When the New Orleans Hornets beat the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night in the Hive for their first playoff victory since 2004, it was hard to believe that only six months before, the Hornets were the same team that wondered when, and if the support for the Hornets would ever arrive?
As the season’s opened, the Hornets were making waves but not bringing in crowds.Obviously, their year coincided with the New Orleans Saints which has always been the New Orleans pride and joy—even when there was little to be joyful or proud.
But, in the back of many New Orleans potential pro-basketball fans’ minds, they were the “other team”, and “the Hornets” and the other game, basketball, were just the “other game”.
Plus, before the fans could even focus upon the professional basketball team, there was Christmas, New Year’s, the Sugar Bowl, the BCS Bowl, Mardi Gras and so many other fun events and even serious diversions from Katrina.
Then, more than anything else, the Hornets had to win to prove their worth.
After all, they were the team that seemed to give up on New Orleans, who wondered if the city still crying from the storm could get that Big ‘MO and show up to see five men jump around a hoop.
Hornet sensation Chris Paul has the impetus for that momentum.The potential Most Valuable Player candidate had to take charge, show his stuff in the NBA All-Star game.That event, played in New Orleans, helped put New Orleans back on the map in the NBA world.And, at the minimum, it helped keep the Hornet “Hive-Fiving” at home.
Which is what they did and the crowd has responded in droves to watch the Bees.
On Saturday night, the Hornets swarmed the Dallas Mavericks 104-92 behind Chris Paul’s substantial 35 points.
Game two of the playoffs is Tuesday night in New Orleans and the Hive is jiving.
For a team to come to New Orleans as an experiment, send two players to the All-Star game, win the first playoff against a team that has absolutely dominated them in the past and move forward with great fanfare and fans is something to behold in a city occupied by the men and women of the storm.
Which should show everyone--that if you win, the fans will come.For now, the city is behind their professional basketball team just as it was behind the miracle Saints of 2006.
How far will the Hornets go in the 2008 playoffs and in New Orleans is anybody’s guess, right now.
Yet, for certain, the Hornets have found a home as long as they win and winning they are doing.
There is a certain symbiosis between the New Orleans basketball team and the city.New Orleans can certainly support a winner and the Hornets are doing exactly that.The question is how long will this new miracle on Poydras Street last?
For now, the answer possibly is who cares?The team is putting on a great show and the city is showing its die-hard spirit.The goal of goals is the NBA crown.Yet, two-plus years past Katrina, the public and the team are most grateful they have found one another.It is a marriage made by a mix of determination and appreciation.That is a winning quality that New Orleans knows all so well since the flood made the world and the City take notice of its survival spirit.Which, ironically, that spirit is just possibly what the New Orleans NBA team has tapped into and has spawned believers from those who were distracted or in doubt.
The NBA New Orleans Hornets have given a torn city something for which they can “believe”.That could not have occurred at a more importunate time.
When the New Orleans Hornets beat the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night in the Hive for their first playoff victory since 2004, it was hard to believe that only six months before, the Hornets were the same team that wondered when, and if the support for the Hornets would ever arrive?
