The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

23 September 2005

Obligatory Hornets post for the day

(Expect to see this title occasionally, if not actually daily.)

Salon.com sportswriter King Kaufman on what's going on here:

Oh, Oklahoma City! Stand by for culture shock. The NBA is coming to town.

I love that the team will officially be known as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, a throwback kind of name that immediately made me think of the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, who had a history every bit as glorious as that of the New Orleans Hornets so far. If I were an older person it might make me think of the New York-Arcola Original Celtics.

It's all so retro. Maybe the NBA can help the mood by figuring out a way to keep from paying the N.O./Okla. City Hornets players their pensions when they get old.

No, he's not cynical. Really:

Once upon a time the Kansas City Kings, no longer splitting time in Omaha, moved to Sacramento. That seemed strange at the time, like the NBA was moving into a minor league town. Of course, it turned out quite nicely.

This move seems even stranger. Oklahoma City? Where the big teams are a Triple-A baseball club and a minor-league arena football team called the Yard Dawgz?

No, not that. What I mean is: Could it really be that the locals might not get screwed?

Only time (as distinguished from Time) will tell.

Posted at 4:10 PM to Net Proceeds


TrackBack: 7:10 AM, 24 September 2005
» Oakillee Doakillee from coffeegrounds
Chaz remarks on a tiny upside to the general tragedy of New Orleans: former minor league cities getting a taste of major league sports franchises. In this case, the temporarily non-New Orleans Hornets basketball team playing in Oklahoma City. Believe...[read more]

If we get screwed, it will only be for 3 million and some change. The media exposure of being a "major league town" if only a year,is worth the risk.

So says this sports-hater.

Posted by: Dan at 5:38 PM on 23 September 2005

Can't we just call them the NOKLA Hornets for the sake of brevity?

Posted by: Matt at 8:08 PM on 23 September 2005