Oklahoma City – Streamers dropped from the ceiling during Oklahoma’s inaugural NBA celebration. Most of the sellout crowd of 19,163 that stuck around at the Ford Center on Tuesday night gave a standing ovation once the buzzer sounded.
New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets president Willis Reed grabbed the microphone and asked, “How about that game, fans?”
After being displaced by Hurricane Katrina, surely the Hornets miss their fans back home. But playing in front of a capacity crowd in the Hornets’ 93-67 blowout win over the Sacramento Kings made them feel at home as honorary if temporary Oklahomans.
“The response was overwhelming,” Hornets forward-center Chris Andersen said. “We had a packed house, sold out. … They’ve got our back down in New Orleans. But it feels great to have double the fans.”
The atmosphere in the Hornets’ Oklahoma regular-season debut was electric from the start.
Former NBA and Oklahoma basketball player Wayman Tisdale, now a jazz musician, played the national anthem on his guitar and former NBA greats Bill Walton and Artis Gilmore were in attendance. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett and Hornets owner George Shinn addressed the crowd before tipoff. Hornets and former Oklahoma State guard Desmond Mason got a loud reception and also addressed the crowd before the Hornets beat up on the Kings.
“When I was on the floor, I was up, down and around so much I forgot where I was. Not literally, but I had to think where I was,” said Shinn, who accepted a lucrative offer to bring his team to Oklahoma City. “Of course, I recovered. But it is a situation where we’ve been through a lot.”
In Louisiana, New Orleans native and die-hard Hornets fan Mike Allen had no reason to celebrate. Allen was a Hornets season ticket-holder all three seasons in New Orleans.
He relocated to Lafayette, La., after Katrina and had planned to drive to Oklahoma City for the opener. But those plans were canceled after he came to Denver last weekend to attend the funeral of his cousin, Judith Thomas Barrett, who relocated to Denver after Katrina.
“Not only am I not there, but my team is playing somewhere else,” Allen said. “Someone else is getting to enjoy opening night, and we’re sitting at home hoping maybe we can catch it on TV. If it weren’t for the trip to Denver, I would have made the drive.”
Shinn said the Hornets would decide in January whether to exercise an option to play in Oklahoma during the 2006-07 season. NBA commissioner David Stern is focused on the Hornets moving back to New Orleans.
“I’ve said it from Day One: Oklahoma City is a temporary, interim stop,” Stern told the media before the Nuggets-Spurs game in San Antonio on Tuesday night. “The team is going back to New Orleans. Now, I couldn’t tell you exactly how that’s going to work.”
Shinn is taking a more guarded approach.
“We’ve got an option in our deal that says we can stay an extra year and if we have to, we will,” he said.
The Hornets have 35 home games scheduled in Oklahoma City and six in Baton Rouge, La. Stern said there is a possibility the Hornets could move three Baton Rouge games to New Orleans Arena in March.
“If the arena is ready and there are fans to come together, then there’s some possibility,” Stern said.
A hopeful Allen said: “I’ll be there. I represent more than just me when I say having a game in New Orleans will show the people loyalty and show the fans they are still with us.”
Staff writer Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-820-5449 or mspears@denverpost.com.
