Rebirth Brass Band
Renaming the New Orleans Hornets would be, in theory, a wise move on new owner Tom Benson’s part. The name, a holdover from the team’s days in Charlotte, had no ties to New Orleans, and made the franchise seem distant to NBA fans in south Louisiana.
The only reason I prefaced my above statement with the phrase “in theory” is because the franchise could conceivably pick a name that would make it even harder for local fans to support the team. For instance, an ESPN affiliated web site reported the New Orleans Spirit and New Orleans Angels were the clubhouse leaders to become the team’s new nickname.
I hope the report is wrong. New Orleans Angels would immediately become one of the worst nicknames in professional sports history. New Orleans Spirit is slightly better, but is still ambiguous and fails to call to mind New Orleans.
So what should the team’s new nickname be?
