How the mighty have fallen

Fallen might not be the perfect word to describe the Hornets 2008-09 campaign. However another "F" word that has been used frequently by myself and hornets fans this year has not been the one you are thinking of, rather it is "Fail."

Injuries, poor coaching, poor performances. Blame it on whatever you like I has just been a spectacular fail this season. Looking at it from various angles many teams now do not fear us as they did last year, they embrace us as an opponent.

The reason that Chris Paul is having such a ridiculous year "statistically" is due to the increased pressure and responsibility placed upon him to provide us with offense and defense flair. I can't back up that with any statistics because that would be a little contradicting, however if one was to want to find any justification to the percentage of possessions taken by CP head over to atthehive.com

Hornet fans like myself had extremely high expectations. Extremely would be an understated adjective used. However I think that for myself personally expectations indicate where something should be compared to where it is. Free Agent acquisitions of James Posey, a year under the belt, sounds like a successful year. Indeed this deceives many as the Hornets just flopped from top team in the NBA to worst of the best.

But "Why" has this occurred? Why? This key word or question plagues our minds day after day. We can only point to speculations, stats that may or may not mean something, injuries, or just a mulligan of a season. Clearly it is a combination of all of the above and some other external factors.

Coach Scott in my view should not be blamed for the debacle, he in fact has steadied the ship to at least help us "reach" the playoffs (which I say with due caution). Scott has had to deal with a team without last years flair, tenacity and ability to just play ball. Last season Coach Byron could quite easily say something to which players would respond and execute. This compares to this year when motivation goes in one ear, leaves the same ear and is never uttered again. Consistency is what I feel like is killing Coach Scott at the moment, he can't honestly go to one player (other than CP) and say "I need you to take control of the game on both ends." He just can't.

It seems that after every game he or another states something along the lines of, "We're not where we need to be but once we get everyone together and playing as a whole we can be dangerous."

Okay, stop there. That has happened just 24 times this year. And our record? 20-4. Nice. But again how many times has that occurred. 24. Just 24 times have we had our full team, playing together, on the same page, playing winning basketball.

Needless to say my point is that time is or rather has (Tyson and Peja injury) run out. Our team is decimated and it is likely that Tyson will opt out and look to start afresh somewhere else next season. The team will likely never be mentioned as a contender ever again until management can pull something together and re-assemble a strong lineup featuring Chris Paul, and maybe David West because he's my favourite player =]

But the truth of the matter is that what was once a great giant of the West is now just an annoying little bee that might just sting you, give you an infection on the path to the championship.

The Initial Thoughts

Hmm...where to begin?



I guess I should give you a little background on my whereabouts in the world and what affiliations I have towards certain sporting teams.



Yes, I do live in Australia and I follow a variety of sports from here to vast corners of the globe. I am a passionate supporter of the Waratahs (Professional Rugby team). At current as I write this the 'Tahs are currently reviewing their awful lose to the Brumbies, a local rival.



But my real passion lies in the Atlanta Falcons, my beloved birds should really be called Phoenix's after what occured over the past two years, finally things look bright for the team. I started following them after seeing an American Football game on TV here and it was the Atlanta Falcons vs. THE New Orleans Saints. The Falcons won and when I purchased a copy of Madden 2005 I struck a love affair with them after making Michael Vick look like Tom Brady.



There is some real irony in my other sports team the New Orleans Hornets. Okay, so I am a diehard Falcoholic, but follow the Hornets? Yeah it makes sense, after all my first basketball was a New Orleans basketball.



Your probably asking yourself a few things, why does this guy support teams for the strangest of reasons? How can this guy sleep at night? Why doesn't he just follow one city and their associated teams?



I will tell you something about me, for some odd reason I follow mediocrity. I just do. Where ever there is a mediocre team that has never succeeded I'll be there lurking.



The Waratahs, Falcons, Hornets and other teams of other sports (Middlesbrough and others) have all never won the championship. EVER. I am no glory supporter. For some reason I have this stubbourness that when and if my team succeeds no one can accuss me of just "supporting the good times" and "not being there in the bad times."



Way to many times have I seen friends and foe revel in victory only to find out they had only been supporting or following that team for that championship season. It frustrates me that none of these people truly belong to something where they want to go from dirt to a fine muddy sculpture.



So over the time I enter certain posts just take into consideration that everything I do is mediocre to the point that I (my teams) wish to hopefully succeed. Because after all isn't that what following sport is? To revel in a teams success? To be competitive?