Ever since former owner George Shinn relocated the Hornets from Charlotte for the 2002-2003 season, there was a feeling among locals that the team didn't really belong to New Orleans—that the team was just here temporarily until North Carolina native Shinn decided to move it to greener pastures.
The infamous attendance benchmarks and the constant chatter from national columnists about relocation certainly didn't help in this regard.
Neither did the fact that the Shinn-led franchise always gave off the whiff of a minor league enterprise run on the cheap.
The broadcast situation also left much to desire.
The Cox Sports Television cable channel carrying Hornets games didn't reach a large portion of the metro area and wasn't available on DirectTV.
The radio broadcasts bounced from station to station, lately residing on a low-wattage R&B station.
And the longtime TV broadcasting duo of Bob Licht and Gil McGregor, though not without its charms, was never going to be considered a top-tier NBA broadcasting team.
But things are changing fast. And clearly for the better.
Soon after purcha ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Louis Gertler
New Orleans Hornets: the Recent Media Changes and the Benson Purge
August 7th, 2012 by Louis Gertler Leave a reply »
Advertisement