Slate's Bizbox
sports nut: The stadium scene.

Hoop Dreams in the Big EasyI'm falling in love with the New Orleans Hornets, but will the team be here in two years?

By David Ramsey
Posted Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008, at 6:53 AM ET

(Continued from page 1)

Part of the trouble is that New Orleans is a smaller city. No one knows for sure, but most guesses have the current population at around 60 percent of pre-Katrina levels. New Orleans East, where I teach, is only now slowly repopulating. Barren stretches of abandoned buildings abound. Signs tower over the landscape offering strip-mall goodies: Wendy's, Walgreens, nail shops. But the strip malls themselves are mostly just skeletal remains, with egrets from the nearby Bayou Sauvage dawdling through the parking lots. Uptown, where I live, things are much less dire. Even so, I can walk a block and find a street with every other house still damaged and uninhabited. My neighborhood bank is still in a trailer.

Everywhere you go in this city, there are reminders of what used to be. Maybe Hornets games are just one more. While basketball fans are hardly a representative demographic, a game does serve as a snapshot of the smaller town that New Orleans has become. A half-empty arena is no surprise in a half-empty city. Would an NBA team have moved to New Orleans if the population was this low? In a word, no. Football Sundays work fine for a smallish place—folks who live hours away are happy to make the long drive for the occasional NFL game. That doesn't work for 41 basketball games a year, which means the Hornets may not be long for this place. I know, it's just sports. We've got bigger problems down here. But the Hornets are one more thing the city might lose after the storm.

While there is no question that the Saints are the "city's team," it's the Hornets who are more emblematic of New Orleans. There was no sudden miracle. The team was slow to return and hasn't been given enough attention by the nation at large. Rooting for them is marked by a spirit of unvanquished optimism (these guys could win a championship) and realist doubts (these guys could be in Oklahoma in two years). They are thriving despite it all, but the future seems grave.

Since the lease agreement was revised six weeks ago, I find myself following the attendance figures as closely as the standings and the stats. This is a morbid habit. Tyson Chandler grabs 21 rebounds … but the crowd is in four digits. It's the same impulse, I suppose, as cataloging depopulation numbers for New Orleans instead of reveling in the accomplishments of the people who are actually here.

There has been good news. The arena sold out when LeBron came to town in late December, and as the Hornets have kept winning, the crowds have gotten bigger. Through the All-Star break, average attendance for the season had crept up to 12,645, good for second-to-last in the league—thank you, Indiana! Between the hype from All-Star Weekend, an endorsement from David Stern, and the dazzling play of Paul and company, there is hope that the city can meet the benchmarks to keep the team.

Nevertheless, when I went to the last home game before All-Star Weekend, I was fearful of a shabby turnout. The city still seemed wearied by a collective post-Mardi Gras hangover, and the opponent was the lifeless Memphis Grizzlies. But when I arrived at my seat, the normally barren section was filled. I looked around to see other sections filling up too. For just the second time this season, the Hornets had sold out. A minute into the game, Paul flicked a perfect bounce pass to David West for a swish from 16 feet. The fans let out an appreciative roar that a play like that deserves. Whether we make it or not, we're not done shouting.

VIEW AS SINGLE PAGE
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
David Ramsey is a teacher and writer in New Orleans.
Photograph of Chris by Domenic Centofanti/Getty Images.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES