The Hornets are the best example to show how bad a shape the NBA is in relative to the NFL. Jacksonville is a crappy city by all accounts. LA is available and a huge enticement for any owner that would be taking over a small market team. Yet the NFL was still able to find a complete foreign owner who had probably never set foot in Jacksonville until the day he signed the papers to buy the franchise, and this guy is still promising to do everything possible to keep the franchise there against all other factors. On the flip side, the NBA can't put lipstick on its pig, the New Orleans Hornets. No one out there even wants a sniff of a team with the stipulation that they have to keep it in that city. And all the other owners are getting more and more pissed off at Stern too. At this point, why would ANYONE do any favors for him?
Misrepresentation. Jacksonville not a bad town at all with a very large base. Issue is that it is a fairly young town now with a large population of people who moved from elsewhere. They already have teams they root for & support, and it takes time to supplant that. When the team first arrived and was winning consistently, the city and fans supported the team very well. Thing is that it is Florida. Most Floridians will not all go to the games if they are not doing well and winning. Instead they will go to the beach or do something else. They already have a RB and DL. Issue has always been receivers and QB. If they can just become relevant again, and snare the next generation, they will be fine. Hornets were moved to New Orleans solely because of the owner and not really because there was a huge swing of public support for the team. Other then the initial spike because of the new thing their first year in NOLA, they have never been higher than 19th in attendance in that city. Combined with never really be able to build off their initial success with Paul because of building the team through FA & older players more than the draft and younger players doomed them to never getting any real fan base. And that is not even considering the Katrina effect. Then considering that they really need a new stadium that will never be built, and the fear that most businessmen have about NOLA in general scares them away. Essentially the problems are with the location and stadium situation of the franchise more than the NBA vs NFL, other than of course the NFL is more profitable, but even only if the team is well run.
Chris Cave Man scored 27 points on 12-22 shooting, 13 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block in 42 minutes tonight... and beat the Jazz by 6 points; 86-80 I really want Cave Man on our team!
Now N.O. has to trade him before he screws up their 1st round draft pick. Man, N.O. is gonna be shellacked this summer. Gordon will leave, N.O. won't match. Kaman resurrected maybe, and he'll leave. No free agent will sniff the place.
gordon will be a restricted free agent. the nba expects a new owner before then. it's a clean slate right now. let the new owner decide on the franchise's direction.
Hornets are similiar to the Rockets in that aspect. Poor fan support but great patronage by their city's business sector.
N.O was the murder capital not so long ago, if you had millions would you spend it on a *****ty team in a *****ed up city?? hell no
Yup, and do you think that has anything to do with the Hornets tanking right now; somebody has to sell tickets, why not the #1 pick.
Stern has got to go, I appreciate what he's done, but we need a new guy in charge, not Silver though. Someone creative and fresh, who's not afraid to change things up.
Don't look now, but there will be a team in Seattle. Just waiting for the new arena to be approved. I think it has backing.
I don't know. I think, somehow, this is like a "make up" exploration... to make up for the Gasol deal that got nixed. It feels like "do something" before the trade deadline, just so the team can say, "See. We're really trying." I wouldn't trade Patterson. And I still think TWill, with the right usage and development, would, someday, appear like the Lin oversight, if traded. The wildcard is: Does Kaman play more like McHale is imploring his players to play, than who would get traded? That might be a factor. Hard work and effort is definitely valued and can make up for some deficiencies.
I just love how two weeks ago most of the board was bashing Kaman calling him a scrub, but looky here! Now everyone is on his jock.
