all the money raised goes to help kids. And guess what? It’s going to be live streamed this year, so you can watch online even if you don’t go.

Here’s the press release and info on how to get tickets if you want to support the event:

SwaggMedia to stream the 3rd Annual Charitabowl for the Peja Stojakovic Children’s Foundation

New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) December 11, 2009 — New Orleans Hornets forward Peja Stojakovic announced that he will dedicate a basketball/volleyball court at Delgado Park in Lakeview as part of his foundation’s “Court for Kids” initiative on Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 3:30 p.m. That same week, on Thursday, Dec. 17, Peja will host his 3rd Annual “Peja’s Charitabowl” fundraiser at the All Star Lanes in Kenner.

In partnership with SwaggMedia, the Charitabowl event will be streamed online free of charge at www.peja16.com and on http://swaggmedia.com. This will be the first time that Peja’s Charitabowl will be available to fans globally.

Lane sponsorships start at $1,500 for one lane and $2,500 for two lanes. Each lane includes bowling for four, one celebrity bowler, four bowling shirts, dinner and a special gift bag. Multiple lane sponsors and other corporate sponsorship packages are also available at a variety of price points. Lane sponsorships and tickets for the Charitabowl can be purchased by calling (504) 208-2274 or by visiting www.peja16.com. VIP (non-bowler) tickets are also available at $75 per person. The VIP tickets include early entry at 6pm as well as dinner, gift bag and opportunity to bid for live and silent auction items. General admission tickets are available at $35 for adults and $15 for children under 16. The doors for general admission open at 7:30pm.

Hornets players, Honeybee dancers, Hugo and other local celebrities and athletes will attend the event. The Charitabowl will also feature a live DJ, photo and autograph opportunities, as well as a live and silent auction with memorabilia and other distinctive items. Prizes will be given away throughout the evening.

“I’m very happy to be able to continue efforts to support the local community of New Orleans through the foundation. Thanks to the last year’s Charitabowl event we were able to help many children and their families by distributing books, food and refurbishing basketball courts. This is a result of the hard work of many people — not just me,” said Stojakovic.

Proceeds from the bowling event will go toward Peja’s “Courts for Kids”, a continuing initiative of the Peja Stojakovic Children’s Foundation, aimed at promoting health and fitness education through the game of basketball. The project installs new basketball courts, refurbishes existing ones and distributes basketball equipment in economically disadvantaged areas of New Orleans, providing children with an opportunity to stay off the streets.

“SwaggMedia is honored to be able to contribute to such a great cause. Technology is the future so the synergy was perfect,” says SwaggMedia CEO, Craig Noble.

About SwaggMedia

Swagg is that something unique and forward-thinking that breaks out from the pack. And SwaggMedia is bringing exactly that to the world of new media. Masterminded by legendary music industry executive Craig Nobles and co-founded by professional basketball player David West, SwaggMedia represents the evolution of internet distribution. SwaggMedia has built proprietary technology to launch a platform in 2010 that will be the one-stop destination for news, commerce, social networking, original content and live streaming video. Users can purchase music, TV and movies, share their experiences with their extended networks, watch live events and get up to the minute information on all facets of pop culture. More than a website, SwaggMedia will encompass a lifestyle, giving users across the globe access to a world they could only imagine. We look forward to introducing you to SwaggMedia.

About Peja Stojakovic Children’s Foundation

The Predrag Stojakovic Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organization strives to brighten the lives of children who suffer from displacement, poor quality of life, and loneliness. Mission of Peja Stojakovic Children’s Foundation is to provide and educate children and their families on issues of critical concern such as food, shelter, economic self-sufficiency and hope. Since the Hornets move back to New Orleans, Peja Stojakovic has been active with his organization by building basketball courts for kids, distributing food and necessities to needy people as well as distributing books and school supplies to youth organizations (First Book being one of the beneficiaries). As a recognition of his charitable work, Stojakovic received the NBA’s Community Assist Award for the month of December 2009. Peja Stojakovic Children’s Foundation’s mission is to provide and educate children and their families on issues of critical concern such as food, shelter, economic self-sufficiency and hope.

This is just a heads up for those who don’t know: Hornets.com is giving away a set of season tickets for the rest of the year. You have 24 hours to enter, which means until noon tomorrow (Thursday, 12/10). Hey, it’s worth a shot!

We’ve already got ‘em but I thought I’d get the word out, in case anyone who reads the site wants to enter. You know how I feel about things that are free…