The New Orleans Pelicans’ new home court features a pair of giant pelican silhouettes (Photo)
Sure, it’s only been a year since the New Orleans Hornets’ rebrand as the New Orleans Pelicans led to the introduction of a brand new bird-focused home-court design, but in this fast-paced, ever-changing world — Twitter! Snapchat! Iggy Azalea! — that might as well be a decade. In the interest of keeping things fresh, cutting-edge and eye-catching, the Pelicans have unveiled a brand spankin’ new floor design for the season ahead.
The new look was teased a few weeks ago by Grantland’s Zach Lowe in his court-design power rankings:
The Pelicans have a brave proposed court redesign that might be the league’s boldest, but they have not received final approval to deploy it this season, per several league sources.
Well, it looks like that approval came through:
No, your eyes don’t deceive you — that’s a silhouette of the Pelicans logo taking up just about the entire interior of the court below the 3-point line. Now, every time New Orleans takes the court at the Smoothie Center, Anthony Davis won’t be the only Pelican whose wingspan seems to stretch corner to corner, all the way to the arc. Opposing teams should thank heaven for small mercies; it could’ve been bloodthirsty Old Pierre creeping up under their feet rather than the comparatively tame bird-with-ball-in-beak logo.
Here’s what last year’s model looked like, for purposes of comparison:
While I’m a bit bummed out by the kiboshing of the “bird de lis” secondary logo, I have to admit: It’s a pretty interesting design element. Compared to this, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ center-court-spanning city skyline silhouette looks downright run-of-the-mill, doesn’t it?
That said, it’s not quite as eye-catching as the Charlotte Hornets’ new honeycomb deck, for my money, but it’s still rather rad. That’s me, though — what’s your verdict: yea or nay?
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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