E.J. Liddell events

The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division and play their home games at the Smoothie King Center. Since 2014, the NBA officially considers New Orleans as an expansion team that began play in the 2002–03 season.

The Pelicans were established as the New Orleans Hornets in the 2002–03 season when George Shinn, then owner of the Charlotte Hornets, relocated the franchise to New Orleans. Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the team temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City, where they spent two seasons as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets before returning to New Orleans for the 2007–08 season. In 2013, the Hornets announced that they would change their name to the New Orleans Pelicans after the 2012–13 season.

In 18 seasons of play since the original franchise relocated from Charlotte, the New Orleans franchise has achieved an overall regular season record of 740–864 (.461) and qualified for the playoffs eight times. Their achievements include two playoff series victories and one division title