Hornets Hype

He might not actually be a real person right now. He might not even be on the same planet as everyone else. Outscoring Kobe Bryant with 40-11! Make that the same planet as everyone else except Chris Paul (32-15!).

You know, to tell you the truth, I had a good feeling about this one. I had it all day. You ever read the Harry Potter books? The best comparison I can think of is when Harry takes the Felix Felicis potion, the one that makes you lucky, and he’s coasting through the day like, “Nah, man, it’s aaaaaaallll good. Let’s just roll with this.” And I can’t even explain it. I felt very relaxed about this game, very unstressed. And the Hornets just roll in and show us who they can be. No pressure or anything, guys. They did it with great performances. They did it with one of the best games of the season. (Three All Stars going off? Insanity. There was total insanity happening at the Staples Center.)

I’m scared to officially announce this, but the Hornets’ season might be out of beta. Looks like we’re scheduled to release on time after all.

It’s on. Tell your friends.

Fourth quarter. The Hornets are in the hole big time. The crowd doesn’t know what to do. The usual shots just aren’t going in. We’ve been here before. May 19th. The Spurs went on to take a heartbreaking Game 7 on the Hornets’ floor, 91-82.

Tonight, on Chris Paul’s historic record-setting ball-thieving night, the Hornets also found themselves down in the fourth quarter. The crowd was subdued, after coming out screaming and booing and standing in what absolutely looked and felt like a playoff game. With 8 minutes to go, the Hornets were behind 74-67. I sat in the arena watching the shots not falling, thinking, “Not again.”

Not tonight. I wrote on May 19th that Game 7 would be one that defined the team.

And maybe it did. This time New Orleans won 90-83.

• Wow.
• CP’s huge jump ball against Manu Ginobili. Insane. He’s at least 6 inches shorter, maybe 7. It was like he just went, “I will not be stopped.” (mW while watching the replay: “Oh my god, I think he actually flopped on the jump ball. No, seriously, I think he’s in the act of flopping WHILE IN THE AIR.”)
• D-West for three? Wait, really? OK… D-West for three AGAIN??
• I straight up want to have sex with James Posey. But that’s OK, because so does everyone else who was in New Orleans Arena. Yep, even the dudes. The man seals the deal like none other.
• Our side of the arena saw CP’s steal right away and everyone leaped out of their seats and started yelling. “THAT WAS IT! Was that it? That was it!” It rolled into a standing O that lasted several minutes, drowned out the PA guy, and ended with Chris Paul going to center court alone and waving to the crowd.
• I forgot about mW’s rampant hatred for Kurt Thomas.
• Tyson! Making both free throws down the stretch to give the Hornets the lead! Tyson, I love you! I wear your jersey!
• I want a stat for how many consecutive games CP has done that thing where he runs in a circle around the opposing team’s entire defense and then either passes or scores. That alley oop with Chandler where no one should conceivably have been looking that direction was… whoa.
• Oh, yeah, and this all happens with Peja and Mo Pete not dressed, and in fact not even there. The Hornets rolled with the same nine guys all night (they didn’t have to– hello, Byron– but whatev).
• “Why are they booing Tony Parker?” – random commenter on Spurs blog. Psshhh. Why AREN’T we booing the Spurs? That is the question.
• Rasual Butler’s ridiculously ridiculous stretch of what had to be the best 10 seconds of his career. He races down the court to get the hard foul on a Spurs breakaway, somehow comes up with a block instead, steals the ball back, dives to save it from going out of bounds, and then scores on a jumper.
• LOL at CP being interviewed after the game calling his steal record “a weird stat.” Also, sure enough, as he’s said before, he also mentioned the fact that D West shoots threes all the time and is perfectly capable of it, he just doesn’t take the shot in games. We’re all glad he took it tonight.
• Quote of the Night: “Ginobili is 6’6. He used to be 6’7. But his hair flopped.” – mW
• At the free throw line with 17 seconds left, Chris Paul received the first MVP chant of the season. This time he hit both of the free throws too.
• Best game I’ve seen this season, hands down.
• I wore my tall socks to this game, and I am not sure I should launder them ever. I wouldn’t want to wash the Win off them.
• Wow.

I told you I was going to wear tall socks. They are an homage to Posey. They are the wrong color for tonight's game, but the gods of the three care not.

Okay, the world is full of Survivor fans, and with all the discontent rumbling around the Hornets boards and blogs this seems to be the perfect time to ask the same questions here: who will be voted off the team? Should Posey replace Mo in the starting line-up? Should Peja be traded? Has Hilton progressed enough, and it seems like Mike James must be headed off the island right? What does the tribal council say?

Trick question. No one gets voted off. The starting line-up doesn’t change. This isn’t some anti-progressive Darwinian experiment where we encourage individuals to scratch and claw their way to the top no matter who they have to go through to get it. This isn’t some pseudo-free market rampage where top dollar rules all and you’d sell your mother to get your green. Those values are drama-driven and artificial cultural constructs, no matter how much we represent them as “natural.” Humans are creatures of collaboration. Our success is tied to our ability to work together efficiently. As the nineties’ Bulls. Ask the Spurs teams of the last ten years.

The Hornets are a team. When asked this year what the Celtics’ greatest asset was last year, Paul Pierce answered immediately: chemistry. Ask me why the Hornets were so great last year and will be this year? Chemistry. These guys know each other, work together well, and actually like each other. Do you really think CP starts yelling at Peja in practice for not hitting his shots in the game and then goes and yells at Jeff Bower for not trading him? No way. You think TC is telling Hilton he should stop trying to implement a spin and shoot move into his offensive arsenal, and calling George Shinn to figure out why his fourth year option was picked up, or is helping him work on that shot?

Too much of our culture is pessimistic, celebrating the demise of others. Misery loves company and all that. Or more accurately, they’re more miserable than me so I must be happy. Sorry not here. We’re all about the Hype. Basketball is a long season. We can’t just decry every missed shot and badly played game. Should we be disappointed? Sure. Despair? No way. Peja can miss every shot all game and I still have no problem with him taking a fadeway hand-in-your-face three at the buzzer. Our backups are progressing, and have done some things well some games, and other things well in other games. Give it all time to gel. The Bees could be ten games back from the 8th seed with ten games to go and I’d believe they could make it. So should you.

More importantly, despite their slow start, I believe they will win the division and be a top 3 seed. So should you.

Not content to convince America that Chris Paul and the rest of Hornets are the greatest thing since electricity, we’re trying to spread the Hype across the world. Or at least linking to those that do. You’ll notice we added an “All Hornets International” blogroll to our sidebar. So far, we’ve found German and Chinese sites dedicated to the Hornets and/or its players. So if anyone else knows any other great international sites dedicated to the same, let us know! We’ll add them to our links.

Also, if any of you can translate any of the languages on these sites for us non-speakers, we’ll be glad to re-post cool excerpts from those sites here, link to the original post, and credit you for the translation! Maybe this will help open an international dialogue about the greatness of our team.

¡Vivan los Hornets!