History of the New Orleans Pelicans

This article is about the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association. The New Orleans Pelicans are an official team in the National Basketball Association(NBA). Until the conclusion of the Pelicans' 2012–2013 regular season the team was named the New Orleans Hornets. The name change came along with the purchase of the team by its new owner, Tom Benson. Early on in the purchasing process, Benson made it clear that he intended to change the name to something more "local". Inspiration for the name change is given to Louisiana's state bird, the brown pelican. The Pelicans have an overall franchise record of 498-552, along with six playoff qualifications. Their achievements include one playoff series victory and one division title. In recent years, the Pelicans have held the names of some of the NBA's brightest rising stars on its roster.

New Orleans had been a founding member of the ABA with the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-1970). But the lack of a dedicated arena and a poor performance record led the team to relocate to Memphis. The city acquired an NBA expansion franchise in June, 1974, but the New Orleans Jazz faced a number of the same logistical and financial woes, and relocated to Salt Lake City in 1979. In 1994, the Minnesota Timberwolves were suffering financially and an ownership group almost purchased the team and moved it to New Orleans. The Timberwolves would have played at the Louisiana Superdome until a new arena was constructed. Financial problems, however, led to the NBA blocking the move. New Orleans would attempt to chase the Vancouver Grizzlies before finally landing another team in 1987.

In 1987, the NBA awarded an expansion team to Charlotte named the Charlotte Hornets. This team was given to George Shinn and a few other businessmen. While the Hornets continued to put a competitive team on the court, the team's attendance fell dramatically. Many attributed this lapse in popularity to the owner George Shinn, who was slowly becoming despised by the people of the city. In 1997, a Charlotte woman claimed that Shinn had raped her, and the resulting trial severely tarnished his reputation in the city. The consensus was that while Charlotte was as basketball-crazy as ever, fans took out their anger at Shinn on the team. Shinn had also become discontented with the Coliseum, which, although considered state-of-the-art when it opened, has by then been considered obsolete due to a limited number of luxury boxes. On March 26, 2001, both the Hornets and the Vancouver Grizzlies applied for relocation to Memphis, Tennessee, which was eventually won by the Grizzlies. Eventually, Shinn issued an ultimatum: unless the city built a new arena at no cost to him, the Hornets would leave town. The city initially refused, leading Shinn to consider moving the team to either Norfolk, Louisville, St. Louis, or Memphis. Of the cities in the running, only St. Louis had an NBA-ready arena (Savvis Center, now known as Scottrade Center) already in place and was a larger media market than Charlotte at the time; also, it was the only one of the four to have previously had an NBA franchise — the St. Louis Hawks, who moved to Atlanta in 1968.

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