NBA: Welcome to Oklahoma City; please stay
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/02/sports/nba.t.php
Liz Robbins The New York Times
OKLAHOMA CITY As J.R. Smith punctuated his breakaway with a reverse jam to give the Hornets a 20-point lead over the Sacramento Kings in the third quarter, the capacity crowd jumped from its seats and let loose a rim-rattling yell that had been building for weeks, if not years.
Never has there been so much genuine enthusiasm - or so much noise - for an NBA team that won just 18 games in its previous season.
For six weeks since Oklahoma City secured the right to provide a temporary home for the New Orleans Hornets, who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the mayor, the city's business leaders and the fans who had bought 10,000 season tickets kept telling their guests, "Welcome!"
Wearing white home jerseys with the name Hornets on them, the team returned the favor on this electric Tuesday night at the Ford Center.
A city that is unfortunately best known for the 1995 terrorist bombing that claimed 168 lives, and that is only the 45th-largest U.S. television market, became major league when the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets shocked the ragged Kings, 93-67.
"The least we could do is go out and play as hard as we can," Chris Paul, a rookie point guard, said after pushing a relentless pace throughout the game. "We feel like we owe a lot to this city and the state of Oklahoma for accepting us."
The 19,163 fans wore commemorative T-shirts for the occasion, but the victory in the first of 35 home games was almost a bonus.
The team that Oklahoma City inherited was a manmade disaster before the deluge in New Orleans. Three years after moving from Charlotte, the Hornets plummeted to the depths of the NBA in attendance, troubled by an apathy in the stands matched only by the lack of interest in their disgruntled locker room. Now theirs is a young team with unheralded players, an uncertain future and an unproven front office.
"I don't think it matters to us, this first year," Mayor Mick Cornett said the day before the game. "Right now, we just feel the excitement of becoming an NBA city and becoming part of the NBA family. Long term, we'd be like any other market, you have to be competitive. I think they get a free pass this year."
The Hornets receive free rent at the Ford Center, which houses a minor league hockey team but was built to NBA specifications. Paul received a free BMW from a dealership while waiting for his to be shipped from New Orleans. Players are being offered free meals in restaurants. Employees moving from New Orleans have been offered free housing.
The city is projecting $40 million in revenue. If the team loses more money than it did last season in New Orleans - when it averaged only 14,221 fans - Oklahoma City has agreed to pay the Hornets as much as $10 million. But if Tuesday is any indication, perhaps that will not be necessary.
"It was fun out there; it reminded you of playoff atmosphere," said the Hornets' P.J. Brown, a 13-year NBA veteran who led the team with 20 points. "It's only one game."
Perhaps Oklahoma City is the best thing to happen to the Hornets in years. The team needed a refuge; the city simply wanted recognition.
"When David Stern mentioned Oklahoma City to me, I know exactly what I said," the Hornets' owner, George Shinn, recounted from his new 18th-floor office in the downtown Oklahoma Tower. "I said, 'Oklahoma where?"'
Stern, the NBA commissioner, directed him to this metropolitan area of 1.13 million people. Five major local companies were ready as investors, led by Clay Bennett, the president of Dorchester Capital, a private investment firm. From 1993 to 1998, his wife's family, the Gaylords, was a part-owner of the San Antonio Spurs, and he sat on the board.
"This is the ultimate real-time test," Bennett said. "You have to think about it in a short-term way, so that you don't end up crushed when the day the team is gone."
But, he added, "I would be surprised if we go through this and somehow don't have a team."
The Hornets have an option for a second year in Oklahoma City, giving the city more time to demonstrate its worth over the competition that may come from Kansas City, Anaheim, Las Vegas and St. Louis.
Out of respect for what New Orleans has endured, Cornett, a former local television sports anchor, said there was no way he would allow Oklahoma City to fight over the Hornets with New Orleans.
The situation is a delicate one for Shinn, who does not want to seem like a mercenary eager to leave New Orleans. Tom Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints, has already been accused of wanting to do that.
"Our goal is very clear, to go back to New Orleans," Shinn said. "Does that make good business sense? We have got to use obviously good judgment."
Already, half of the season-ticket holders in New Orleans have asked for refunds. Six regular-season games are scheduled for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but three of those could be moved to New Orleans in March.
Shinn said he had expressed concerns to Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans about who would buy tickets. Shinn said he had told Nagin, "We're going to have national exposure here; you don't want to have only 1,500 people in the seats."
Shinn said the federal government's plan to offer tax incentives for businesses that return to New Orleans was enticing, but Stern is not ready to declare the league's intentions when so much is unsettled.
For now, the team will bask in its newfound popularity. Paul, who was drafted No. 4 this year, scored 13 points in his debut.
"Every day I get to wake up and play the game I love," he said on Monday at the team's practice facility at Southern Nazarene University.
Before the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City had developed plans for a downtown revival, which included a Triple-A baseball stadium, a library and office buildings. The bombing directed the city's energy toward rebuilding and commemorating, reflected in a museum and memorial on the site of the bombing.
"The town wrestles with being known as the city of the bombing," said Kari Watkins, executive director of the museum. "Tonight is one of those moments of celebration, not of two tragedies, but how two cities have come together to rally together in light of those tragedies.
"If there's one thing we can teach New Orleans, it's that there is hope. We're moving forward. "
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