Sources Say New Orleans Hornets To Become The Pelicans

In this article, numerous sources are telling Yahoo! Sports that the NBA franchise are expected to make the nickname change as early as next season, in 2013.

Ever since New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson took over the team in April of 2012, there has been talk about a different nickname for the team. The talk was that this new nickname needed to be something indigenous to Louisiana. There has even talk about changing the name of the New Orleans Arena.

The brown pelican is the state bird and Benson does own the rights to the nickname Pelicans, so this news may not be a shock to some fans of the team.

Louisiana got the NBA franchise when they left Charlotte in 2002. The team was known as the Charlotte Hornets back then and never changed the nickname when they came to New Orleans. You may remember the Crescent City had a team back in the '70s called the New Orleans Jazz, but the franchise moved to Salt Lake City in 1979, becoming the Utah Jazz, and reportedly will not relinquish its nickname back to the current New Orleans franchise.