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New Orleans Pelicans Culture: A Katrina Evacuation and a Lesson Learned

By Nathan Heck

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I’m not going to lie to our readers. The New Orleans Hornets didn’t do anything to help me through Hurricane Katrina. If I said that Chris Paul represented some sort of beacon of inspiration for me in my troubled adolescence or that the team gave me some sort of emotional release in the midst of tragedy, it would be so entirely false that it can not be overstated.

Like thousands of others, I lost my home, my friends and family were scattered, and my life was forever changed in a way that will never be undone. I don’t want to use this piece to focus on the storm (there are plenty of other articles out there today, if that’s what you are looking for) or myself (my situation was not unique). Instead, I want to focus on something that seemed so insignificant to thirteen year-old me, but now, ten years later, is paramount in my understanding of the evolving New Orleans Pelicans culture.

Just a few days before my hometown, Meraux, Louisiana, was almost literally wiped off the map, my parents had us packing the car up. We were evacuating. Again.

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This time, we were headed to San Antonio, Texas. We left a little earlier than most folks, and I remember we took the Twin Span because my father was convinced the traffic on the Bonnet Carre Spillway would be a nightmare. Traffic wasn’t too bad, and I remember being really excited. After all, an evacuation had just been a mini-vacation every other time in my brief life, and I had a season pass to Six Flags.

I remember next to nothing about the ride, but I remember something very specific about the arrival. We stayed at a pretty standard hotel (I believe it was a La Quinta). In the window of the hotel office hung a San Antonio Spurs championship banner. Growing up in the New Orleans area, I thought that was a bit odd. Saints culture dominated New Orleans, not the Hornets. I asked my brother why that was hanging up in the window. After all, didn’t they have a football team?

My brother, who is nine years older than me, explained that San Antonio didn’t have a football team and that the city really supported the Spurs. Growing up in Louisiana, I thought that was silly. Sure, I thought basketball was cool. I had been to a few games and I played some NBA Live (mostly to play as Baron Davis), but it was entirely ridiculous for a city to support a basketball team like that, right? Wasn’t football the top sport for everyone?

I believe this mindset is the issue that has plagued the New Orleans franchise for most of its history. The Hornets always felt like a nice afterthought. It was fun to watch basketball every once in a while, but the Saints always were the main show.

After Katrina, that sentiment seemed only to intensify. The city rallied behind Drew Brees, Sean Payton, and the Saints, and while the Chris Paul led Hornets gained some attention, they always played second fiddle. The Saints organization came to represent the rebuild of the city, and the Hornet’s best seasons were overshadowed. Why was fan support so low?

The bias towards football in the Deep South is obvious, but the Hornets always felt like a borrowed team as well. That changed the moment Tom Benson bought the team. He made it clear that the franchise would become, like the Saints, a distinctly New Orleans team. With a branding that is uniquely New Orleans, a star that is proud to play for the city in Anthony Davis and a front office that learned from the best (The Spurs), the Pelicans are increasing in popularity daily. Everyone is picking up Pelicans gear, and the excitement for the upcoming season seems genuine.

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    • When we look across the state line at the astounding success of the Spurs franchise, we see a never-ending feedback loop. The overwhelming fan support is both a product and a cause of their continued success. Despite being a small market, the San Antonio franchise is extremely profitable and that has made the organization incredibly stable. This stability has allowed a culture of winning to take hold on the basketball side. The winning culture reinforces the fan support, and it constantly loops back upon itself.

    The Pelicans are well on their way to achieving this brand of stability. No longer is the team constantly hounded by questions of relocation or the impending departure of a star player. Fans are starting to truly invest in the team for the first time. A lot of the local talk surrounding Anthony Davis was not if he would leave but when. All of those voices have been quieted. The atmosphere in the Smoothie King Center improves with each passing game, and it feels like a new era has begun. The Pelicans can create the same atmosphere San Antonio has with help from the fans, and the fans are rising to the occasion.

    I learned ten years ago what a city that rallied behind a basketball franchise looked like, and today, ten years later,I’m able to watch another team, our team, follow in those footsteps.

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