Are we really going to have to do this again? Take my advice, Kobe and do some research on the Pelicans. Besides, who are you to say that Pelicans are not scary, your team name is Lakers for God's sake. What the hell is that? LA doesn't even have lakes. And if there were any, Pelicans would live there and do things like this.
Yea, keep laughing. Pelicans are totally not frightening and incapable of eating snakes. Oh, wait they have actually been known to eat snakes, and also happen to be a protective symbol against snakes in Ancient Egypt. What do you say now, Black Mamba.
I can't blame Coach Kevin McHale, for his reaction. Anyone would react this way upon learning about the name change. Sure, you can make your jokes now, but when a Pelican walks up to you, there is only a 1% chance where you won't immediately soil yourself. If not, you will after learning a few things about these diabolical aquatic birds. Pelicans are hyper-carnivores, which means they don't eat anything that doesn't bleed. Imagine if you were stuck inside the pouch of that gigantic beak. Fighting aimlessly to get out of the bird's mouth, knowing that your time on Planet Earth is up. And then somehow, slowly swallowed into their body. This would have been your fate (video).
I won't be be surprised at all if you haven't already added a little brown to your pants. It is only natural.
About a month ago, the New Orleans Hornets under new management have decided to change their nickname from the Hornets to the Pelicans. As you all know, or if you have just started to follow the blog, I am on Team Pelican and is fully supportive of the change. I was persuaded of the mascot opportunities and countless of YouTube videos that featured these vicious aquatic birds, which I strongly recommend you to check out before criticizing the name. You will be surprised.
The logo itself turned out pretty well, while I prefer their current unique color scheme of Creole Blue, Dark Purple. Mardi Gras Gold and White. The Blue, Red and Gold is alright, but it has already been done by the Cleveland Cavaliers, so that's a little disappointing. Here are the alternate logos and their descriptions.
This is some information on the colors chosen:
Okay, I get the why they chose blue and gold, but what is up with description of red. "It also represents the legend of the mother pelican pricking her own breast to feed her young in times of need, doing whatever it takes to endure." What is this? Did they run out of ideas and decided to watch a pelican feature on Animal Planet? We don't need to know that. Gross.
Wild Bucks: Brandon Jennings and Ersan Illyasova combined for 57 of Milwaukee's total 110 points in the victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. Jennings had a game high 30 points on 9 of 20 shooting, 8 assists and 3 steals. While Illyasova did a little bit of everything, getting 27 points (10 of 14 from the field, 3 of 3 from the three), 14 rebounds, and 4 steals in only 26 minutes of play.
Return of the Point: After sitting out three games for the Los Angeles Clippers, Chris Paul returned with 22 points (6 of 16), 4 rebounds and 11 assists against the also recently healthy John Wall led Wizards. In 31 minutes of play, John Wall came off the bench for a game-high 24 points (7 of 16), 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in the second loss for Washington since John Wall's return.
Golden Back Court: Three guards of the Warriors scored at least 20 points last night against the New Orleans Hornets. Stephen Curry had 20 points, 7 assists and 4 steals. Klay Thompson got 29 points on 11 of 16 shooting, he scored 24 of those points in the first half on a perfect 4 of 4 from the three. Jarrett Jack came off the bench to drop 25 points (7 of 13) and 12 assists to snap their 3 game losing streak.
Rookie Watch: Anthony Davis got 20 points on 9 of 12 shooting, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and a lawsuit for the elder abuse of Richard Jefferson in the loss to the Golden State Warriors. It is seriously unfair to go against all of that length.
Grit N' Grind Basketball: When a team has a game against the Memphis Grizzles or Chicago Bulls, you can expect things to get ugly. So it is only natural for things to get hideous, when they play against each other. Despite the game going into overtime, the score was 85 to 82 for the Grizzlies. The Bulls only had 40 points midway through the 3rd quarter, watching this game would be equivalent of dragging your eyes across pit full of sand. Marc Gasol had a great game going off for 19 points on 7 of 10 shots and 8 rebounds. For the Bulls, sophomore Jimmy Butler stepped up in place of the injured Luol Deng to finish with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
Minnesota HINDEREDwolves: Without Kevin Love, Alexey Shved, Nikola Pekovic and Dante Cunningham, the Timberwolves took on the high octane offense of the Houston Rockets and somehow survived with the win. Andrei Kirilenko led the way with 21 points (8 of 11), 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals. In seek of personnel in an injury riddled roster, Minnesota picked up Chris Tyler from the Santa Cruz Warriors of the D-League. In his first appearance for the Twin City, he was 4 for 4 from the field for 15 points and 6 rebounds. It might be a wise to give him an extension on his current 10 day contract.
Highlights Needle Threaded: Bouncing the basketball pass 5 defenders to your teammate for a wide open lay up doesn't usually happen, but when it does, it is on the Bobcats.
Time Travel: What is this? Are we back in 2005? Yesterday, we had Vince Carter actually dunking on Serge Ibaka without snapping his knees on the landing and now we have Richard Jefferson doing the impossible. Bionic limbs can do wonders.
The New Orleans Hornets decided against the traditional Christmas Carol, which sucks for my NBA Christmas Carol Power Rankings, but they did something more creative. They read a children's book written in Cajun-English (dervied from Southern Louisiana, totally wiki'd that) and the results were hilarious. As you would have guessed, everyone failed to pronounce the words, except for Jason Smith. He nailed it.
Anil V. George, the attorney who typically handles the
trademarks involving NBA brand names, filed trademarks on five new
potential franchise names on behalf of the New Orleans Hornets NBA
Limited Partnership…
The trademarks:
New Orleans Pelicans
New Orleans Rougarou
New Orleans Mosquitoes
New Orleans Swamp Dogs
New Orleans Bull sharks
I have watched too many hours of Pelican attacks on YouTube for another name change. These birds diabolical evil masterminds with wings. Mosquitoes are completely unacceptable when you have professional fly swatting uni-brow man on the team. Swamp Dogs are nicknames for Alligators, but these reptiles are way too played out. You don't need to keep the Bull in the Shark, so that is a no. The only thing that is really cool about Rougarou, other than the chances of it being mispronounced is that, it is a beast from Louisiana folklore, a monster from oral traditions that varies from a werewolf-like blood-seeking beast to a boogeyman. No matter how cool that sounds, I am staying on #TeamPelican and you cannot convince me other wise.
Jose Calderon gets his second career triple double, 18 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists in the victory over the Houston Rockets. The Raptors are on a 2 game winning streak after losing 6 games in a row. Watch out NBA world!
Boards: J.J. Hickson of the Portland Trail Blazers had 16 rebounds (8 Offensive) and 24 points (10 of 14 shooting) in a spectacular win over the New Orleans Hornets.
5x5: Nicholas Batum joins a short list of players that have accomplished a 5x5, a feat that requires at least 5 in each of the 5 "Good" statistics. His 11 points, 5 rebounds, 10 assists, 5 steals and 5 blocks makes him the 8th player since 86'-87' to ever do so.
Rookie Watch: In the first battle between the ROY candidates, Anthony Davis outperformed Damian Lillard with an efficient 15 points (5 of 10) and 5 rebounds off the bench. But it didn't matter because the Hornets lost and Damian who had 16 points (5 of 14), scored the game winning basket.
Time Machine User: Kobe Bryant became the 3rd player in NBA history to score at least 30 points in 5 straight games over the age of 34, with his 34 points (12 of 21), 4 rebounds and 6 assist performance that defeated the Philadelphia 76ers.
Athletic Reptiles: Again, Raptor shooting guards are drafted only based on dunking ability.
What Bust?: Kwame Brown lets the Los Angeles Lakers know what they have been missing.
What a weird day in the NBA, the best players were the losers last night. This whole week of NBA hasn't been great, not a lot of two +0.500 team playing each other (except for Thunder vs. Nets). And even though we get the Knicks against the Heat today, Melo might be out with an injury. Boo.
Boards: Tyson Chandler dethrones Anderson Varejao from his usual honor with 17 rebounds, 18 points (8 of 10 from the field) and the win over the Charlotte Bobcats Hornets.
On the other hand, Andy tied Kevin Love for the 10th straight game with 15 or more rebounds, which is the longest streak in the last 10 years.
Dishin': Kyle Lowry is the best Raptors point guard of all time, 34 points, 11 assists and 5 rebounds in the loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Mr. Perfect: Ty Lawson went 5 for 5 from behind to arc to finish with 32 points, 7 assists and 5 steals in the loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Rookie Watch: Why do I even bother to do this when Damian Lillard is playing, just another 23 points to go with his 3 rebounds and 6 assists in the loss to the Indiana Pacers.
Join the Club: Kobe Bryant (29 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals) becomes the youngest player to join the 30,000 point club, ironically he did it against the team that drafted him. Boy, are the Hornets Pelicans sad.
Bro Love: Stop it, not in front of the cameradawg. (Via: @cjzero)
Lob City: If you missed the Mavs and Clippers game, you missed a real life 48 minutes of NBA JAM.
In with the New: New Clipper greets the Old Clipper.
Chub Flub: Fatty Lamar Odom blows a lay up in the worst way. He must still feel like he is in debt to the Dallas Mavericks.
Gross: Carmelo's finger must have spewing bloof out of his finger for a veteran like Jason Kidd to react in this manner. (Via: @cjzero)
Not in my house: The Bobcats don't like it when you get too close to their basket. Commence the finger wag.
#STARER: J.R. Smith stood by his hash tag, and stared at nothing for a really long time after hitting the game winner.
SHEEEEEDDDD: It takes alot of effort for Kurt Thomas to get up, so if he did, he is either getting his 5 minutes of playing time, or really excited for something. Too bad that's not how Sheed feels, your step back fade away to win the game does not impress a man of his standards. (Via:@johnschuhmann)
Foot Note: I know I am a little bit behind on the games, but the Clipper vs. Jazz should be up in a few hours. The Thunder vs. Nets game will also be up a bit later. The games last night were horrible, besides the Knicks and Bobcats game, nothing else deemed entertaining. There weren't anything note worthy, so I decided to summarize it in the following paragraph.
Charlotte's sole strategy was to double Melo, and force a lot of New York three pointers. It worked, NY shot 42 percent from the field (31 percent from three). The game got even closer when Melo left the game with a lacerated finger thanks to Chris Copeland for not catching his team's superstar (With or without Melo, you are not going to see more playing time. In fact, you only get playing time because of Melo are killing other teams, sucks for you). With 5 seconds left, tied up at 98, the Bobcats turned the ball over (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) and J.R. Smith hit the game winner.
The New Orleans Hornets have confirmed that they will be switching their name to Pelicans for the next season. Have no fear my fellow mortals, I know your knees are trembling right now at the thought of a large water bird swooping you into it's mouth. At least it is as bad as it sounds, I mean being kept into a throat pouch, separated from your loved ones until you become mentally insane and slowly wait for the day the Pelican chews you up into pieces can't be that bad. No wait, it would be the worst. Not sure if you can get any respect in the afterlife, telling people you got killed by a Pelican.
Seriously though, a Pelican could turn out way better than you can imagine. Think about the mascot opportunities, remember when that blow up Raptor swallowed a cheerleader, a Pelican version will take it to a whole new level (ALL THE CHEERLEADERS). If you are not into that, maybe the incredible amount of Anthony Davis's unibrow X pelican .gif opportunities may change your mind. Whether you like it or not, this will go down as one of the most joked about NBA news, and history will be made on Twitter.
Oh man, I am so glad Sheed is back in the league. Without out him, the game just isn't same, the art of trash talk is nearly extinct. At least we don't have to worry about it for now, because we still have the Professor, maybe he can instill some of his skills into his fellow teammates. I am kind of surprised nobody laughed at the old guy on the court just yelling anything he can think of, I can't even stop watching this without cracking up. I guess Doc Rivers never warned his son about Sheed, you can never miss the first free throw from a foul by the man with a hole in the middle of his hair, otherwise these amazing moments in the NBA happens, and I, thank you.
Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points, grabbed 6 boards and dished out 4 dimes in 28 minutes for the New York Knicks and it was more than enough to beat the young New Orleans Hornets.
Board Monster: Dwight Howard swatted away 4 shots to go with his 23 points (8 of 11 shooting), 15 rebounds, and 3 assists in the win over the Brooklyn Nets.
Dishin': Jose Calderon and Jrue Holiday got doubles doubles against each other, getting 12 assists for their respective teams.
Thief: Gerald Wallace stole the ball away from the Lakers 5 times. This achievement made him the 4th Nets player since 86' to get 5 steals and 3 blocks in a game. Lame fact (Via: @Nets_PR)
Rookie Watch: Jonas Valaciunas is pretty good, 11 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks in 25 minutes for the Raptors.
Time Machine User: Which is from now on AKA Kobe Bryant watch. The Mamba finished with 25 points (8 of 15 shooting), 5 assists, and pairs of clutch free throws to seal the victory.
Defense: Andray Blatche is not very good at it, but he found a creative way to bother the shooter. (Via: @talkhoops)
An Actual Block Party: Dwight Howard sends the shot of the man he was suppose to play with into the first row and dances to celebrate.
Disrespect: Metta World Peace knocks down a three and rubs the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, Avery Johnson's head on the way back to defense. If you did that to Chris Paul, MWP would have been left with two broken arms. (Via: @cjzero)
Skates: Deron Williams just toying with Darius Morris. (Via: @cjzero)
Unstoppable: Carmelo Anthony scored 19 points in the first quarter against the New Orleans Hornets. His teammates only combined for 10.
Fatty orders in threes: Raymond Felton scored 15 points, all of which were in form of threes. He went 5 of 6 from behind the arc.
Head Band: Jason Kidd head band watch is way more entertaining than Dwight Howard's.(Via:@jose3030)
Highlight of the Night: Just Nick Young hitting a ridiculously difficult shot. We all know he would still take the exact same shot regardless of the shot clock situation. Not a bad day for the gunner, as he scored 32 points on the Toronto Raptors.
