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New Orleans Hornets owner speaks up


Cybear

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"I want you to understand I have a home here. I have a business here. I have great friends and family here. If my heart wasn't here, I wouldn't be frustrated," Shinn said.

Media quote : George's assurance to the people of New Orleans that he was just kidding when he suggested that the Hornets might be better off elsewhere.

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Believe me guys, everyone in New Orleans now see's why Shinn was so unpopular in Charlotte. Last month, he came to New Orleans saying that he was extremely unhappy with the progress being made, and didn't think the team had a bright future in New Orleans. But now, 4 weeks later after some ticket and sponsor deals were made with local businesses, he comes to New Orleans and suddenly everything is bright and rosy, and Shinn is now very impressed with all of the progress being made, and believes the team's future in New Orleans looks great. :rolleyes: And it has been like this for the last 10 months.

Personally, I'm very confident that the Hornets will be back in New Orleans in 2007, but it will be because David Stern and the NBA won't tolerate any other outcome from Shinn.

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Believe me guys, everyone in New Orleans now see's why Shinn was so unpopular in Charlotte. Last month, he came to New Orleans saying that he was extremely unhappy with the progress being made, and didn't think the team had a bright future in New Orleans. But now, 4 weeks later after some ticket and sponsor deals were made with local businesses, he comes to New Orleans and suddenly everything is bright and rosy, and Shinn is now very impressed with all of the progress being made, and believes the team's future in New Orleans looks great. :rolleyes: And it has been like this for the last 10 months.

Personally, I'm very confident that the Hornets will be back in New Orleans in 2007, but it will be because David Stern and the NBA won't tolerate any other outcome from Shinn.

Point well taken.

While we're on the subject of team migration, why don't we all get together and return rightful names to rightful former locations. I live in Salt Lake, so I'll graciously offer to return the name "Jazz" to New Orleans, especially since it has no connection to the Wasatch Front. Now if we can just return "Lakers" to Minnesota and "Hornets" to the Queen City...did I miss anyone?

Bobcats? Let's just quietly return that one to Bob and Mike.

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No one in Charlotte is surprised at the behavior of Shinn in New Orleans. He has no loyalty and will do anything as long as it helps him. As for pitying New Orleans...I won't do it. Back when it looked like the Hornets would move to NO, some people from that area (many) did nothing but bash Charlotte and act as though Shinn was simply walking away from a terrible market and choosing them instead. They proclaimed themselves a superior city in culture, history, style, etc. So, I say to them now...enjoy what you groveled for. And to Shinn I say, enjoy your new city in all its glory.

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Personally, I'm very confident that the Hornets will be back in New Orleans in 2007, but it will be because David Stern and the NBA won't tolerate any other outcome from Shinn.

As long as Shinn can milk the local and state govt. for money, he will stay. When that dries up he is gone.

The Hornets need a new owner who will stay loyal in the city in which they are located. There were people in Charlotte who wanted to buy the Hornets. All Shinn did was sell 1/2 to a Ray Woolridge and turn his back on Charlotte. Shinn is not a welcome person up in this part of the country. He cook the books on attendence

to make it look like no-one was going to the games here. He milked everything dry and moved on to NO.

He will find something wrong, that need more pulbic money, for him to stay in NO.

When he left Charlotte, it was the feeling poor NO is his next victim, how long will he stay there?

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I dunno. I think people are underestimating the influence of the NBA and the commissioner. It is all too familiar, and everyone knows that. At some point the NBA will step in and put a stop to what Shinn is doing. I mean, so he moves to OK, then where? Where does it end? That looks really, really bad for the NBA and all of the owners in general. I honestly don't think Shinn will be around in the NBA for too much longer at the rate he is going.

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As long as there are local governments willing to give away hundreds of millions in public money to these teams, often without the support of taxpayers, then people like Shinn are not going anywhere except to the next city willing to make the mistake that an NBA team is going make the city a better place. It doesn't.

I don't understand why people think the NBA is something more than a business whose only purpose is to make as much money as possible for its owners and players. I was very proud of the city of Charlotte for turning down Shinn's demands, but all of that vaporized when the city whored itself out to Bob Johnson as a replacement.

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See, I disagree. While I do agree that the NBA is a business like any other, I also believe in the invisible hand theory. The NBA is going to do what's in its best interest, and a guy like Shinn is not in their best interest in the long run. Bad publicity will kill a sport...look at what happened to the NHL after the strike. As long as Shinn is in New Orleans he will be around, but honestly if he tries to move again I just don't see a big future in the NBA for him.

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See, I disagree. While I do agree that the NBA is a business like any other, I also believe in the invisible hand theory. The NBA is going to do what's in its best interest, and a guy like Shinn is not in their best interest in the long run. Bad publicity will kill a sport...look at what happened to the NHL after the strike. As long as Shinn is in New Orleans he will be around, but honestly if he tries to move again I just don't see a big future in the NBA for him.

it's also not in the best interest for the NBA to have players that choke their coach or attack fans in the stands... but they seem to put up with that. i'm not defending george shinn but i also wouldn't defend the business virtues of the NBA.

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No one in Charlotte is surprised at the behavior of Shinn in New Orleans. He has no loyalty and will do anything as long as it helps him. As for pitying New Orleans...I won't do it. Back when it looked like the Hornets would move to NO, some people from that area (many) did nothing but bash Charlotte and act as though Shinn was simply walking away from a terrible market and choosing them instead. They proclaimed themselves a superior city in culture, history, style, etc. So, I say to them now...enjoy what you groveled for. And to Shinn I say, enjoy your new city in all its glory.

While I am very aware of the people you are referring to from New Orleans, in some ways, it did go both ways. We had quite a few people from Charlotte on local New Orleans forums badmouting and bashing the city after the Hornets left Charlotte. And while I also remember people proclaiming New Orleans a superior city in terms of culture and history, the majority of New Orleanians were very aware that those two features, while great for a city overall, have no affect on the city's ability to support an NBA franchise. Savannah, GA has all kinds of history and culture, but that doesn't mean that city will be the home of an NBA franchise any time soon. Like monsoon stated, the NBA is nothing more than a business, and the main focus of the league is purely to make money.

When the Hornets came to New Orleans, from a business standpoint, I didn't really understand the reasoning behind the decision. Shinn was moving the team from a growing city of 2 million people, to a city on the population decline with about 1.4 million people. And not to mention the fact that the state of North Carolina has all kinds of money in comparion with Louisiana. I was obviously happy that the Hornets were coming to my city, but New Orleans is a football town, always has been. There was a reason the Jazz left NOLA in 1979, and in terms of fan support for sports, things hadn't changed much in those 23 years without and NBA team. Of course now I see how easily Shinn could try to swoop into New Orleans for a few years, pick up a brand new arena and some money, and move right on to the next city. While I will say that when I heard about Shinn from people in Charlotte, I thought "well, I mean he can't be that bad." And the majority of New Orleanians like myself, who felt that way at the time, obviously see why he is hated in your area. The fact that he isn't thinking twice about toying with a city and fans that have truly lost everything in the last year allow his true colors to shine through, perhaps even more so than in Charlotte. I even felt good about Shinn for the three seasons he was here to be honest with you. And he was loved in New Orleans directly after Katrina, because he was pledging to do everything in his power to bring the Hornets back to NOLA, which at the time, was completely opposite from what Saints owner Tom Benson was trying to do. That of couse, was a long 10 months ago, and his public appeal has gone way down the tubes around here. He's actually already in a dispute with Oklahoma City right now over the money he believes the city owes him.

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When the Hornets came to New Orleans, from a business standpoint, I didn't really understand the reasoning behind the decision.

It is very clear to see why he moved the Hornets to NO, with the state guarenteeing to cover his losses, he had nothing to lose. There were many owners in the league who felt that the move did not make sense, esp. Mark Cuban who came on local radio several times and said he would never vote to allow the move. But it turned out that the vote was unanimous, the other owners made out like bandits with the $200 million relocation fee and the $300 million expansion fee for the Bobcats. All because Shinn felt $13 million was too much to pay toward the cost of the new arena.

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It is very clear to see why he moved the Hornets to NO, with the state guarenteeing to cover his losses, he had nothing to lose.

That is true, and I did forget about the benefits and "guarantees "that Louisiana was offering Shinn. At the time I was thinking more about the financial part of the move on the long term, which is an area where I thought Louisiana had many problems. The state wasn't exactly doing well with the "guaranteed" money it had promised the Saints, and that alone would be a red flag for an owner interested in investing in a city/state for the long term. But now I see that Shinn's only true interest is money, and he would have no problem trying to get out of any deal or lease, and making his relashionship with New Orleans and Louisiana a short one.

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Can we all just agree that a simple smile that ol' George is proving himself for who we all knew (in Charlotte) that he was. I never really liked NBA basketball much, but hated it by the end of his run here. No one knows how well the Hornets would have done here with a decent owner...no one will know how well they could do there. If the NBA really cared about their reputation or about their actual team, they would look at his track record and his reputation in whatever city he leaves a stain and would buy they guy out...

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Can we all just agree that a simple smile that ol' George is proving himself for who we all knew (in Charlotte) that he was. I never really liked NBA basketball much, but hated it by the end of his run here. No one knows how well the Hornets would have done here with a decent owner...no one will know how well they could do there. If the NBA really cared about their reputation or about their actual team, they would look at his track record and his reputation in whatever city he leaves a stain and would buy they guy out...

Ok. We're all in agreement that George is ethically challenged. Does anypone have an operative crystal ball that says what BJ will do here in Charlotte if the Bobcats continue to lose and continue to pull some of the worst attendance figures in the NBA?

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Yall don't mention that it was Wooldridge who really got the ball rolling for a move. With him gone (I believe) I think the process will take longer. Steve Martin (the former Hornets announcer and current Bobcats radio) says there is no way the Hornets will stay long term in NO.

Shinn says no to NO. Shinn ok with OK.

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Shinn has one thing in mind, it's money, it's himself. He knows how to manipulate an area and CLT just got fed up with it. New Orleans should learn from Charlotte's example, if he wants to leave, let him. As stated before, eventually the NBA will put its foot down; and hopefully that would happen before they actually moved. While OK deserves a team and showed their support for the Hornets in the wake of the hurricane, I can understand both cities

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As stated before, eventually the NBA will put its foot down; and hopefully that would happen before they actually moved.

It should be noted the NBA has come out on the side of Shinn everytime he has wanted to do something. It's not going to change as long as Shinn has a plan to make money.

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It should be noted the NBA has come out on the side of Shinn everytime he has wanted to do something. It's not going to change as long as Shinn has a plan to make money.

The NBA is ALWAYS going to come out on the side of the owners because forcing the sale of a team from an owner would have to be approved by a majority of all the other owners. None of them would ever go for it because they worry that then the same thing could be done to them. So that's a can of worms that will never be opened.

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