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Three weeks ago in his Tuesday column Zach Lowe released his NBA court rankings. In it he made no mention of the Cavaliers redesigning their court (seen here) but did talk about the Pelicans doing an overhaul.
19. New Orleans Pelicans
We’ll have to redo this ranking once the season starts. The Pelicans have a brave proposed court redesign that might be the league’s boldest, but they have not received final approval to deploy it this season, per several league sources.
Last year’s debut was a solid first crack, with an angry pelican holding a ball in its beak at center court, a soft gold painted area that was probably too dull, and the nifty incorporation of the fleur-de-lis in two of the four corners.
Let’s place them here for now and revisit later.
Thanks to Phillip Boudreaux tweeting a shot inside the Smoothie King Center to Zach Lowe the information started flowing this morning. Lowe followed up that shot moments later with a full scale mock up of the new design.
Now that photos of the real thing have surfaced, here's the mock-up of the new Pelicans court design: pic.twitter.com/pJEHg8cG6I
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) October 2, 2014
First on the court, I think it is nice. I continue to be a big proponent of an alternate logo at center court, specifically either the Crescent City Basketball logo or the NOLA logo. The unique part, the pelican logos inside the three point arcs, is going to be really interesting to see in person and on TV. It might look amazing. It might look absolutely horrendous.
Second, holy hell Pelicans social media presence. The team account has not tweeted in nearly a day. Dedicated team reporter Jim Eichenhofer just released his Five Things to Know and makes no mention of the new court. Contrast that with the Cavaliers releasing a hype video about their new court design on September 30th and then a tweet with the full design (installed at the Q) the next day.
Alternate Jerseys
While we are discussing new things to look at with the Pelicans it seems right to talk about the previously released red alternate jerseys.
These I prefer greatly over the traditional home and away uniforms. Pelicans across the chest is a better size, whereas New Orleans is in a comically small font on the white and blue uniforms. Might I suggest trying "NOLA" on one of those uniforms in a size similar to what we see above?
#CornerThreeAlert
John Salmons and Luke Babbitt are basketball players after my own heart.
Yes. More of this. In games too or is that too much to ask?
Television Schedule Released
Fox Sports New Orleans will broadcast every regular season game not broadcast on national television this season. This is an improvement over last season.
The New Orleans Pelicans announced today the television and radio broadcast schedule for the upcoming 2014-15 season. FOX Sports New Orleans, the official television partner of the Pelicans, will feature a franchise-high 77 live regular season broadcasts. Collectively with ten nationally televised games, all 82 Pelicans regular season games will be available on television. WWL Radio, the Pelicans radio flagship station, will broadcast every regular season and preseason matchup.
However, once again no preseason games will be available locally on TV. The Miami Heat will also not be televising the game according to Ira Winderman.
Heat exhibition Oct. 11 vs. Cavs on ESPNews and Oct. 21 vs. Rockets on TNT. So only Saturday vs. Pelicans in Louisville won't be televised.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 30, 2014
NBATV seems like a natural place to find the first and only NBA preseason game taking place on Saturday night. However, according to the schedule available, they will instead be showing a replay of "NBA Real Training Camp - 2014 LA Lakers". The first preseason game broadcast on NBATV will be LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers going against noted NBA power Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Way to market the next star in your league NBA. Good job, good effort.
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