New Orleans Pelicans

New Orleans Pelicans, American professional basketball team based in New Orleans that plays in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The Pelicans, founded in 1988, were originally located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and were known as the Hornets. Early teams featured fleet-footed 5-foot 3-inch (1.60-metre) point guard Muggsy Bogues and sharpshooter Dell Curry, but, like most expansion teams, they won few of their games. The team drafted forward Larry Johnson in 1991 and centre Alonzo Mourning in 1992, and the pair helped Charlotte to its first playoff appearance (and postseason series win) in the 1992–93 season. The Hornets went on to make the playoffs three additional times in the 1990s but never advanced past the second round.

In 1999–2000 the Hornets, behind the standout play of guard Baron Davis, began a stretch of five consecutive postseason appearances but again failed to progress any farther than one series win in a given year. Despite the team’s on-court success, the Hornets had game attendance numbers among the lowest in the league, in part due to the personal unpopularity of team owner George Shinn, who had lobbied for a new, more profitable, publicly funded arena soon after having had to defend himself on a sexual assault charge in a nationally televised civil trial (he was acquitted). Shinn moved the franchise to New Orleans in 2002 after his last bid for a new arena was rejected by Charlotte voters.

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After playing just three years in New Orleans, the Hornets were forced to temporarily relocate to Oklahoma City for the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons because of damage caused to their home arena by Hurricane Katrina. Upon their return to New Orleans for the 2007–08 season, the team—which was coming off of two consecutive fourth-place finishes—surprisingly posted a 56–26 record and won the first division title in franchise history. Led by budding-star point guard Chris Paul and forward David West, the Hornets advanced to the conference semifinals that season only to lose in seven games. In 2010 Shinn’s continuing financial difficulties forced him to sell the team, but because no viable purchaser could be found, the NBA bought the franchise. In 2011 the franchise traded Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers (after NBA commissioner David Stern controversially vetoed an earlier proposed trade of Paul to the powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers), and the Hornets were sold to Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints, in 2012. Looking to cement ties with its home city, the franchise changed its name from the Hornets (which was a reference to the “hornet’s nest” of American rebels in Charlotte during the American Revolution) to the Pelicans in 2013.

On the court, New Orleans took a major step toward contention when the team won the 2012 NBA draft lottery and selected forward-centre Anthony Davis with the first overall selection of the draft. Davis took the league by storm and led the team to a return to the playoffs in the 2014–15 season. After a first-round elimination in that postseason, the Pelicans struggled through an injury-riddled 2015–16, posting a 30–52 record. New Orleans rebounded in 2017–18, winning 48 games to qualify for the playoffs, where the team won its first postseason series of the Davis era before ultimately getting eliminated in the second round. During the 2018–19 season a frustrated Davis demanded a trade from New Orleans, noting that the team had failed to build a consistent winner around him over the course of his career. The off-court drama seemed to affect the team’s on-court play, as the Pelicans posted a 33–49 record.

In 2019 the Pelicans again landed the number one overall pick in the NBA draft, and the team chose Zion Williamson, a power forward from Duke. Shortly thereafter, New Orleans traded Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers. An explosive player, Williamson was expected to turn the team around. However, injuries drastically limited his playing time in his first four seasons with the Pelicans. He notably missed all of the 2021–22 season with a foot injury. The team still managed to make the playoffs that season, but it lost in the first round. Williamson returned in 2022–23, and New Orleans posted a winning record, 42–40, for the first time in four years.