Call it desperation, call it “bandwagon-ing”, or call it plain ole good common sense, but the Chicks can’t help but suddenly take notice of the only professional sports franchise in New Orleans that’s still got a shot at a 2008 championship: The Hornets.  Oh and don’t worry, we know we’re fair-weather bitches when it comes to basketball.  Football is our heart, always has been, always will be.  If we could marry football, pop out a couple kids, retire in the South of France and get buried in adjacent plots at the St. Louis Cemetery with Football, we most certainly would.  But with the Saints out of it and football nearing its end, we’ll need a little somethin’ somethin’ on the side to get us through the hard times.   

Enter the New Orleans Hornets.  I can so vividly remember when we landed the team.  I was a news producer in New Orleans for the ABC affiliate and I had the pleasure of shaking Ray Wooldridge and George Shinn’s clammy hands after one of the news conferences announcing the big news.  I even got to sit on the floor for a couple home games like a bigwig.  It was absolutely amazing.  But as excited as I was about having another professional sports franchise to cheer on, I still couldn’t muster up the insanity enthusiasm inspired by the Saints.  I guess I couldn’t be expected to.  After all, this was a new franchise.  The Saints had 20 plus years of torturing me under their belts.  Not to mention the Hornets weren’t exactly playing like Michael Jordan’s Bulls. What was my motivation? 

But now, as I watch the Hornets slowly gaining respect in the West and convincingly beating the ever-awesome Phoenix Suns, something tells me I need to get with the program.  It breaks my heart to see those empty seats in the New Orleans Arena, despite the fact that the team is kicking butt this year.  Also, what about the fact that the owners did not cash in on the option to stay in OKC for another year during their temporary relocation after Katrina?  Hornets’ owner George Shinn is quoted as saying “It’s been an incredible stay for us. But the whole situation is that New Orleans has had problems and they continue to have problems, and the right thing for us to do is to go back and give it our best shot and try to make it work.”  (This of course was said after he took a figurative dump on our city in an OKC newspaper.   But at least he had the decency to pressure wash away his verbal diarrhea by bringing the Hornets back home.)

Will I ever love the Hornets the way I love my Saints?  That’s about as likely as Reggie Bush taking the block off my phone calls.  Still, I think the team and the sport deserve my attention.  It’s no football, never will be.  So while the Hornets may not be marriage material, they’re at least sponge-worthy.