Hornets Hype

Just wanted to remind people that the Hornets beginning of the season rally/block party/freebie giveaway/team stalking opportunity is next Monday at 5:30. We’ll definitely be there. The whole team will be there. People are always asking me where I got ____ Hornets thing, like the Fleur de Bee car magnet or the yard signs. The answer is they usually give away stuff at the official events, and sometimes it’s stuff they don’t sell in the store. Here’s the official release so you can check it out. Should be a fun time, and if you see us, come say hi!

NEW ORLEANS –– The Hornets and Harrah’s Casino will host Swarm at Fulton Square Powered by Toyota on Monday, Oct. 26 from 5:30-8 p.m. on Fulton Square at Harrah’s Casino to tip-off the start of the 2009-10 regular season. The pep rally will give fans the chance to meet the entire 2009-10 Hornets team and is free and open to the public.

Fans will have the chance to meet their favorite Hornets player, be entertained by Hugo, Honeybees and other Hornets entertainment groups, take home Hornets giveaways, listen to live music by Big Sam’s Funky Nation and enjoy food and drink specials from restaurants located on Fulton Street at Harrah’s Casino.

“We are so excited for the upcoming season, and this is an opportunity for the community to get show their support and meet the many new faces on our squad,” said Hornets Executive Vice President of Basketball Chad Shinn. “We plan to continue the winning tradition of New Orleans Hornets Basketball and build a team that can make history and compete for a championship for South Louisiana.”

The Swarm at Fulton Square pep rally tips off the Hornets’ 2009 Buzz in Blue Week Powered by Toyota. The Hornets will make stops across metro New Orleans and on the Northshore throughout the week to promote Opening Night Powered by Toyota. Buzz in Blue Week activities include fan interaction events, watch parties and community initiatives

The Hornets’ regular season home opener is on Friday, Oct. 30 as they take on the Sacramento Kings at the Hive at 7 p.m. Fans can also purchase individual tickets to Hornets home games at Hornets.com, by calling 1-800-4NBATIX, at all Ticketmaster outlets or by visiting the New Orleans Arena box office.

Your annual look at the Hornets promotional calendar, hitting all the highlights (ie: the days that things are given to you for free). So if you’re still looking at which games you might want to attend, mark down these days.

Oh, and just FYI, I am excluding the games where the giveaway is Thunderstix. No particular reason, other than that I personally think they suck:

• 10/17 preseason vs. Pacers– Hornets schedule magnets (everyone)
• 10/30 home opener vs. Warriors– Opening Night t-shirts (everyone)
• 11/6 vs. Raptors– Hornets jersey keychains (first 10,000)
• 11/17 vs. Clippers– Go Green bag (first 10,000)
• 12/4 vs. Timberwolves– Emeka Okafor bobblehead (first 10,000)
• 12/16 vs. Pistons– Honeybee posters (first 10,000)
• 12/23 vs. Warriors– Hornets Christmas ornament (first 8,000)
• 12/30 vs. Heat– “BEE a Designated Driver” T-Shirts… ho ho what a great pun (first 8,000)
• 1/2 vs. Rockets– Mardi Gras mini-basketball (first 4,000 kids)
• 1/8 vs. Nets– Elvis Night. No giveaway listed, it just made me snicker.
• 1/29 vs. Bulls– Mardi Gras youth arm sleeve (first 4,000 kids)
• 2/5 vs. Sixers– Chris Paul Mardi Gras bobblehead. I must own this. (first 10,000)
• 2/10 vs. Celtics– Mardi Gras beads (first 10,000)
• 2/21 vs. Rockets– Mardi Gras youth jerseys (first 4,000 kids)
• 3/22 vs. Mavs– Hornets team poster (first 10,000)
• 4/9 vs. Jazz– Mardi Gras youth shorts (first 4,000 kids– hell, these kids are gonna have a whole freakin Mardi Gras outfit by the time this season is over)

I dropped in on yesterday’s Hornets.com chat with Jim Eichenhofer and rookie Darren Collison, and managed to get several questions in. I thought I’d recap some important bullet points from the chat, since we did find out some new info that fans, especially local fans, will want to know.

• Season ticket sales have dropped slightly this year, understandable with the economy and the disappointing playoff showing … Remember the first rule of Fight Club, ticktock. But group sales and sponsorships are doing well.
• There will be a pep rally held somewhere downtown the Monday of the week the season starts. The reason we haven’t heard anything is they haven’t finished confirming some of the details. But you can fairly reliably put October 26th on your calendars.
• The Buzzfest will be returning! (For you out of towners, a Buzzfest is an outdoor block party with free local bands, free beers for season ticketholders, and $1 beers and hot dogs for everyone else.) They’re going to have them before every home game, weather permitting. See, we’re so spoiled that it hadn’t even occurred to me they might not have Buzzfests … but this is something we have that most NBA cities don’t have and also something that could easily have been cut out due to the poor economy. So, thank you Hornets!
• I asked which players have the coaches been most surprised with in camp, and apparently– though surprised is not the word since he’s been in the league a number of years– the Hornets staff have been impressed with Darius Songaila.
• Darren Collison said the NBA game is different from the college game in that there’s a lot more space and guys are faster getting around the floor to different spots.
• He has the best chemistry on the floor so far with Marcus, Peja, and Posey, because those are the guys he practices with (guess we’re looking at our bench!).
• He’s been in New Orleans about a month and he loves the seafood.
• He has worn the #2 since his freshman year in high school.
• His biggest goal is to improve his three point shot.
• Dariusz Ejkiewicz’s question totally won at being the best though. He asked, “Is David West as scary in real life as he is on TV?” And Darren said, “Yes. And he’s even bigger in person. But he’s a great teammate.” ….. HA!
  

There are few certainties in this ever-changing world. Luckily we have NBA media day, which is pleasantly and reassuringly similar every year. We know that Peja will be the darkest he’ll be all year, players will be forced to pose all sorts of ridiculous and slightly awkward ways with a basketball– often two– and we know that David West will, at some point, manage to look extremely skeptical in a photograph, despite there being nothing apparent to be skeptical about.

Below are some of the highlights from yesterday’s posing party:

"Oh, they don't make CP take goofy pictures. Cause he's The Franchise." .... Okaaaaay, maybe not.

We really need to track the statistics this year on whether Peja shoots better in his dark half of the season or his pasty half. That stat sounds right about up our alley.

DWest works out some. Just a little.

I really want to caption this picture, but I think deep down we all know it would just be a dirty joke. So instead I will let you imagine what I would have said. And you are probably right.

No one really knows what is going on here.

WTF. Who would do this to Mo Pete's picture???

1. Chris Paul’s wizardry. There is no other word to describe it. The way he slips into the lane, like dancing. The way he eludes bigger players. That little running teardrop. The feeling that any time you watch a game, you could see something really, really special.

2. CP was the obvious one, but a couple of weeks ago I got to thinking about how I was really craving a good David West game. A good David West game is sneaky, silky, and subtle. It’s a dagger from mid range that looks so easy. It’s 30 points before you realize he has 10.

3. James Posey’s tall socks. I love Pose. I love tall socks. I own his jersey AND a pair of NBA regulation tall socks…. Okay, fine, this one might be particular to me. But I miss tall socks.

4. How Peja starts out the season really dark and then gets pastier and pastier as time goes on. Oh, and I guess, real things too. Like, “Peeejjjjjjaaaaa for threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

5. Julian Wright’s bounce. What can I say? He’s got that thing in his step. Leap for the stars, JuJu.

6. Mercilessly tormenting Mocking on Twitter Being snarkily sarcastic toward Devin Brown jokes. I know, I know. There’s a place reserved for me in the Special Hell.

7. My seat. It is very comfy, although I wish it had a cupholder. It has a nice glass wall behind it to lean on. It has a good view of the bench. In fact an all right view of pretty much everything except someone standing in the Hornets’ bench end on the right elbow shooting a jumper. I’ve been sitting in the same seat for three years running. I’m rather attached to it. And, the New Orleans Arena janitorial staff being what it is, if I put a sticker on it that says “TICKTOCK6′S SEAT” it’ll totally be there at least 3 weeks before someone removes it.

8. Westitude. This is my term for the scowl on David West’s face when he’s being particularly beastly. Or doing things like tapping Dirk Nowitzki’s face. Or not smiling in pictures.

9. This is for things we haven’t seen yet– “Chris Paul to Emeka Okafor! Ohhhhh!”, Ike Diogu’s potential finally being realized, a young and hungry second unit.

10. This is for things we’ll never see again– the Crescent City Connection, Ryan Bowen hustling down the court, game winning threes from Rasual Butler, Tyson’s goofiness.

It’s been a long summer, longer than we would have liked, and it took me until about August to realize it, but… I miss my team. I don’t care about the trades. I don’t care about Game 4. I just want to see you out there again.

As far as the future goes, I wish only one thing for you: That when the lights come up and you get out there on the floor, you go hard and never look back.

A box just arrived at the Hype House in the mail…

The pin is the same one as last year, only with 2009-10 on it. The tickets, for the first time since I’ve been a ticketholder, don’t have a picture of an actual team member on them. Guess this means we won’t be able to keep our favorite Hornets Hype stat this year… I should note that the ticket pages alternate turquoise, purple, and gold. Only the outside cover is shiny. I like the design. It looks like a cigar box, or a deck of cards. Classy. For those who want to compare, here’s last year’s box.

* Official letter of apology for NOH/DEN Game 4 not included in this box.

1 Dead in Attic

“Without your sweet kiss
My soul is lost, my friend
Tell me how do I begin again?
My city’s in ruins..”

You might have noticed our banner looks different. That’s because today is August 28, 2009, and tomorrow marks the four year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The graffiti is meant to match the markings the various police and military units spray painted on the houses to show that they had been searched. Usually it took the form of a large X. At the top of the X was the date the house was searched. On one side was the name of the unit that searched that particular house. And at the bottom was the number of dead. Ours says 1,577 because that is the official death toll in New Orleans, although many more people are still counted among the missing.

I urge you to please read the lengthy memorial post I wrote last year. Why didn’t I do a similar one this year? Well, I have to be honest. Writing that one took a lot out of me. Just thinking about this takes a lot out of me. So please read it, or if you already read it last year, read it again. It has more of my Katrina experience (and an excerpt from my personal blog that I wrote the day I left) than you will see here.

Why weren’t some Americans able to see themselves in the photographs that came out of New Orleans in the nightmarish week after Katrina? Because the people in them were poor? Elderly? Overweight? Black? I don’t know. I saw myself in those pictures. Four years ago today, we sat in traffic through three states, through the beginnings of the rain, to get out of the city. We slept on the ground at a rest stop in Alabama. We finally got to our destination, and I slept all day. I woke up in late afternoon to see on the news that the city was wind-damaged but mostly okay. It wasn’t until the next day that the water started to come in, that there were reports of broken levees and people swimming through the streets and the Superdome and the Convention Center filling up with people. I was glued to the internet grabbing up every scrap of information– which streets were underwater, what was happening, what was gone and what was still there– And the water kept coming.

I was angry for a long time. It was hard to know who to be angry at, with so many people to blame at so many levels of government. The people of this city were betrayed. In the richest country in the world, what reason would you have to not feel safe? But I– and hundreds of thousands of others– will never feel safe again. I know, for me, it wasn’t until I walked behind that curtain last November to cast my vote that I felt absolved of some of the anger. That’s just me, though. I’m sure it’s different for others.

Sometimes people ask me why I’m so militant about the Hornets staying in New Orleans, why it sometimes seems like I’ve made it my personal mission to police the NBA news and blogs for errors or misinformation about the Hornets location (not in Charlotte– I’m looking at you, SI.com), possible relocation (not happening in the foreseeable future), and attendance (it’s fine– the Hornets ranked 8th in the NBA in percentage of capacity). I do take it personally. And I also take personally the national sports media’s obsession with proving LeBron James cannot possibly be happy in Cleveland, or Chris Paul cannot possibly be happy in New Orleans. That these players are being “wasted” in small markets. I feel this way for three reasons: 1) In the world of NBA League Pass and the internet, great players being in small markets no longer means viewers have no way of seeing them. 2) Please enlighten me on what endorsements and sponsorships LeBron James has missed out on by not being in New York or LA. Oh right, none. 3) I resent the implication that large market teams “deserve” these great players more than smaller market teams.

And I see that implication every day. Every time a quote comes out that has even a small possibility of being twisted to make it look like Chris Paul is leaving New Orleans, man, these people pounce on it. And twist it. And repost it. And write misleading headlines. It’s like they hate that he’s here.

I ask you to look at these pictures. I’ll warn you ahead of time that some of them contain graphic imagery. Look at these pictures, some of which happened within blocks of New Orleans Arena, where the Hornets play today, four years later. And tell me we don’t deserve to be cut some slack. Tell me we don’t deserve a basketball team. Tell me we don’t deserve Chris Paul.

I’ll wait.

[More]

Well, it’s not supposed to be out for a couple of hours, but this is what it says on NBA.com at the link I posted earlier. It’s still labeled 2008-09, but this is definitely NOT our schedule from last year, plus the dates match up with this year’s dates. Check it out!

NOTE: I stole this off NBA.com, and it’s not showing up anymore, so do not blame me if they make changes!! UPDATED NOTE: Lookin good!

Whoo! Looks like we have 9 major nationally televised games (ESPN/TNT) plus 7 on NBATV. That’s 16, even though I’m not sure you can count NBATV games. Ya gotta love having Chris Paul on your team. Still, I just read the Clippers have the same amount. So I no longer feel good about this. I feel sickened.

This only works if you are a really, really fast reader, but if you click the link below, you can see what looks like our 2009-10 schedule (the dates match up, and the games are different from last year) before it redirects back to last year’s schedule. Oh, NBA, fining people for leaking schedules and then putting them up on NBA.com. UPDATE: The whole schedule appears to be up now. I’ve posted it.

http://www.nba.com/schedules/index.html?team=hornets

It looks like:

• We have several nationally televised games again
• We start 10/28 on the road at San Antonio
• First home game is vs. Sacramento
• For once, we end with a bunch of home games as opposed to the asskicker of a stretch run we’ve had the last two years

But again, that’s if this is indeed the schedule. We’ll find out for sure this afternoon. Also this afternoon is the Hornets’ press conference to officially introduce Emeka Okafor. I’ll probably throw up some links related to that later.

(Yes, my mood is “cold.” What? The A/C is madly ridiculous at my desk.)

Free hats. Disclaimer: This picture was not supposed to look so naked. There

We checked out the official Hornets draft party last night down at Gordon Biersch, as some of you who might have been following my Twitter feed already knew. Living in New Orleans we usually try to make it out to as many of the Hornets events as we can.

It was about an hour before the draft when I hopped into a space at the bar and started to follow the rumors that were going down on Twitter, which was creaking along there and might have actually died at one scary point due to Michael Jackson’s death (RIP). Everyone was running with the idea that Phoenix might be trading Amare Stoudemire to Golden State or Ben Wallace to New Orleans for Tyson Chandler or possibly both. Meanwhile an older gentleman at the bar was buying me shots of Jager and trying to convince me that I did not, in fact, want to watch the draft at all– I wanted to go across the street to Harrahs and play the slots.

I was pretty sure I wanted to watch the draft, however, so I stayed, and chatted with some nice people I’d been Twittering back and forth with (I’m not sure Twittering is the verb, but I really hate to say Tweeting, so I’m going to declare that, on this blog at least, I was Twittering.) After a while mW got there. Oh, in fact here we are (The below video is approximately 12 seconds of me yelling because I can’t hear myself. I actually had no idea if you could hear me at all until I just watched it. Um, you can. Because I’m yelling.):
Hornets draft party! on 12seconds.tv

Now, for those of you looking for all the salacious celebrity pics, I forgot my camera and was following the draft on my laptop, which I had out on the bar. I also realized that I’d picked a spot close to one Hornets table, but the players were actually at a different table on the opposite side of the room. So not only did we not want to lose our spot, which I had staked out 2 hours prior, but there were about a hundred people packed into the approximately 30 foot space between us and CP. I was more concerned about melting before we even got as far as the #13 pick than stalking Hornets players. Therefore I had to acquire all these pics the good old-fashioned blogger way: uncredited, from Getty Images. But I will assure you that Chris Paul and Julian Wright were there. I could hear their voices, even if I couldn’t see them. (If it had been Tyson Chandler, I probably could have seen him over the crowd from my barstool, but we are talking about CP here.) The Hornets ran some interactive fan contests, and it seemed like everyone packed into that itty bitty area had fun.

CP is interviewed outside by some local stations, ticktock6 realizes in terror that this is the same CST mic that was stuck in her face into which she has NO. EARTHLY. IDEA. what she rambled on about. Oh help.

I have to admit I was unenthusiastic about #21 pick Darren Collison. I know next to nothing about him. Well, I know next to nothing about college ball in general, so that’s hardly a surprise. But I really thought we should’ve take DeJuan Blair, who ended up falling into the second round presumably because teams were scared off by his knee surgeries. I am fairly sure I managed to control these opinions when some cameramen came up and shined a light on me and asked me what I thought. I am also fairly sure I talked for a while. I am also fairly sure the two Jager shots had a significant effect on the fact that I kinda forgot about this whole experience till the above picture of Chris Paul and the CST mike jogged my memory and I realized that’s who I talked to. So, if you’re watching whatever draft montage they put together and air as a pregame or halftime feature next fall, and the girl wearing turquoise and (I think, oh lord) a Hornets draft cap backwards comes on and talks a mile a minute, that is me. CST, feel free to not use this footage. Anyhow, I feel a lot better about the Collison pick today, having checked out At the Hive’s post regarding his stats (they’re right up there or better than some lottery PGs). He was a 4 year college kid and didn’t have the hype of some of the others, but I think we’ll all remember we have a guy named David West who was in a similar situation when we drafted him and turned out all right.

I should make a note here that by the time we left the party I’d managed to collect Hornets beads, a turquoise T-shirt (I already have this particular one, and it’s XL… we may have 1 or 2 up for grabs), and the aforementioned Hornets draft cap, which was given to me by @hornetsdotcom. I have been asked a lot of times around town where I got such and such magnet or sticker or whatever, and the answer is you should try to make it to at least one official watch party a season, because they give out massive amounts of Hornets shwag. This particular party, however, should probably have been at a larger venue, because the place was packed wall to wall from when the draft started through when Chris Paul left. But overall, the staff at GB is highly awesome and they’ve hosted some solid Hornets events.

This nice man drew CP's picture

There were other fun moments about the draft, like the Minnesota Timberwolves Mad Point Guard Rampage of 2009, but the other significant moment for the Hornets didn’t happen until we were already home. We watched Blair finally go to San Antonio (where he’ll probably be perversely good, causing us to hate San Antonio more than we already do), and LSU product Marcus Thornton go to Miami at 43. Then a couple of minutes later, David Stern’s apprentice minion (I didn’t know that Stern doesn’t hang around to do the second round, funny!) came to the podium again. As soon as he said, “The Miami Heat convey the rights to the #43 pick Marcus Thornton…” I just had a feeling it was us. And sure enough, it was! So the Hornets ended up with two picks after all. (From what I’ve read today, Thornton was always on our board, and as soon as he didn’t get picked in the first round, the Hornets got on the phones.)

Whew. Crazy end to a crazy week in the NBA. But you know what? We got through another big trade week without selling low on Tyson Chandler, who, I have been vehemently arguing to anyone who will listen, deserves a chance to prove he can rebound from his injury before we melodramatically rant and rave about how he’s “NEVER GOING TO BE THE SAME AGAIN!” We turned a lone low #21 pick in a junky draft into two guys who can hopefully fill roles on the roster and allow CP to get some rest and the Hornets to shop Antonio Daniels’ expiring contract with no worries. We drafted safe, 4-year player types. The Hornets’ front office sneakily drafted a 2nd rounder who, if he makes the team, will appeal to local fans and create buzz. Sometimes I am concerned that they don’t “get” this market, so that was a good thing to see. And maybe I’m being a girl here, but it kinda made me all warm and fuzzy to see the team give the local kid a chance to play for his hometown team.

About the t-shirt. I’d give it to a commenter who wears an XL, but I don’t know…. I think the Hype Cat has an interest in it…

Hype Cat's New Hornets T-Shirt