degenerate_gambler
05-19-2008, 02:20 PM
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=jy-spurshornetsgamesevenpreview051908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Hornets have found help at home, of all places
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
59 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS – Chris Paul looked up into the sea of empty seats at New Orleans Arena on that early October evening and wondered himself. The Hornets had come home after two years in Oklahoma City, and it seemed like no one had noticed. Even the locals who had seen them dining or shopping downtown usually approached with the same question: What are you doing here?
So as the Hornets waited to take the court for their first preseason game, their arena barely a third full, Paul turned to his teammates and delivered an edict.
“We have to give these people a reason to get behind us,” he said.
A little more than seven months later, the Hornets can say they’ve done that. They will walk into New Orleans Arena Monday for the biggest night of their careers, a win-or-go-fishing Game 7 against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, and find all those rows of empty chairs replaced by a delirious crowd numbering almost 19,000 strong, an endless wave of fans, nearly all of them clad in white T-shirts.
As Paul said following the humbling loss in San Antonio four nights earlier, “Thank God we get to go back to New Orleans for Game 7.”
For these young Hornets, home again feels like home. No longer do they have reason to question the local support. Now they depend on it. The Spurs have four championships, all those years of playoff battles to steady them, and the Hornets will ask their fans for enough strength to carry them through Monday night.
In a turn of events that symbolizes the Hornets’ wild, magical ride this season, Paul and his teammates will walk onto their floor favored against the champs. The reason: Their fans. Las Vegas bookmakers have made the Spurs four-point underdogs, in essence saying the teams would be almost evenly matched if Game 7 were played on a neutral site.
The problem for the Spurs, of course, is they aren’t walking into Switzerland, and they know this better than anyone. They’ve played five games here this season, including three in this series, and they’ve lost the last four by 25, 19, 17 and 22 points. The Spurs feel confident about Game 7, but even they can’t really say why. They’ve done nothing in this building that should make them feel confident.
Throughout the league, road teams have never been at more of a disadvantage than in these conference semifinals. The home team has won 22 of 24 games in the second round, a .917 winning percentage that eclipses the league’s previous high of .818 set in 1990 and tied in 1993. As for those who think the NBA’s regular season doesn’t matter: If the Spurs hadn’t finished with one more Western Conference loss than the Hornets they’d be playing Game 7 in San Antonio.
“If I could figure out how home court has helped so much,” Hornets coach Byron Scott said after Game 6, “I could bottle it up and sell it to every team in the league.”
Earlier this season, Scott questioned whether the Hornets would ever have reason to call New Orleans home. After relocating here from Charlotte, the franchise’s first two years in the Bayou were largely forgettable. Hurricane Katrina then reduced the city to almost half its size, killing 1,800 people and displacing tens of thousands of others. The Hornets moved to Oklahoma City for much of the next two seasons, and when they returned last summer, residents were focused on trying to rebuild New Orleans. Basketball, understandably, wasn’t much of a priority.
Though the Hornets played well from the season’s start, too few people noticed. The team had just 6,500 season-ticket holders in November, and even as recently as three months ago, the average home attendance stood at 12,465. Only the Indiana Pacers were worse. The franchise showed its apprehension about the market by negotiating a new arena lease in January that would allow the team to leave if fails to average 14,735 fans next season.
Asked in February about the future of the Hornets in New Orleans, Bob Lanier, special assistant to NBA commissioner David Stern, told Yahoo! Sports’ Josh Peter: “That’s a big question.”
No longer, however, does that question seem so daunting to local officials. While the franchise’s long-term viability here is still hinged to the city’s recovery efforts, the Hornets seem to have found a home at least for the short-term. Attendance began to climb after the city hosted a successful All-Star Weekend, but the Hornets’ play on the court has spiked most of the increase. Taking the lead of their coach and their young star point guard, the Hornets have been humble and workmanlike, further increasing their popularity. New Orleans, it seemed, was eager to embrace a winner.
To welcome the playoffs, the franchise rented billboards imploring the city to “Fan Up!” Much like last season’s renaissance in Golden State, the locals have done that. Monday will be the Hornets’ 13th consecutive home sellout. Prior to the start of the season, Hornets owner George Shinn projected a $20 million loss for the franchise. Now strengthened by seven, if not more, home playoff games, Shinn thinks the losses will be marginal. The franchise has seen a 90 percent season-ticket renewal rate for next season while also adding 2,600 new season-ticket holders. Sales of Hornets merchandise have increased 64 percent during the playoffs from the regular season.
“It’s great to see the city in this kind of frenzy, with basketball having its moment,” NBA Hall of Fame forward and former LSU great Bob Pettit told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans last week. “The Hornets have the Arena rocking. And it’s going to get rockier on Monday. The defending champs coming to town for a Game 7. Coming into a sea of gold. Can basketball life get any better?”
Paul has likely asked himself the same question. Seven months ago he looked into the stands and wondered. But that night in October also told him something else.
“If we come out and play well,” Paul said, “this city is ready.”
Hornets have found help at home, of all places
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
59 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS – Chris Paul looked up into the sea of empty seats at New Orleans Arena on that early October evening and wondered himself. The Hornets had come home after two years in Oklahoma City, and it seemed like no one had noticed. Even the locals who had seen them dining or shopping downtown usually approached with the same question: What are you doing here?
So as the Hornets waited to take the court for their first preseason game, their arena barely a third full, Paul turned to his teammates and delivered an edict.
“We have to give these people a reason to get behind us,” he said.
A little more than seven months later, the Hornets can say they’ve done that. They will walk into New Orleans Arena Monday for the biggest night of their careers, a win-or-go-fishing Game 7 against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, and find all those rows of empty chairs replaced by a delirious crowd numbering almost 19,000 strong, an endless wave of fans, nearly all of them clad in white T-shirts.
As Paul said following the humbling loss in San Antonio four nights earlier, “Thank God we get to go back to New Orleans for Game 7.”
For these young Hornets, home again feels like home. No longer do they have reason to question the local support. Now they depend on it. The Spurs have four championships, all those years of playoff battles to steady them, and the Hornets will ask their fans for enough strength to carry them through Monday night.
In a turn of events that symbolizes the Hornets’ wild, magical ride this season, Paul and his teammates will walk onto their floor favored against the champs. The reason: Their fans. Las Vegas bookmakers have made the Spurs four-point underdogs, in essence saying the teams would be almost evenly matched if Game 7 were played on a neutral site.
The problem for the Spurs, of course, is they aren’t walking into Switzerland, and they know this better than anyone. They’ve played five games here this season, including three in this series, and they’ve lost the last four by 25, 19, 17 and 22 points. The Spurs feel confident about Game 7, but even they can’t really say why. They’ve done nothing in this building that should make them feel confident.
Throughout the league, road teams have never been at more of a disadvantage than in these conference semifinals. The home team has won 22 of 24 games in the second round, a .917 winning percentage that eclipses the league’s previous high of .818 set in 1990 and tied in 1993. As for those who think the NBA’s regular season doesn’t matter: If the Spurs hadn’t finished with one more Western Conference loss than the Hornets they’d be playing Game 7 in San Antonio.
“If I could figure out how home court has helped so much,” Hornets coach Byron Scott said after Game 6, “I could bottle it up and sell it to every team in the league.”
Earlier this season, Scott questioned whether the Hornets would ever have reason to call New Orleans home. After relocating here from Charlotte, the franchise’s first two years in the Bayou were largely forgettable. Hurricane Katrina then reduced the city to almost half its size, killing 1,800 people and displacing tens of thousands of others. The Hornets moved to Oklahoma City for much of the next two seasons, and when they returned last summer, residents were focused on trying to rebuild New Orleans. Basketball, understandably, wasn’t much of a priority.
Though the Hornets played well from the season’s start, too few people noticed. The team had just 6,500 season-ticket holders in November, and even as recently as three months ago, the average home attendance stood at 12,465. Only the Indiana Pacers were worse. The franchise showed its apprehension about the market by negotiating a new arena lease in January that would allow the team to leave if fails to average 14,735 fans next season.
Asked in February about the future of the Hornets in New Orleans, Bob Lanier, special assistant to NBA commissioner David Stern, told Yahoo! Sports’ Josh Peter: “That’s a big question.”
No longer, however, does that question seem so daunting to local officials. While the franchise’s long-term viability here is still hinged to the city’s recovery efforts, the Hornets seem to have found a home at least for the short-term. Attendance began to climb after the city hosted a successful All-Star Weekend, but the Hornets’ play on the court has spiked most of the increase. Taking the lead of their coach and their young star point guard, the Hornets have been humble and workmanlike, further increasing their popularity. New Orleans, it seemed, was eager to embrace a winner.
To welcome the playoffs, the franchise rented billboards imploring the city to “Fan Up!” Much like last season’s renaissance in Golden State, the locals have done that. Monday will be the Hornets’ 13th consecutive home sellout. Prior to the start of the season, Hornets owner George Shinn projected a $20 million loss for the franchise. Now strengthened by seven, if not more, home playoff games, Shinn thinks the losses will be marginal. The franchise has seen a 90 percent season-ticket renewal rate for next season while also adding 2,600 new season-ticket holders. Sales of Hornets merchandise have increased 64 percent during the playoffs from the regular season.
“It’s great to see the city in this kind of frenzy, with basketball having its moment,” NBA Hall of Fame forward and former LSU great Bob Pettit told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans last week. “The Hornets have the Arena rocking. And it’s going to get rockier on Monday. The defending champs coming to town for a Game 7. Coming into a sea of gold. Can basketball life get any better?”
Paul has likely asked himself the same question. Seven months ago he looked into the stands and wondered. But that night in October also told him something else.
“If we come out and play well,” Paul said, “this city is ready.”