The Crossover: The Pelicans are ready for their time in the spotlight
New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum (3) reacts after scoring against the San Antonio Spurs during the first half of an NBA play-in tournament at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
New Orleans isn’t a basketball city. That’s what they keep telling us.
We don’t have an iconic Rucker Park like New York, where legends like LeBron show up unannounced to play street ball. Heck, you can barely hear the pings of more than one ball here on Greenway Court, McDonough Playground or Stallings Park.
“White Men Can’t Jump” most certainly wasn’t set in New Orleans. And just try naming the most famous NBA player from this city since we’ve been called The Pelicans (2013) — or even the Hornets (2002). Or ever.
Basketball was invented in the frigid North, where they can’t practice football year round. So in some ways, it’s natural that New Orleans more often than not sticks to the evergreen gridirons of the South.
So, yeah, New Orleans has never been a basketball city. But it’s about to be.
Last season, the Pelicans shocked the league, making an unlikely run to the playoffs by way of the newly adopted play-in tournament. They passed through two intense one-offs to play the No. 1 team in the West, the Phoenix Suns in the first round. After tying the series 2-2, even your saltiest NBA pundits got giddy while whispering the word, “upset.”
The Pelicans ultimately lost to the Suns in six games, but only after heroically turning around a losing season — which started out a miserable 2-14 — largely on the shoulders of young players. And this happened in a year without the Pelicans’ once-in-a-generation totem Zion Williamson.
The excitement for the Pelicans has hit unprecedented levels since February. Certain (admittedly flawed) stat projectors at ESPN have the Pelicans coming in at third in the Western Conference; other projections have them at sixth. Either way, the hype is everywhere.
Yes, Williamson is back. But there’s so much more to this team than just one player. And with the Saints struggling early this season, there’s plenty of room for the tectonic ascent of basketball in New Orleans.
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