Apparently, the New Orleans Hornets are planning to change their name to the New Orleans Pelicans. Barry Petchesky defends the bird and the name:
The truly classic names aren't aggressive—Yankees, Packers, Browns, Maple Leafs—and yet they'd never get past the first public Facebook vote today. Not edgy enough. For the last couple decades, franchises have just been picking whatever deadly local animal springs to mind. And so we've ended up with "cool-sounding" names like the Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Diamondbacks, and Devil Rays, which sound like they ought to be Arena Football teams. Barring that, the default has been the predatory cat, and just in the last 20 years, we have the Jaguars, Bobcats, two different Panthers, and the oh-so-imaginative Predators, whose logo is a saber-toothed tiger.
The Pelicans are here to assure you that your mascot can have a killer instinct and local significance without appealing to a fourth-grader's sensibilities.
The Dish 