The best season in the history of New Orleans basketball is old enough to vote.
Chris Paul throwing lobs to Tyson Chandler. David West getting to his spot in the post. An arena roaring with the expectation that the next playoff game would be followed by another.
The 2007-08 Hornets won 56 games. As the franchise begins its 25th season in the Crescent City, that remains its only 50-win season.
The memories deserve a celebration. The distance from them deserves scrutiny.
A homecoming that felt like a beginning
New Orleans welcomed the Hornets when they arrived from Charlotte in 2002, long after the Jazz headed west to Utah. Baron Davis, Jamal Mashburn, and P.J. Brown gave the Hornets an immediate presence. But, as entertaining as they were, their connection to the city was tenuous at best.
Hurricane Katrina interrupted that relationship before it had much time to grow. For two seasons, the Hornets played most of their home games in Oklahoma City while New Orleanians confronted the questions surrounding the future of a community.
When the Hornets returned full time in 2007, Byron Scott's team gave a recovering city something to believe in. That first season back produced the franchise's only division title and a seven-game series against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.
It was supposed to be the beginning. Instead, it became the standard New Orleans is still waiting to see surpassed.
The fans have shown what's possible
Remember the sea of red inside the Smoothie King Center in 2018? Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday were dismantling Portland, and the crowd supplied the sound and scene for a city fully invested. The Pelicans' most recent playoff series victory remains evidence of what this relationship can be.
Brandon Ingram and the 2022 team stirred that belief against Phoenix. Fans showed up and showed out for the 2024 play-in game against the Lakers, too, rallying behind Zion Williamson's 40-point performance in a contest that ended in another painful loss.
Those nights don't erase the franchise's attendance problems. They do undermine the easy assumption that New Orleans can't support basketball. Fans have shown up without a guarantee of competitiveness, let alone victory. They want a franchise and players who return that commitment throughout the season.
Yet through 24 completed seasons, the franchise has won two playoff series and never reached a conference final. Paul left. Davis demanded a trade. The Zion Williamson era has repeatedly stalled amid injuries and unfulfilled expectations.
Those circumstances aren't identical, and no executive can prevent every injury. But across different stars, coaches, and front offices, the organization has failed to turn opportunity into sustained success.
A Saint keeps the franchise in New Orleans
Tom Benson saved the franchise from relocation when he purchased it in 2012, but it took years for ownership to invest in foundational pieces like a practice facility.
The Benson family deserves credit for keeping the team here. After this much time, however, remaining in New Orleans can't be its most persuasive accomplishment.
There appears to be a plan in place for the franchise to confront its facilities needs. The Smoothie King Center, opened in 1999, is in need of a facelift and its limitations create business challenges in a market with limited corporate sponsorship and local television revenue. Fans have asked for a better experience in and around the arena.
But an improved arena can't compensate for poor basketball decisions. As long as the taxpayers of Louisiana are making an investment in the Pelicans, the state needs to hold the team accountable for the product however it can.
Honor the past. Raise the standard.
A better building, though, is only part of making a franchise feel permanent. Its history needs a home, too.
The Pelicans should do more to make former players and coaches a visible part of their identity. Whatever relationships exist privately, the public connection is too faint for a franchise that needs every source of belonging it can cultivate.
Bring back Paul, West, and Chandler. Let fans that Scott for that extraordinary season. Involve Monty Williams, whose tenure connected the Paul and Davis eras. Include Tim Floyd in telling the story of the early New Orleans years.
Reunions, conversations with current players, and community appearances would give those connections substance beyond a tribute video. Difficult departures shouldn't erase meaningful contributions. Fans have held on to the memories. The organization needs to cultivate the relationships.
Honoring that history also raises the standard for what comes next.
Jamahl Mosley inherits a 26-win team with reasons for optimism. The harder question is whether Mosley can turn individual strengths into lineups that function together.
My expectation is another uneven season, with stretches that invite belief and others that expose how wide the gap is between individual talent and a functioning team.
Mosley deserves time to build, with progress fans can recognize. In the short term that includes a defense that makes opponents work for every point, an offense that creates space for its best players, and young players earning greater responsibility. Management must distinguish between problems coaching can solve and roster flaws it needs to address.
Another coaching change doesn't restart the clock on everything the organization owes its fans.
Celebrate the people who gave New Orleans its best basketball memories. Then build something that lasts long enough for another generation to have its own.
Twenty-five seasons in, New Orleans should not still have to prove it deserves an NBA team.
The Pelicans should be proving they deserve New Orleans.
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