The New Orleans Pelicans have yet to play a game under their new moniker, which was put in place after the 2012-13 season. The team began play in 1988 as the Charlotte Hornets, joining the NBA as part of a two-year, four-team expansion in the late 1980s.
The Hornets joined the league the same year as the Miami Heat, with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic coming on board a year later. It wasn’t Charlotte’s first foray into professional basketball; the city was the primary home of the ABA’s Carolina Cougars in the 1970s.
The team was originally to be called the Charlotte Spirit, but was renamed after local fans objected. The “Hornet” name has a long history in Charlotte, dating back to the days of the Revolutionary War when British General Charles Cornwallis referred to the city as a “veritable hornet’s nest of rebellion” after facing strong resistance from its citizens during England’s southern campaign in 1780.
Owner George Shinn became a controversial figure in Charlotte after facing a sexual assault charge brought by Charlotte woman in 1998. Shinn was eventually acquitted, but attendance at the Charlotte Coliseum suffered and Shinn uprooted the team to New Orleans in 2002.
It was the third go-around in professional basketball for the Big Easy. The ABA’s Buccaneers played in New Orleans for the first two years of that league’s existence and the NBA had granted the city an expansion team, the Jazz, in 1974. That team moved to Salt Lake City and became one of the great oxymorons in American sports when it called itself the Utah Jazz.
Before the start of training camp in 2005, the Hornets faced a dilemma. Their home, the New Orleans Arena, had been badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina and needed extensive repair. The Hornets moved temporarily to Oklahoma City that fall and played as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, returning to their repaired arena to start 2007-08.
Shinn tried to sell the team upon its return to New Orleans, but was unsuccessful and the NBA—in an unprecedented move—purchased the team for $300 million in December 2010. The team remained under league ownership until April 2012, when New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson purchased the team.
Under new management, the team decided an identity change was necessary, leading to the rebranding of the team as the New Orleans Pelicans in the spring of 2013. The name has a long history in the city. Not only is the pelican the state bird of Louisiana, but the New Orleans Pelicans operated as a minor league baseball team from 1887-1959 and was briefly resurrected in 1997.
Success on the court was fleeting for the Hornets; in 25 seasons, the team has qualified for the playoffs only 12 times and has never advanced beyond the second round. It’s longest sustained run was a string of five consecutive postseason berths from 1999-2000 through 2003-04. The franchise set a record in 2007-08, winning 56 games, but lost a Game 7 at home to the San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals. That year, New Orleans won the Southwest Division title, the only division championship in franchise history. The last time the team reached the playoffs was 2010-11.
So who are the best players by position in the history of the New Orleans Pelicans franchise?
NOTE: Players must have appeared in 250 regular-season games with the franchise to be considered for this list.
Rasual Butler (45) played four seasons for the Hornets in Oklahoma City and New Orleans after coming over in a five-team trade from the Miami Heat in 2005. (Flickr.com/Keith Allison)
Small Forward: Rasual Butler (2005-09)
Rasual Butler was an incredibly easy choice here—he is the only small forward in franchise history who reached the 250-game plateau with the team. He was a full-time starter for only one of his four seasons with the team, two in Oklahoma City and two when the team returned to New Orleans.
Butler averaged 9.1 points per game with the Hornets in 25.9 minutes per game and shot 37.4 percent from 3-point range. He came to the Hornets as part of a massive five-team trade in August 2005 that brought Butler from the Miami Heat and Kirk Snyder from the Utah Jazz to the Hornets and sent Roberto Duenas to the Heat.
Butler is sixth on the franchise’s list for 3-pointers with 410 and his 7.1 turnover percentage is the second lowest in franchise history.
He had some moments as a member of the Hornets, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for a win over the Sacramento Kings in 2009:
Butler was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers with cash for a 2016 second-round draft pick in August 2009 and has been out of the league since being waived by the Toronto Raptors in March 2012.
Apologies to: No one.
David West, shown wearing a throwback ABA New Orleans Buccaneers’ uniform, was a two-time All-Star with the New Orleans Hornets. (Zander St. Pierre/Wikimedia Commons)
Power Forward: David West (2003-11)
The Hornets took West out of Xavier with the 18th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft after he has been named the Associated Press Player of the Year for the Musketeers and after a couple of years to adjust to the NBA, West didn’t disappoint.
He was a two-time All-Star for the Hornets and topped the 20-point per game mark in both 2007-08 and again in 2008-09. In eight years for the team in both New Orleans and Oklahoma City, West averaged 16.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game while shooting 49 percent from the floor and a nifty 83.9 percent from the free-throw line.
West is second in franchise history with 8,690 points and is also second with 3,853 rebounds, third with 530 games and 435 blocked shots, seventh with 16.4 points per game average, eighth with 396 steals and 10th with a 49 percent field-goal mark, 83.9 free-throw percentage and 7.3 rebounds per game average.
One of West’s best games as a Hornet was a 40-point explosion against the Orlando Magic in 2010:
West left the Hornets in December 2011 when he signed as a free agent with the Indiana Pacers.
Apologies to: P.J. Brown, Larry Johnson, Kenny Gattison.
Center: Elden Campbell (1999-2003)
Elden Campbell came to Charlotte as a piece in one of the more significant trades of the 1990s, a deal that sent Campbell and Eddie Jones from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Hornets for Glen Rice, J.R. Reid and B.J. Armstrong in March 1999.
Campbell manned the front court for the team’s last three full seasons in Charlotte before taking on a reserve role after the Hornets moved to New Orleans. In parts of five seasons, Campbell averaged 12.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
Campbell is second in franchise history with 515 blocked shots and also ranks third with 1.7 blocks per game and eighth with 2,171 rebounds. Additionally, his defensive rating of 98.6 is second-best in team history.
His 96.0 defensive rating in 2000-01 is the best single-season mark in club history.
Upon moving to the Big Easy, the team used Campbell as a primary marketing figure, including in this 2003 American Express commercial he filmed with teammate Jamal Mashburn:
Campbell was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics for Kenny Anderson in February 2003.
Apologies to: Jamaal Magloire, J.R. Reid.
Shooting Guard: David Wesley (1997-2004)
David Wesley had emerged as a legitimate NBA starter with the Boston Celtics when he signed a free-agent deal with Charlotte in July 1997 and he was a steady performer in two cities for the Hornets over seven-plus seasons.
Wesley averaged 14.7 points and 4.7 assists as a Hornets and was a solid performer at playoff time, averaging 13.3 points in 45 career postseason games.
Wesley is the second-leading 3-point shooter in franchise history with 644 and is also third with 766 steals; fourth with 7,670 points, 2,446 assists and 522 games; and seventh with 4.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
Here are some of Wesley’s highlights:
Wesley was traded to the Houston Rockets in December 2004 for Jim Jackson and Bostjan Nachbar.
Apologies to: Dell Curry, Kendall Gill.
Chris Paul (3) was a three-time All-NBA selection while playing for the New Orleans and New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets and was also named Rookie of the Year in 2005-06. (Flickr.com/Eric Kilby)
Point Guard: Chris Paul (2005-11)
The Hornets hit a home run with the fourth overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft when they took Wake Forest standout Chris Paul.
Paul was the 2005-06 Rookie of the Year for New Orleans/Oklahoma City and was a four-time All-Star as a Hornet. He was named to three All-NBA teams, including first-team honors in 2007-08, and was also a three-time selection for the All-Defensive team, including a first-team nod in 2008-09.
Paul led the NBA in assists twice as a Hornet (2007-08 and 2008-09) and was a three-time leader in steals. In six seasons, Paul averaged 18.7 points, 9.9 assists and 2.5 steals per game.
Paul is second all-time for the franchise with 4,228 assists and is the franchise leader with 9.9 helpers per game. He is also second with 1,010 steals and 2.4 steals per game, third with 7,936 points, fifth with an 85.3 percent free-throw mark, sixth with 18.7 points per game and 425 games, seventh with 379 3-pointers and 10th with 1,951 rebounds. His 25.2 player efficiency rating is the best in franchise history, as is his 46.6 assist percentage.
Paul holds single-season franchise marks with 925 assists, 11.6 assists per game and 217 steals in 2007-08 and a 30.0 PER and 54.5 assist percentage in 2008-09. His 124.7 offensive rating in 2007-08 is also the best ever recorded by a player with the franchise.
Here are some of Paul’s highlights as a Hornet:
Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in December 2011, but the three-team deal that also included the Houston Rockets was voided by NBA commissioner David Stern. Within a couple of days, Paul was dealt again, this time with two second-round picks in 2015 to the Los Angeles Clippers for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu and a first-round pick in 2012, who became Austin Rivers.
Apologies to: Muggsy Bogues, Baron Davis.