"What the heck is a Jazz?"

Pete Finney reads old newspapers in an effort to mine ideas for renaming the Hornets.  All of the ideas he finds are horrible. The NOLA.com commenters then rush to his aid with more horrible ideas.   Really, the more people talk about this renaming business the more I'm starting to think it's maybe not such a great idea altogether.

More interesting is this quote Finney pulls up from a 1974 article (Finney doesn't say which paper) announcing the selection of the name Jazz.

Within days there was another story that began with: “Tune your trumpet, Al Hirt. Polish your clarinet keys, Pete Fountain. Oil the pedals on your baby grand, Ronnie Kole. It was looked upon here as the dawn of the jazz age in the NBA.”

No offense to any of those three legendary New Orleans musicians but... way to go figuring out a way to evoke the essence of Jazz music by naming three white guys.