Be Careful What You Wish For, Nawlins
New Orleans basketball fans are discovering, after one year, why Charlotte's reaction to the Hornets' departure was "Don't let the door hit you on the way out":
NEW ORLEANS -- Hornets owners George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge, reviled in Charlotte when they moved the team from there last summer, barely made it through one season before their first public relations debacle in New Orleans.
Last weekend's firing of popular coach Paul Silas has been widely received with disgust by fans and in the local media.
Times-Picayune columnist Dave Lagarde declared that the honeymoon was over.
"The needle on the popularity meter just made a major shift in the wrong direction. The NBA novelty has worn off in an ugly hurry," he wrote.
A similar tone resonated from fan comments in office elevators, talk shows, bars and in letters to the editor.
"I'm glad we got an NBA team after so many years [23] without, but it looks like we?ve been cursed with yet another ignorant owner," Tom Henehan of New Orleans wrote, making reference to former unpopular Saints owner John Mecom.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Comments
I'm tellin' ya, if David Stern had had the guts God gave a billy goat, the Hornets would still bein Charlotte today ... with Michael Jordan as owner.
Posted by: Lex | May 10, 2003 8:32 AM