Great Team ISO Loyal, Loud, Passionate Fans

CP for MVP? I agree Chris...I agree. (Sports Illustrated)

This has nothing to do with the Saints, but it DOES have to do with New Orleans, and I have become a big hornets fan this season.

The Hornets are taking on the Lakers tonight in LA. This is a huge game with equally huge implications. Not only are these two teams battling for the first spot in the west, but will be one last showdown between the two leading candidates for this season MVP award, Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant.  The Hornets currently hold the top spot in the conference, but with only a few games remaining in the season, and with six teams all on top of each other in the West, every game counts. A win tonight will all but lock it up for us. A loss and we'll have to continue fighting with the rest of 'em.

Like a lot of people in New Orleans I think, I only started following the Hornets this season. I had gone to a few games years before, including a playoff game against the Heat (thats how long ago it was), but I never really got into it. There just wasn't that same connection that I got from the Saints. I think a lot of it had to do with me being stubborn towards the actual game of basketball. But this season, after the Bee's started winning, and in exciting fashion, I was hooked. I got to know the players and built that "relationship" that you build when you become an avid fan.  I learned all the rules. I read blogs and the paper. I became a real fan.

I know, I know. I'm a band-wagoner. Thats fair. I'll give you that. But I promise that I will follow the Hornets as I do now every season from now on. It will just inevitably happen. And I will have one more thing to completely obsess and waste my time over. And I encourage you to do the same. If you have been a Hornets fan for a while, you deserve thanks and praise. If you are like me and just started following them, keep up the good work. And if you haven't gotten "your stinger in a seat," the playoffs are fast approaching and this is your chance. The Hornet's have finally done something that I think they haven't done so far in their time in New Orleans: get New Orleans fans to love them as much as they love the black and gold. Are YOU on the band-wagon?

This can be an open thread if any of you want to talk about the game. Any other Hornets fans out there?

I leave you with a picture in which you can see (barely) my friends and I (in circle. backwards black hat) the night we got FLOOR SEATS to the Hornets-Spurs game! I'm going to say CP made that shot.
 

Look Ma, it's me! (Getty Images)

Geaux Bee's!