New Orleans Hornets to Change Team Name Once Sold?

Once the NBA finds a buyer for the Hornets, there’s talk that it could result in a name change for New Orleans‘ hoops team. Reports SI (via the Times-Picayune): “In years to come, there promises to be a new cable-TV partnership, the NBA All-Star Game will return to the city, the New Orleans Arena will undergo $50 million in improvements, and the franchise, in all likelihood, will be rebranded. The ‘Hornets’ nickname, which followed the team to New Orleans during its 2002 relocation from Charlotte, will probably be replaced by an identity more fitting to the city to which the team is now married, for better and for worse. Though everyone involved hopes the worst is now far behind them. […] The most interesting decision of the new owner may be whether to rebrand the franchise. Will the ‘Hornets’ nickname be relinquished and enabled to return to Charlotte, where owner Michael Jordan could rebrand his own underperforming franchise? If so, how would the basketball team of New Orleans rename itself? No suggestions will be made here, for the new name would have to represent the resilient spirit of New Orleans and its fans. It would be the finishing act of a franchise that has been reinvented, a team committed to the city that wouldn’t let go.”