Thanks ...

[NJSixerfan]

... to your Hornets for a phenomenal series, and to all of you on this board for being a class act.

I know I won't get sympathy on this, but I hope this doesn't get blamed on the Refs. I contend there were horrible calls both ways during the six games. I'd hate to see it reduced to that. Like AI or not, that certainly is your choice, and I don't want to argue that either. All I care to say is, you should be proud of your team big time. They played their hearts out, and gave you a whole hell of a lot to cheer about. Consider this. The Hornets past few seasons, last especially, have had them playing in front of a home crowd that couldn't care less. In fact, they faltered at home, preferring to be on the road. They come to New Orleans, and for the first time in a long time, have fans that are off the charts. And they did you proud. So while losing is never easy, you have a mighty fine squad, and with changing nothing, would be projected to be top 3 of the east next year, west of course, is another story, should that in fact go down.

So again, thanks for your hospitality, and I wish you all the best. You have been an awesome group to chat with, and incredibly gracious hosts. If it's okay with you collectively, I'd like to check back in after the 14th of May to report on our experiences in your fair city.

Thanks again, and congratulations for a great season, and a great series.

[AGHF]

thanks NJSixerfan, just sadly we can't buy anything for this

i was so excited about the postseason...and boom, broken finger, bum knee...

but as you said, AI was just unstoppable down the stretch...and hell yeah, NEW ORLEANS IS THE CITY TO PLAY FOR FOR THE HORNETS!!!

GO HORNETS!!!

[76er Ron]

Well well, if it isn't my old friend from the Sixers board, or my old Ex-friend, as i'm sure he would put it. Look, i have no ill-feelings toward you NJ. In fact, i have seen you too left that Message Board even after i had been booted off long ago, why ? I know you weren't banned, so what happened ?


I definitely saw where alot of Old time regulars left as well. Was it because you missed me, and my sometimes moronic posts :-) Was it Belmont leaving ?, what ?


As for the game and the officiating, yeah, it didn't cause ANY team to have an advantage in this series, especially after the first couple of games. You want BAD Officiating, look no further than the Minny/Laker series in round 1. We're gonna get Detroit in round 2, of course ANYTHING can happen in a game 7, especially in the east. But it should be Detroit. That's gonna be really tough with their Defense and Rebounding & Shot blocking from Wallace inside. We do play better on the road sometimes and maybe we can steal an early one and force Detroit into a early hole, we shall see.



Believe it or not it is GOOD to hear from you. Enjoy the rest of the ride.

[West Coast Hornet]

Man, there is some serious drama in Philly (with the board, apparently). Seriously, thanks for the laughs. I don't know what is going on and maybe it is better to keep it that way. This is not Philly South!

Congrats on the win guys, so take your love fest somewhere else. I am just kidding. I couldn't resist that!

[NJSixerfan]

Hey WCH ... I was just saying thanks to your board and your team.

[Harvey Hornet-x]

Thanks to the Philly folks who treated our board with the respect they treat their own. To those of you, it's been a pleasure. To the smack talkers, isn't it time to find a Detroit or Orlando board you can ruin? I heard some the guys in CLT were talking bad about you too...

[jwashb9999]

New Orleans lost. We deserved to. We weren't good enough to move on.

Philly was better. Iverson is a great bb player. Beyond b-ball with Iverson, who knows? But it is a bb game at issue, so rest doesn't really matter. If it did, lets just play 5 nuns and act morally superior.

I don't think Philly willgo much farther because Iverson doesn't have enough around him to do so. Iverson is way beyond any player we have, which was enough to get past us.

If New Orleans does as well in attendance as this year, we''ll be fine.

Just like Philly might have some complex because they are always comparing itself to New York, we have are own issues too. 1) We are overly sensitive because: we are somewhat ignored, we are disrespected, and I think we are a victim of a tad bit of jealousy over how fun of a city we are. 2). However, we are a poor city, lazy, undisciplined and totally unproven in b-ball.

In the back of our mind is some concern whether the Hornets will succeed here. The question is: will attendance only get better as we become more emotionally involved with the team, or might it get worse after the novelty wears off and the team doesn't do as well? Let's hope for the former.

[NYKF Hornet]

I think we saw how quickly this city can care by how quickly game 6 was sold out. In the past we might have had articles saying how game 6 wouldn't be sold out because NO gave up on the team. The city supported this team fine, and I think in the future it will only get better. This year people got a taste of the NBA again, I bet season ticket sales will go up and that attendance in general will be a little higher. This year the announcers and commentators had nothing but good things to say about the city.

[joe87]

Fire Silas, SIGN Karl.
Playing Tractor over Magloire with the game on the line, what was he thinking...
The officiating was horrible, the Hornets were taking stupid shots, and the Sixers were draining the 3's... Not good...

[NYKF Hornet]

Karl is no better, and he isn't worth the pile of cash and amount of control he will want. Karl hasn't exactly proved to be a good coach, and seems to end each year crying and complaining.

[joe87]

I'm not sure, but didn't he bring the Sonics to the Finals a while back?
What other coaches will be signable this offseason?

[NYKF Hornet]

There was talk today on ESPN that 9 coaches could be fired or step down after the season. So you have those along with 4 to 6 coaches that sat out this year. Karl has a huge contract, in fact it is one of the highest contracts for a coach in sports history . . . his deal allows him to make decisions few coaches have in the NBA. You don't want to get in that situation, it has never worked. Riley isn't making it work in Miami and Karl isn't making it work for the Bucks. Karl deserves as much credit as Phil does, they both had/have very talented teams that won dispite any coaching involved. In Karls case more so than Phil.

[joe87]

I like Riley! He didn't have much talent on his team and lost 'Zo, so you can't really blame it all on him. I'd rather one of the more emotional coaches.

[NYKF Hornet]

Me too, that is why I would like Van Gundy. I like Riley too, really respect the man and his coaching style. And I agree about the talent, but that is his fault. Riley has even more control than Karl. He makes all roster, draft, and trade decisions (much like Karl). Riley has straddled himself with average players with huge salaries. Riley with our line up would be great. Our styles are similar. But that will never happen, he is too tied to the Heat.

[joe87]

Ya Van Gundy! I saw him commentating a game the other day. I wouldn't be against getting him.

[NYKF Hornet]

He is good, and proved he can win in the playoffs. He was groomed unde Riley in NY, before taking them over himself. His brother is an assistant under Riley now in Miami, and he will probably step up when Riley retires. There is only a slim chance it could happen, and that is only b/c his name will be floated for every spot available.

I'm hoping the owners stay open minded and really do a search, not just see a few guys. We are a good team that needs someone that can come in and win. That is not easy, plenty of teams find themselves in the lottery after such a move.

[Southpaw]

Thanks for being a classy winner, NJ.

Enjoy New Orleans when you come down later in the month.

If anyone tries to bet you they know where you got your shoes...the answer is "on my feet on Bourbon St."

Peace.

[CC_Hornet-x]

I had a great time with the Philly folks here the last couple of weeks. You all are good sports especially NJSixerfan. Good luck the rest of the way!!!

[ebh215]

This series was so close. The sixers needed to make every shot to beat you guys. What a team you've put together. Your team was so talented and BIG!. The way you played was phenominal.

After the loss in game 5, my confidence in the sixers was so low. You've no idea how many close games we lost in the regular season (we actually went 20w-30L in one spell before the all-star break) I thought the pre-all star sixers had shown up.

Iverson has his fans and his haters. Iverson has gotten a win by himself lots of times. No matter what is said about the 'superstars' in playoff games, there was no way he could have won this game by himself. No matter what he says about being unstoppable, you guys really hurt his game.

Props to you, your team, your coach. I have no ideal how we got past you.

What I can say is that playing you in the first round makes playing anyone else in the east like playing in the minor leagues. Thank you for a great series.

[AGHF]

Originally posted by ebh215
This series was so close. The sixers needed to make every shot to beat you guys. What a team you've put together. Your team was so talented and BIG!. The way you played was phenominal.

After the loss in game 5, my confidence in the sixers was so low. You've no idea how many close games we lost in the regular season (we actually went 20w-30L in one spell before the all-star break) I thought the pre-all star sixers had shown up.

Iverson has his fans and his haters. Iverson has gotten a win by himself lots of times. No matter what is said about the 'superstars' in playoff games, there was no way he could have won this game by himself. No matter what he says about being unstoppable, you guys really hurt his game.

Props to you, your team, your coach. I have no ideal how we got past you.

What I can say is that playing you in the first round makes playing anyone else in the east like playing in the minor leagues. Thank you for a great series.

wow, thank you ebh215...the better and tougher team goes on, in this case its your 76ers!!!

hats off and good luck the rest of the year!!!

GO HORNETS!!!

[ebh215]

The better and tougher team got past you by the skin of their teeth (and my fingernails). Whoa, if you had been healthy throughout the series, we would be home, looking forward to the USA qualifying tournament this summer.

I hope we have your support. As I've said in previous threads, I hate, hate, hate the nets and the celtics. There are no fans worse than theirs, its been a pleasure discussing the playoffs with hornets fans.

After the sixers, you team is my favorite.


One note, I've read a lot of critisizing of Silas on this board. I've got to tell you, I've never seen an opponent coach get Larry Brown so p!ssed off. Silas made Brown work every game. That's why Brown has so much respect for Silas.

Silas is going to be coaching somewhere next year for a lot more $$. It looks like Altlanta, Charlotte, Cavs, bucks, raptors will be looking for coaches this year. Out of all of the available coaches, Silas and Van Gundy will be the top vet coaches being payed a lot of money to pull those teams out of the cellar.

IMHO, you should show Silas the $$ and keep him in NO.

[spongey]

Originally posted by joe87
Fire Silas, SIGN Karl.

We'd have to trade BD first. He said he hated playing under Karl last Summer.

[The RealCocoanu]

Congratulations all you Sixer fans, come back any time!!!!!!!
And that newjersey Sixer fan dude, WOW, what a class act.
Man, the world needs more people like him!!!!!!

[alon504]

Well, looks like we converted one over to our side through this ordeal in The RealCocoanu doesn't it---we turned him into a Hornet!

[say-what-x]

The series was hard fought and close - great NBA battles. Any of the games could have gone the other way. But the shots fell the way they did and Philly came out on top. Good luck in the rest of the playoffs, but don't mind if I don't pull for Philly the rest of the way - unless you wind up in the finals against L.A. (I can't stand L.A., even with Shaq )

And to the guys and gals posting here from Philly, we enjoyed your visit. Hope to hear more from y'all in the future when our teams meet again.