The Jazz name will stay in Utah

King David has laid down the law once again. NBA commissioner David Stern says that the Jazz nickname will remain in Utah. The team nickname was inherited when the New Orleans Jazz moved to Salt Lake City back in 1979.

New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson is set to take over ownership of the New Orleans Hornets, a nickname that came with the team when it moved from Charlotte and said that he would like to pursue getting the Jazz name back in New Orleans.

“We need to find a name like (Jazz),” Benson said, referring to New Orleans first NBA team that relocated to Salt Lake City in 1979. “Whether we can get that or let us use that, you’ve got to know we’re working on it. We’d like to change it tomorrow. We have not gotten that approved, but we’re not letting up on it, either. Because we’ve got a good relationship with the commissioner and his people and we’re going to be on them daily to do something.”

"I'm going to ask all of you to help me with this, too," Benson said. "We want to change the name from Hornets . . . . to something that means New Orleans and Louisiana. The 'Hornets' doesn't mean anything.' "

Stern squashed the whole idea today at a press conference for the 2014 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans.

“It belongs to Utah,” Stern said. “I wouldn’t make it such an important point. There are many things that are indigenous to the area. I’m sure there will be some wonderful nicknames (suggestions).”


The ideal thing would be for the two teams to swap nicknames, since Utah is the Beehive State and New Orleans is closely associated with jazz music. It sounds logical but it won't happen so be prepared to hear about the nickname contest after Benson gets approved as owner.

Gordon, Kaman Not Pleased With The Clippers

It looked like the Los Angeles Clippers had finally shed their image of being a cheap organization when they made the trade for Chris Paul. It was a big moment for the team and maybe a moment where the Clippers can finally sit at the big boy table.

Former Clippers Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman weren't too thrilled about the turn of events. They're happy to be members of the New Orleans Hornets, but felt they were misled by team management.


“All you do is take the man’s word and take that he said that no one is going to go anywhere,” Gordon told Yahoo! Sports. “… To completely lie like that is something unprofessional.”


Strong words calling a man a liar. But since there's more to the story which consists of two sides we'll keep going. Since it is the Clippers we're talking about, Gordon might not be too far off base.

“I’m not deceptive enough to look players in the eye and tell them something that is not true,”general manager Neil Olshey said. “And I can tell you from an ownership level, the president of our company, myself, we made a corporate decision Monday morning that when the deal didn’t go through on Sunday night we would no longer pursue the trade. And that’s when we notified our players, to get the elephant out of the room during our abbreviated training camp.”    


Gordon and Kaman felt deceived since Olshey and head coach Vinny Del Negro held a team meeting pledging to move forward after the initial Paul trade was rejected.

I can see how Gordon could've felt that he was deceived since Olshey and Del Negro pretty much said everything was going to remain status quo.

Said Gordon: “They literally told me as an organization that they wanted to keep me, and [the trade still] went down?”

Kaman found out the details through his real estate agent's son.

“He said, ‘Hey, you got traded.’ I was like, ‘C’mon,’ ” Kaman said. “Then everyone started talking to me like, ‘Hey, what happened?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ Then my agent wasn’t calling me. I couldn’t get ahold of him. Then Farouq talked to his agent and said it was done.

“The Clippers didn’t tell me anything. They didn’t tell me I was traded or nothing after eight years. They didn’t have the guts to come tell me they traded me.”  

I would like to say I feel sorry for them but I don't. They know the NBA is all about business. As difficult as it  is to defend the Clippers on any front, they were offered a good deal and took it. You can't blame them for that. Both seem happy with the trade and Kaman took a jab at the Clippers.

“They’re very professional,” Kaman said. “I’m not used to that. No, serious. It was an adjustment. After eight years [with the Clippers], I didn’t know it could be like this. I wasn’t used to it. The way they handle business … they’re up front with you and they tell you what’s going on and what’s going to happen.”  

Better than the way Donald Sterling has his puppets handling business. 

Chris Paul Should Sharpen Up His Skills

The New Orleans Hornets Chris Paul should be the subject of ridicule among is Western Conference teammates after his embarassing moment in the Skills Competition. Paul came out and blew a layup right from the jump. I bet little Abigail was thinking she drew Stephen Curry in this contest.



It's not like he blows wide open layups everyday, but as you can see from all the laughs on the sideline Paul will never hear the last of that one.

Hornets fire Byron Scott

The New Orleans Hornets fired head coach Byron Scott today.General manager Jeff Bower will take over in the interim.In my opinion Scott is getting a raw deal.After losing to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2008 Western Conference semifinals in seven games the Hornets have kinda hit the skids.They were a playoff team last season,but inflated expectations,injuries,and payroll slashing all things that were beyond Scott's control did in the Hornets. They traded Tyson Chandler for Emeka Okafor,and last season they traded him for basically a bag of basketballs. I knew this would happen because every time i came across a Hornets game on tv they were down by 20. New Orleans isn't a bad team,they're just playing bad.Scott deserves to coach to at least the All Star break to see if he is the man to lead them. I foresee some payroll dumping and some major pouting by Chris Paul to get out of town.This team is going nowhere fast,but i could be wrong.