It’s Official: Hornets to Become Pelicans

This will definitely take some getting used to.

Louisiana’s nickname is the Pelican State. The brown pelican is the state bird and appears on Louisiana’s flag, seal and official painting, and the nickname has been used in the past by the city’s minor league teams.

Tom Benson, who bought the team last year, said he wanted to change the name of franchise to something that’s more identifiable with the city than Hornets and suggested that Jazz, which moved with the team that relocated from New Orleans to Utah in 1979, was his first preference.