Bill Simmons says one city should have their NBA franchise taken away because it has ‘never worked’

Bill Simmons thinks one city should no longer have an NBA team because people living there do not care about basketball.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the Portland Trail Blazers possibly moving cities due to owner Tom Dundon’s complaints and the NBA expanding to add two new franchises in two different cities.

But if any city had to lose their NBA team to help expand the league further, Bill Simmons has one city in mind as a possible candidate.

Bill Simmons urges NBA to take move Pelicans out of New Orleans

Speaking on his podcast, NBA analyst Bill Simmons explained why he doesn’t defend the city of New Orleans having an NBA franchise as he has for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Simmons noted that no franchise has found success in New Orleans dating back almost 50 years, and believes the city doesn’t have an ingrained basketball culture tying it to a franchise.

“I’ve had people ask me the last couple of weeks, ‘Well, why don’t you stick up for New Orleans the same way?’ I think the difference is that we still don’t have evidence that the NBA works in New Orleans. You can blame the owners, you can blame the city, it’s not a big enough market, whatever you want to say.

Bill Simmons says one city should

“It’s never worked despite the fact that they have a good handful, maybe a thousand fans. I don’t think a franchise has ever been successful there, and we’re going back to the 70s… There is nothing you can point to and say, ‘See, for those three years, that’s when it was kicking a–.’

“It’s just never worked, and I’m not sure they should have an NBA team. I feel way differently about Portland. Even Memphis, if you’re doing this all over again, that team is in Nashville.

“But Memphis have proven that they can be a really awesome small market franchise and that team is ingrained with that city in a really unique way. I won’t say they should move either. New Orleans would be the one you have to look at, unfortunately.”

New Orleans have had a strange history with NBA franchises

The city of New Orleans has ties to three different NBA franchises across their history, the most alongside perhaps Los Angeles.

New Orleans’ first NBA team was the Jazz, who played in the city for five years between 1974 and 1979, before the franchise was moved to Utah.

The city would wait 23 years before getting a new franchise, as the Charlotte Hornets relocated to New Orleans ahead of the 2002-03 NBA season.

Due to the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, the franchise was temporarily moved to Oklahoma City, where they played as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.

In 2013, the New Orleans Hornets were rebranded to the New Orleans Pelicans, allowing the Charlotte Bobcats to return to the Hornets name, along with the franchise’s historic accolades over the years.

Despite having three separate NBA franchises represent their city, New Orleans has never had an NBA team advance to a conference finals while representing them.

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