LYCOS RETRIEVER 
New Orleans Hornets: Oklahoma City
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The New Orleans Hornets started their trek through the National Basketball Association during the 1988-'89 season as the Charlotte Hornets. The team played in Charlotte all the way through the 2001-'02 season. The parting of the franchise and the city got rather ugly and during the '02 playoffs the city refused to show up to the games. It was one of the most unusual sights that a team would have such a large amount of empty seats for a home playoff game. The team packed up their stuff and moved out to New Orleans before the 2002-'03 season and picked up where they left off in Charlotte. The team made it to the playoffs for the fourth straight season behind the strong play of small forward Jamal Mashburn.
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Due to the catastrophic devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina upon the communities of southeastern Louisiana, the New Orleans Hornets relocated their base of operations to Oklahoma City from 2005-2007. They would play home games at the Ford Center and their practice facility while in Oklahoma City was the Sawyer Center on the campus of Southern Nazarene University (SNU).[4]
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The Hornets played regular season home games in four cities (Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Baton Rogue, LA, and Norman, OK) en route to a 38-44 overall record. Narrowly missing the playoffs, the Hornets improved their win total by 20 over 2004-05 with the leadership of T-Mobile Rookie of the Year point guard Chris Paul. The Wake Forest product, who averaged 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 2.24 steals per game, was a six-time T-Mobile Western Conference Rookie of the Month. David West, in this third season with the Hornets, had a breakout year, averaging a team-best 17.1 points per game. As the city of New Orleans continues to recover from Hurricane Katrina, the Hornets will remain in OKC for 35 regular season games next year and will play the remaining six at New Orleans Arena.
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New Orleans is known as the birthplace of jazz, but the reasons may not be obvious when looking at the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina. In fact the birth of jazz is still something of a mystery. 100 years ago, at the time jazz emerged as a distinct musical genre, there was no recorded music, nor was there radio. No documentation exists that can in some way pinpoint the birth of jazz, since the music was played by ear. What is known is that the Jazz era began around the time the Ragtime era ended, and early New Orleans jazz musicians actually spoke about their music as a local flavor of ragtime.
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The New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets made headlines in the offseason signing sharpshooter Peja Stojakovic to a deal some experts find questionable. Peja was signed for more than $60 million in a five-year deal, which was well-over what the Indiana Pacers were offering. The Hornets hope to establish an uptempo offense where Peja will be able to do what he does best, shoot. You won't see any defense from him as he has always been a poor defender.
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Beyond those agreements, the NBA is keeping a close eye on the rebuilding efforts of New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast, making note of the overwhelming support the Saints (the city's NFL franchise) received in 2006-07. The 69,703-seat Louisiana Superdome, where the Saints play, was sold out in its entirety before the season began for the first time in its history. Saints officials have announced that all season tickets were sold for the season beginning in 2007 and that for the time in the franchise's history, all 137 suites have been sold in advance as well.
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