Jenni Carlson NewsOK.com Blogging Community

Got a chance to meet Sam Presti up close and personal on Thursday.

Even after a short time around the general manager of OKC’s new NBA team, at least one thing is certain — the guy is a hard worker.

You can see it.

Literally.

Presti might be the palest person I’ve ever seen. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that he’s spent the last few years in Seattle, a place where the sunshine is in short supply, but I have a feeling it has more to do with Presti. This is a guy who has worked his way to one of the NBA’s top spots at the ripe ol’ age of 31. 

It’s difficult to work on your suntan when you’re inside a gym or at a desk all day.

Maybe Presti is just a big believer in sunscreen; he could be a poster child for those use-your-SPF campaigns. But really, this seems like a guy who doesn’t spend a lot of time golfing or chilling at the lake or grilling out in the yard. This is a guy who spends his time on basketball, whether that means scouting prospects or working the phones or plotting the next move. 

After many of the cameras and the reporters left Thursday, Presti talked about how basketball became an all-consuming passion when he was in high school. Every day since, he suspects, he’s thought about basketball. He’s schemed. He’s planned. He’s obsessed.

No doubt that has only increased since Clay Bennett and Co. chose Presti as its general manager a year ago.

Perhaps Presti will get a little more sun with the team moving to Oklahoma City – our fair city does have a few more sunny days than our good friends in the Pacific Northwest — but then again, there is more work to do than ever.

Don’t expect Presti to be doing ads for Hawaiian Tropic any time soon.

In less than 10 hours, we’ll know the outcome of the federal court case between the City of Seattle and the Sonics.

What will it be?

Only the judge knows for sure.

But perhaps the bigger question is this — what will it mean?

That will be much more difficult to answer before sundown today.

If the judge rules in the Sonics favor, the ownership has indicated that it wants to move to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. Does that mean the moving vans will load up tonight? Does that mean the team and the city will start negotiating a buyout? Does that mean the city will request an injunction to make the team stay put?

It’s impossible to know.

If the judge rules in the city’s favor, the outcomes are equally clouded. Will the team appeal the decision? Will the team try to talk the city into sitting down at the bargaining table anyway?

Again, the only certainty is uncertainty.

And so, we wait. By day’s end, we’ll know a little better how long the wait will ultimately be, and yet, my guess is, we still won’t know for sure. The judge’s decision is final, but this is hardly the end of the saga.

Turns out, the Lakers aren’t dead yet.

Doesn’t mean they’ll win the series, though.

The Celtics are still my favorite to win the NBA Finals. I picked them during the first round, and I’m sticking with them even after the Lakers won Game 3 on Tuesday.

Here’s why: the power of three.

There are lots of ways to build successful basketball teams, but the best formula for winning a championship is having three go-to players. The Celtics have Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Sure, the Lakers have Kobe Bryant, one of the best players to ever walk planet earth, and Pau Gasol, one of the nicest gifts to ever be given from one NBA team to another, but they don’t have that third star.

Lamar Odom has moments when he’s great, but he’s still too sporadic to be considered a go-to player. Derek Fisher is a nice player and an even nicer person, but he doesn’t have that go-to quality either.

The Celtics have three legitimate stars, which takes pressure off of them and puts it squarely on opponents.

The power of three is nothing new in our neck of the woods. The last Oklahoma State men’s basketball team to make it to the Final Four had Tony Allen, John Lucas and Joey Graham. The last Oklahoma men’s team to make it had Aaron McGhee, Hollis Price and Ebi Ere.

Even when the gender changes, the power of three still holds. When the Oklahoma women went to the Final Four a few years back, they had Stacey Dales, LaNeishea Caufield, Rosalind Ross and Caton Hill. I’ll leave it up to you to decide who the best three were.

Honestly, the most important thing is having at least three go-to players. More is great, though it can become a little more challenging for a coach who has to manage minutes and balance scoring. But those are challenges that you accept.

Three is the minimum.

Three is the magic number.

That’s why I like the Celtics in the NBA Finals. A few days ago in a video commentary, I predicted that the Celtics would sweep. OK, so that isn’t going to happen, but it’s difficult to think that the Celtics won’t win this series. They don’t have the best player in the series, but they have three very good ones. There is great power in that, and for the Celtics, that means they have a great chance of winning a title.

Looking for someone to cheer for in the NBA playoffs?

Look no further.

Watch my latest video commentary or read below:

It’s hard not to pull for the Hornets in the NBA Playoffs.

But I might’ve found someone else to pull for harder.

P.J. Brown became a fan favorite here in Oklahoma City during the Hornets temporary relocation. The veteran big man scored the very first basket in the very NBA game at the Ford Center. He was all class. He signed autographs. He posed for pictures. He was the consummate professional.

And he was even though his heart was hurting. Brown in a native of Louisiana. Born and raised and educated there. It is his home, and when Hurricane Katrina roared into New Orleans, he lost not only a house but also a home.

He moved to Oklahoma City, his family to Houston.

It was a mess.

Then after a season in OKC, the Hornets traded Brown to the Bulls. It was another blow. Brown, after all, had talked about retiring a Hornet.

He spent two not-so-happy seasons in Chicago, and when he became an unrestricted free agent at the end of last season, the Bulls didn’t re-sign him. Trouble was, no one else signed him either.

Brown spent the first half of the season out of basketball — no doubt a tough pill after 14 years in the NBA — but when the All-Star Game rolled into New Orleans, Brown threw his support behind it. And it just so happened that he ran into Ray Allen and Paul Pierce that weekend. The Celtic stars told Brown that they wanted him in Boston.

Not long after, Brown became a Celtic.

He is a reserve, of course, playing third or maybe even fourth fiddle to the Allen, Pierce and Kevin Garnett. And yet, Brown has a chance to fulfill a dream.

He has never won an NBA title — 15 seasons, 0 titles.

No one deserves to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy more than P.J. Brown. Sure, it’d be great to see the Hornets win the title, but no one would appreciate it more than Brown.

He’s long been a consummate professional. For once, he should be a world champion.

USA Today made Chris Paul the cover boy for its All-Star Game special section.

Their story of the Hornet guard’s efforts to help in New Orleans recovery just backs up what folks in Oklahoma City already knew. CP3 is a good guy. He is helping raise funds and awareness for the work that remains in the Big Easy after Hurricane Katrina.

Check out some of the extra’s on USA Today’s website, including photos and a video.

News out of New Orleans today that the Hornets will stay there through 2014.

But with several conditions.

One of them is this: average attendance at the end of the 2008-2009 season must be 14,735. If that number isn’t reached, the Hornets can opt out of the contract.

What’s that I hear? The sound of moving trucks rolling toward the Big Easy?

No way the Hornets attendance will reach that number. The team is having one of the best seasons in the league this year, and it has averaged less than 12,000 through its first 15 home games. If New Orleans can’t get excited now about Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler and Co., the city never will.

By the way, the Saints had a less-than-stellar season despite the greatness that was predicted in the preseason. Despite that, people still weren’t turned on to the winner across the street at New Orleans Arena.

The Hornets figured out a way to get the 2008-09 attendance benchmark in the new lease extension, and bully for them that they did. (Did anyone in New Orleans actually read the new terms? How could they have thought a benchmark like this was really a good idea?) 

This sounds more like a lease shortening than a lease extension.

This video speaks for itself.

Happy holidays!

The Hornets returned to New Orleans on Wednesday.

How’d it go?

Check out my video commentary or read here:

I want to believe that the Hornets will work in New Orleans.

After all that city has been through, it deserves to have something go well. The Hornets have a stout squad, a team that has all the earmarks of a playoff team. I hope that the Big Easy has a chance to experience that fun and that excitement this season.

I want the best for the Hornets there.

But after Wednesday night, I’m worried about their chances.

Wednesday was opening night for the Hornets. They tipped off the 2007-08 season in New Orleans, their first full season back in the Big Easy since Hurricane Katrina blew them all the way to Oklahoma City.

The opener was on Oklahoma City cable television, just as another 24 games will be this season. I tuned in about mid-way through the second quarter.

The first thing that struck me was how much it looked at first glance like Oklahoma City. The floor is the same, save the name of the city along the baseline. The uniforms are the same, save the city on the front.

But that first-blush reaction was quickly replaced by another.

“There’s no one there,” I said out loud to the television.

OK, so there were probably 10 or 12 thousand folks there, and Hornets owner George Shinn said during a halftime interview that the game was a near sellout. There were lots of empty seats, though. Shinn attributed that to Halloween parties, no doubt a big deal in a city that never passes on a chance to party.

Still, the no-shows were concerning. The sections behind the benches looked more empty than full. The crowds in the upper deck looked sparse as well.

That is not a good sign on opening night. That is one of those nights that almost every team packs the arena.

Not the Hornets.

Maybe Shinn was right. Maybe the answer was as easy as the Halloween holiday. Maybe the crowds will come for the other 40 games the Hornets have at home.

For their sake, I hope so.

But the truth is, the Hornets are facing an uphill battle. The rebuilding in New Orleans continues, and that includes being able to support an NBA team. It isn’t the most important thing happening there. Not even close. Schools and houses and security are paramount.

Thing is if the Hornets can survive in New Orleans, it would be a great sign of how far the city has come and how healthy the area is. It will take time, but for the sake of the city and the team, I hope that opening night is just the beginning, not a sign of things to come.

The NBA season starts tonight.

Sigh.

It wasn’t so long ago that the start of the NBA season came and went without so much as a blip in Oklahoma City. Now, after two years as the home of the Hornets, it feels weird that the season is starting and the city has no squad. The Ford Center will sit idle tonight, void of pregame pyrotechnics and in-game madness. 

Bigger sigh.

Who knows how long it will be before Oklahoma City celebrates the start of another NBA season here. Maybe next year. Maybe not.

But in the meantime, here are a couple videos to remember the past and maybe, just maybe, celebrate the future.