NEW ORLEANS - Ex-Hornets guard Robert Pack stared intensely at the empty lot at 2336 Alabo St. while a city employee evaluated the site Wednesday afternoon.
There was once a modest, two-bedroom home here in the now famous Lower Ninth Ward where Pack grew up with his parents and three sisters. The house is now in ruins and was pushed across the street by floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
In a neighborhood nicknamed "back-a-town" by the locals, where empty lots, ruined homes, and shattered dreams can be seen for miles, Pack reminisced about how he used to dribble a rubber basketball late at night from his home to the corner store to get whatever his mom needed.
Just over a 5-mile drive is New Orleans Arena, the site of Sunday's NBA All-Star Game. Pack envisions a day where the devastated area will be thriving with better homes, businesses, and happy families. And when that day comes, he is optimistic the Hornets will remain, bouncing basketballs just a short drive away.
"I look forward to seeing support for the Hornets with a full city," Pack said. "This city has supported the Saints with paper bags on their heads. Regardless to whether they were unhappy with the team or not, they were there. They put butts in the seats.
"I look forward to the city being back full with the energy and the life that it had once before and the Hornets being here playing the way they are playing. I look forward to a time like that."
Attendance down
While The Big Easy slowly recovers from Katrina, it's up in the air whether the Hornets still will be around once New Orleans is back on its feet.In January, team owner George Shinn negotiated a clause with the state to possibly terminate the franchise's lease with the New Orleans Arena if the team fails to average 14,735 paid fans from December 2007 through next season. Despite having the Western Conference's best record, the Hornets have the NBA's second-worst attendance, 12,645 per game.
Of the NBA teams averaging fewer than 15,000, the Hornets are the only franchise with a winning record. The Hornets averaged 17,830 while playing most of their home games in Oklahoma City the past two seasons. If attendance doesn't improve, suitors from Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, and Kansas City, Mo., may drool about the possibility of bringing the new Western Conference power to their city.
When asked if he could calm fears that the Hornets might move, NBA commissioner David Stern told The Times-Picayune he "did not want to make false promises."
Shinn maintains he wants to stay in New Orleans and might negotiate a deal with the state to stay if the Hornets fall shy of attendance expectations.
"My wife and I talked about it. We prayed and we came back to New Orleans," Shinn said. "People said we were stupid. But it was the right thing to do. At this point, we put it in God's hands. I'm not trying to play the religious card here. But we are going to put it in God's hands.
"I believe in my coaches, players, and employees. It will get better and better."
Tainted history
If it doesn't work for the Hornets, it won't be the first time pro basketball has failed in New Orleans.The New Orleans Buccaneers of the American Basketball Association were here for three seasons from 1967-70 before poor attendance, arena issues, and financial problems led to a move to Memphis. During the 1974-75 season, the NBA's Jazz began playing in New Orleans. With ex-Louisiana State University star Pete Maravich on the roster, the Jazz were a perennial loser and never averaged more than 2,600 season ticket-holders. In 1979, the Jazz moved to Salt Lake City because of low ticket sales and problems securing dates in the Superdome.
"There were a lot of great memories with 'Pistol Pete,' " then-Jazz public relations director David Fredman said. "We had some great nights. We put over 25,000 people in the Superdome for a couple of games. The core group of fans was terrific, so it was sad from that standpoint. But there just weren't enough of them."
The NFL's Saints have made New Orleans their home since 1967 and have had mostly lean years. Even so, the Saints have had a strong following not only in New Orleans, but the Gulf Coast region for years. Tulane, Louisiana State, Grambling, and Southern football have also enjoyed strong followings in New Orleans. With the exception of occasional NBA exhibition games, pro basketball was nonexistent for nearly 25 years here.
The New Orleans-area has sent numerous players to the NBA in recent years, including Pack, Avery Johnson, Eldridge Recasner, Kerry Kittles, Jaren Jackson, Randy Livingston, Donald Royal, Chris Duhon, and Danny Granger. But the Saints and college and high school football rule here. Even in the post-Katrina era, the Saints averaged 70,004 fans despite a 7-9 record last season.
"People will sleep on the streets and use their last money to go to a Saints game," said 59-year old Gale Armant, a lifelong resident.
Said Shinn, "I've accepted the fact that in this part of the country, football is king. This community hasn't been excited about the round ball. We're new. The Saints have been here for 40-plus years. We are hoping to become a New Orleans team, also."
Calm before the storm
The Hornets moved to New Orleans from Charlotte in 2002 and made the playoffs in their first season. With Baron Davis, P.J. Brown, and Jamal Mashburn at that time, there was optimism about pro basketball working in New Orleans."I supported the move for the Hornets to go there," said Johnson, now coach of the Dallas Mavericks. "I was a part of that deal. That was pre-Katrina. It's tough now."
During the 2004-05 season, the Hornets averaged an NBA-worst 14,221, owned a league-worst 18-64 record, and Davis, their star guard, forced a trade to Golden State. Not long after that, Katrina hit and not only did many of the New Orleans-area residents leave, but the Hornets had a hard time contacting most of its small season ticket base.
"It's going to take some work," said Davis, who still owns a recently rebuilt home here. "I hope it does. But it's definitely going to take some work, especially with the city needing to rebuild. That's first and foremost. We need to get that city back up and running the way it was and even better than it was before.
"There are a lot of issues that we need to address before we even talk about sports. Sports are one of those things that bring people together."
The Hornets' marketing has been questioned. But one major draw is having the NBA's lowest ticket prices at an average of $24.58. The average NBA ticket price is $48.83. The average Celtics ticket is $65.43. Hornets fan Guy Narcisse, a Saints season ticket-holder, bought a 10-game package for his family of four for $400.
"You can't beat it. It's the best in the league," Narcisse, 43, said. "Really, a person making $30,000 a year can afford a 10-game package or go to individual games throughout the year. I don't think it's a lack of advertisement. But the couple of years after Katrina hit, we didn't have them here and they weren't good before."
Seeing is believing
Narcisse lives in Slidell, a suburb 30 miles north of the city. But while Hornets games can be seen in New Orleans, the nearby West Bank, and in Baton Rouge, a cable dispute has kept their games from being shown in the Northshore, which had a population estimated around 264,000 two years ago. And unlike the Saints, the Hornets are not televised throughout the Gulf Coast.A court order forced the Hornets' last three games before All-Star Weekend to be shown on cable in St. Tammany Parish. The Hornets hope the cable dispute will be resolved soon and the increased exposure will increase attendance and interest.
"The game came on the other night and we were just chomping at the bit," Cynthia Logan of Slidell said. "We were so excited about it. We get to see the Hornets and we will go to a game soon."
"It's a temporary resolution that will be permanent," said Shinn. "It's very important."
The potential for the Hornets staying in New Orleans seems to be getting better by the day for several reasons.
Opting out of the lease would reportedly cost Shinn $100 million, with about $30 million going to relocation fees, penalties, and reimbursements of past inducements by the state. He would also have to pay back new minority owner Gary Chouest, who bought 25 percent of the Hornets for $62 million last July.
"I'm very bullish that it will work here," Shinn said. "I'm very bullish about New Orleans. I want it to work here."
Growing interest
The Times-Picayune reported yesterday the Hornets averaged 15,150 fans during its last five games, including a sold-out contest against the lowly Grizzlies. The hot Hornets still have potential sell-outs against Boston, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and the Lakers in the final 16 home games. And with All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, the interest in Hornets basketball will surely grow."It's up to us to make the fans want to come out," said star Hornets point guard Chris Paul. "They've been coming out supporting us. As long as we continue to play hard and continue to be successful, they'll continue to come out. I think the buzz will get bigger and bigger."
"Their team is the best team in the Western Conference and there are some attendance issues because it's kind of hard to ask somebody to fork up a couple hundred backs to go to a game when they're living in a trailer," said Johnson. "We understand and we're real sensitive to that. But we were all for the team moving there, we're all for the team staying there, and we hope in some kind of way that it can work in the long run."
Time will tell. But maybe in time, Pack will stand in front of a new house that replaced his old one on Alabo Street on the night of a sold-out Hornets game.
"You really don't know where the Hornets would be now without Katrina," Pack said.
Marc J. Spears can be reached at mspears@globe.com.
