Free Ballin’

The Hornets weren’t quite as responsive to my press credentials/tickets inquiries as Dallas and San Antonio were so…well, that’s probably not fair. I sent an email to one of their PR staff on 11/25 and received an understandable “Who the hell are you?” the next day.  I intended to respond that day, when I thought of a good way to respond, but I covered the Mavs/Pacers game that evening, followed by other stuff, and then concerned myself with getting to San Antonio and finding housing for Thanksgiving weekend… Anyway, I didn’t get back in touch until the 5th of December, and I didn’t get a reply to that email.

I called the person in charge of providing credentials, he said oh yeah, we got your request and never heard back from you.  Must have missed it.  I forwarded him the email I’d sent on the 5th, exchanged a few emails, and the best I could get was him saying he’d let me know “if I run into any tickets,” which was kind of whack, if you ask me.

I showed up to the Hornets’ Arena an hour early and went to Will Call, but there was nothing for me. I mentioned the employee, “Oh, I thought X executive was going to leave me tickets…” and they called him, but he wasn’t there. They left an email, but didn’t hear back from him. I figured I’d wait around, called Mom to say hi, and watched it rain. Finally, at a quarter to 7PM (tip-off,) I checked back with Will Call and indeed, the gentleman had authorized two tickets for me (“guys” become “gentlemen” on this page, when they give me free tickets.) Lower level, center court section, 23 rows back from the floor, they were amazing. I’ll write more about the game and the teams, Hornets and Robert Johnsons, in the coming days, but for what they’re worth, here are the notes I took during the game:

- It’s ABA throwback Jersey night, the New Orleans Buccaneers, the Buchs. Not bad, the unis.

- Irma Thomas best live performance of Star Spangled Banner I’ve heard, warm, contoured, effortless–amazing

- The feeling I’m getting, the “vibe,” there’s something special about it. It feels New Orleans. I can’t tell if it’s just me, my excitement watching a game with such great seats in a city I enjoy so immensely, or whether there really is something distinctly, wonderfully New Orleans about the atmosphere in the Arena.  I really can’t tell, but regardless, it feels great in here, familial.  It’s different than the other cities.  It always sounds like such crap when people talk about a city’s pride.  Some Texans I met mentioned that I wouldn’t find Americans more proud of their state.  Maybe, but this is different; the feeling in this town is that every last person seems to know how special New Orleans is.  They don’t roll their eyes, “you want to go to that tourist trap?”  They’re like, “Damn right, that’s where I’m going too.”  This isn’t my team, and this isn’t my city, but they’ve overcome my Groucho Marx complex.  This is a club I just might join, if they offered me membership.  Where the New Orleans vibe in the stadium was something of my own creation or whether it would still be there if I weren’t there, doesn’t really matter to me.  Why complain about getting high off placebo?

- Crowd stood and cheered until first Hornets score, cool.

- Adam Morrison has to work hard to get his shot off against…Peja Stojakovic?? Definitely not an encouraging sign for his career prospects.

- Raymond Felton can’t shoot, and can’t finish around the rim, so even when he penetrates, everyone sticks to the man they’re guarding and he has no open teammates to pass to. Trying to figure out what appealed so much they drafted him 5th. He started for UNC. Is that it? Starting PG for UNC makes him a lotto pick?  And he’s starting for the Bobcats? Guy is going nowhere unless he can score well enough to draw help defenders. I can’t even tell if he can play defense, because no one can defend Chris Paul.

- Chris Paul is a marvel, a marvel. He’s so small, and not lanky like Rondo. AI is his size, but lanky, but he does it for himself, he just goes at the rim or creates room to get a shot off. He’s essentially still a playground guy, just an NBA Hall of Fame-level playground baller. Chris Paul is a true QB, and he’s controlling everything on the court, manipulating the entire defense with every step and putting the ball where it needs to go at all times, knows when to pass and when to get his own shot better than any PG I’ve ever seen. The best “pure” point guards, Stockton, Nash, Kidd are deferential by nature or development. “Getting their team involved,” was their job from birth, and they played that way, foremost. Kidd’s relative lack of scoring ability sort of forced him be that way, since he could almost always create a higher percentage shot by passing. As for Nash, Nelson used to have to yell at him to shoot the ball; even in Phoenix, it takes his entire team struggling for scoring before he gets aggressive. But Paul, he doesn’t have to turn it on or turn it off. He’s always aggressive, always finds the best shot, whether it’s his or not; he always hits the open teammate, and he just happens to be that teammate fairly frequently. Magic, he’s the only other PG who did it that well. Paul is just a marvel.

- D.J. Augustin is mad quick

- The Jumbotron graphics and videos are just awful.  This organization could use some event coordinators to overhaul their act.  Every timeout is an eggregiously stupid video presentation.  They have a video presentation featuring a floating 70s afro, where the camera goes over the stadium, focusing on fans, and the afro frames their heads on the jumbotron.  But it doesn’t ever fit right.  It just looks mad stupid.

- Ooh, the cheerleaders have on these 70s outfits, white short-shorts, tight red tops, midriff exposed, white cowboy boots, red and white pom-poms. Awesome, right out of Debbie Does Dallas, right down to the cheapness, the DDD budget didn’t allow for professional-looking cheerleader costumes. Apparently, neither did the ABA’s. I wonder if they’re going to do anything they have to, to raise money so that one of them can go to Dallas and live out her dreams…

- Weird that Sean May starts only to be taken out after a minute or two [Note: and only played 18 minute the whole game]  I’ve heard the org is pissed at him being out of shape since they drafted him, but then why start him just to bench him.  Either Larry Brown just has his brilliant ways, or Larry Brown is being a fidgety old man

- Morrison is shooting 38% from 3-pts this year and still can’t stay on the floor.  He’d have to consistently shoot over 45% from 3-pts territory for the rest of his career to avoid being one of the worst busts in NBA history.  [Note: And he's already 24, coming off surgery, and apparently still doesn't have his "explosiveness."]

- Emeka Okafor is amazingly quick off the floor to block shots, and still looks like a rookie, handling the ball in the post.  He tends to catch the ball in the post, back to the basket, with his feet spread wide apart, so he doesn’t have good balance or a position from which he can spring into action, make a quick move.  He has no leverage from that position.  Even when he catches the ball with his feet closer, more balanced, the first thing he does is move his pivot foot out to spread his feet again.  I remember Hakeem gave Okafor some lessons a few years back, and Okafor talked about it being dizzying trying to learn that footwork.  Okafor can learn, 3.9+ GPA in college, but apparently that learning doesn’t translate to the court.  The only time Hakeem spread his pivot foot out like that was in one motion when he took it to the rim going right or it was a fake to drop step or Dream Shake.  Okafor is 26 and not only doesn’t he have a post game so practiced it looks instinctive, he doesn’t even look like he has a plan for what to do when he catches the all.  They’re paying Okafor over 1/6th of the team salary and he’s not good enough to be a third offensive option on a playoff-caliber team.  Top notch defender, but that contract is ugly.

- Where’s Gerald Wallace??  Where’s Jason Richardson?? [Note: Wallace's grandmother died, he was with the family, Richardson was traded to Phoenix.  Considering that trade and the Hornet's Antonio Daniels trade, I was not exactly watching A-squad v. A-squad]

- Augustin has a very quick release, that will help him, because the dude is really short

- The announcer is doing the thing where he says “Defense,” and makes the clapping noise, so that the whole stadium screams “Defense” in sync, rather than play a whole freakin’ tune, like San Antonio and NJ did, which was really annoying.  But they really have to work on their musical selections and segues.  They just tried to fade “Minnie the Moocher” into “Cantaloupe Island,” on the sound system – weak

- I see why they made the Daniels trade.  Not only was Mike James in Byron Scott’s doghouse, but he’s no QB, and the Hornets are lost without CP3 on the floor.  Devin Brown is not a point guard.

- Augustin can really shoot, can bounce around and penetrate, and finishes decently, even seems like he has a little in-between game, but he’s a scoring PG and this team needs someone who can create high percentage scoring opportunities for other players on the team.  And that ain’t him.  He has a cool assist or two, because he’s a perfectly good passer, but he has to look to pass, he doesn’t do it reflexively.  He’s a rookie though, so maybe he’ll learn, but it’s the rarest of scoring PGs who really, truly learn to run a team.  It’s far less common, I think, than people realize.  These guys become scoring point guards who follow the game plan, but they rarely internalize it to the point where it’s instinctive.  Chauncey Billups is one of the only combo guards I can think of who came into the league without a clue how to play point and truly because a QB.  The problem for the Robert Johnsons is that Augustin, Jason Richardson, and Sean May, are the only ones on the team who can really create shots for themselves, so the rest of the team needs to run plays or play with a point guard who can set them up.  I don’t know how that’s going to work. [Note: and trading Jason Richardson means they're truly fucked for scoring]

- These cheerleaders do not have Texas curves, makes me miss Dallas.  Yes, Dallas does have something over New Orleans: cheerleaders.