Hornets on the Internets: Chouestly Delays Edition

With a ton of ownership, coaching, and draft prospect news coming up over the next few months, it's time to bring back our link dump. Hopefully this will serve as central location for you to stop by and quickly catch up on all the latest Hornets' news. You can expect to find these in the mornings, every few days that I can compile four or five notable stories.

There's not too much news floating around today, but suffice it to say, this should be a rather busy week when all is said and done. 

David Stern was asked about the Shinn to Chouest transfer, according to Marc Spears (of Y!) on his Twitter account:

Stern said "it's not a given at all" Chouest will complete purchase of Hornets and process "taking a long time."

about 5 hours ago via TweetDeck

Twitter and those reporters who use it continue to be an excellent source of breaking news; I still haven't seen this quote anywhere else, other than in the Times-Pic article that simply drew attention to the original tweet. Should Stern's statement concern us? I don't think it should cause too much panic. The Hornets indicated last week that the Chouest announcement was being delayed as Chouest, Hugh Weber, and Jeff Bower traveled across the country to various interviews. 

And the anonymous sources the Times-Pic cited in their article are more reassuring than anything. Sure, the agreement may not be 100% locked down official, but I'm not worrying. Yet.

Marc Spears' Twitter feed also reveals a coaching candidate I hadn't heard of yet:

Hornets have now talked to Fratello, Avery & Casey. Mark Jackson, Cs asst Thibodeau and surprise candidate Adrian Griffin, Bucks asst, next

5:15 PM May 5th via web

Emphasis mine. I don't know much about Griffin's coaching history, but suffice it to say, we'll cover him this week along with the other assistants. One of those assistants, Portland's Monty Williams, will interview with the team today, according to John Reid:

A source close to Williams said he opted to travel to New Orleans instead of the Hornets' search team flying to meet him in either Portland, Ore., or Philadelphia. Williams met with Philadelphia 76ers' officials Monday in Philadelphia for their vacant head coach job.

Williams was a part of Minnesota's interview process last year, and we should have a lot more on him today/this week, thanks to the fine folks at SBNation's Blazers' Edge. 

Griffin's addition to the list brings the assistant count to five; Griffin joins Williams, Utah's Ty Corbin, Boston's Tom Thibodeau, and Dallas' Dwane Casey. If rumors are to be believed, New Orleans may also take a look at San Antonio's Mike Budenholzer. So while reports initially suggested that the Hornets wanted someone with prior head coaching success, they're clearly covering all their bases, going over some of the rising and established assistant stars (Williams, Thibodeau) and the proteges to two of the most successful coaches of the last two decades, Gregg Popovich (Budenholzer) and Jerry Sloan (Corbin).

In case you missed it, Utah was eliminated by Los Angeles last night, and I expect the Hornets to meet with Corbin in the near future. There's still no news linking the Hornets with former coach of the year Sam Mitchell or WNBA coach Bill Laimbeer. 

Moving away from coaching for a second, the Hornets are rolling out a "Pay the Pick" promotion. From the Times-Pic:

New Orleans Hornets 2010 season tickets could be purchased for $1 per ticket per game based on the results from the 2010 NBA Draft Lottery. As part of the Hornets’ "Pay the Pick" promotion presented by Louisiana Lottery, anyone who places a $100 initial payment per seat for season tickets in select locations until noon on May 18 will be eligible to purchase season tickets at a per game price equal to the number pick the Hornets receive in the Draft Lottery.

If the Hornets land the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, season tickets in "Pay the Pick" locations would be $1 per ticket per game; if the team gets pick No. 2, tickets would be $2 per ticket per game; pick No. 11 and season tickets would be $11 per ticket per game, etc.

Potentially interesting, but really not as cool as it sounds. The Hornets are virtually assured of the 11th overall pick, but I guess crazier things have happened (for example: the Hornets were 13th overall in lottery odds when they landed Baron Davis with the 3rd overall pick).

Let's hope we hear some news on the Chouest announcement today and that the Williams interview goes well. In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with this amazing video (which, since it features tigers, and since Buckets played for the Tigers, is tangentially Hornets' related):