New Orleans Pelicans Trivia
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50 free New Orleans Pelicans trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This New Orleans Pelicans trivia quiz covers the whole franchise: George Shinn's move from Charlotte, the Buccaneers and Jazz who came before, the Katrina exile in Oklahoma City, Chris Paul and the 56-win 2008 team, the NBA's ownership and the vetoed trade, Tom Benson, Anthony Davis and the Pelicans rename, Zion Williamson's lottery luck, Brandon Ingram and the play-in years. Expect easy questions on the arena, the mascot and the biggest names, plenty of history for regular fans, and hard ones about the Louisville deal Rick Pitino killed, the names Benson preferred to 'Pelicans' and the OKC patch. Uniforms from Creole blue pinstripes to Mardi Gras purple get a turn too. Every answer was checked against primary and encyclopaedic sources before it went in, so when you miss one you can trust the explanation. Play it solo or run it as a round at your next watch party. For the wider league, our NBA trivia page is the natural next stop.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What name did the Pelicans' home arena, formerly New Orleans Arena, take in 2014?
Smoothie King Center
Smoothie King Center. The chain began in 1973 in suburban Kenner, where Steve Kuhnau blended fruit drinks because he couldn't tolerate milkshakes; its name went up days before the arena hosted the 2014 All-Star Game.
Q 02From which city did George Shinn relocate the Hornets to New Orleans in 2002?
Charlotte
Charlotte. Voters there rejected a publicly funded arena for the unpopular Shinn, so he left; two years later the city was back in the league with a new team, the Bobcats.
Q 03Where did the Hornets temporarily relocate for two seasons after Hurricane Katrina?
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City. A year after the Hornets went home, Seattle's SuperSonics moved there for good and became the Thunder, still the state's only major-league team.
Q 04Which NBA great's team reclaimed the Hornets name after New Orleans dropped it?
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan. His Bobcats became the Hornets again in 2014 and were handed the old team's 1988–2002 records, which officially turned the Pelicans into a 2002 expansion team.
Q 05Which ABA founding team played in New Orleans from 1967 to 1970 before moving to Memphis?
The Buccaneers
The Buccaneers. They reached the first ABA finals in 1968, losing Game 7 to Connie Hawkins's Pittsburgh Pipers, but drew thin crowds in borrowed college gyms and left to become the Memphis Pros.
Q 06Which undrafted guard earned the nickname 'Grand Theft' with the Pelicans by sneaking up behind dribblers to steal the ball?
Jose Alvarado
Jose Alvarado. He would hide along the baseline, then come up behind an unsuspecting dribbler; the trick worked so often that opponents began to game-plan for it whenever he checked in.
Q 07Which team nearly moved to New Orleans in 1994 before the NBA blocked the sale?
Minnesota Timberwolves
Minnesota Timberwolves. A group fronted by boxing promoter Bob Arum's Top Rank agreed to pay $152 million and play in the Superdome, but the league doubted its financing and blocked the sale.
Q 08Louisville's bid to land the relocating Hornets collapsed after which newly hired college coach opposed sharing an arena?
Rick Pitino
Rick Pitino. A 2017 Bloomberg investigation reported that city leaders had a non-binding deal with the team, but Pitino and his athletic director would not share a new arena, or the city, with the NBA.
Q 09Which team, founded in New Orleans in 1974, did the Hornets beat in their first home game there in 2002?
Utah Jazz
Utah Jazz. They left for Salt Lake City in 1979 and kept the name anyway, then came back 23 years later as the visitors for the NBA's return to the city and lost 100–75.
Q 10Whose number 7 did the Hornets retire at halftime of their first New Orleans game?
Pete Maravich
Pete Maravich. He never played for the Hornets: the honour recognised his college years at LSU and his three All-Star seasons with the city's first NBA team in the 1970s.
Q 11In their dismal 18–64 season of 2004–05, the Hornets traded which All-Star point guard?
Baron Davis
Baron Davis. Two years later he led an eighth seed past a 67-win top seed in one of the biggest upsets in playoff history; the Hornets used their next draft pick to find his successor.
Q 12From which college did the Hornets draft Chris Paul in 2005?
Wake Forest
Wake Forest. The day after he signed there, his grandfather was murdered; in his next high school game Paul scored 61 points, one for each year of the man's life, then missed a free throw on purpose.
Q 13In 2007–08 Chris Paul led the Hornets to 56 wins but finished second in MVP voting to whom?
Kobe Bryant
Q 21Long before the NBA team, the New Orleans Pelicans were a minor-league club in which sport?
Baseball
Baseball. The minor-league Pelicans played for decades and once fielded 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson; the NBA team's owner already held the rights to the old name when the Hornets rebranded.
Q 22The Pelicans noted that all three of their team colours are found on what?
The New Orleans city flag
The New Orleans city flag. Its red and blue stripes frame three gold fleurs-de-lis; the team added that its blue echoes the state flag and its red the blood a mother pelican was said to feed her young.
Q 23Which All-Star point guard did the Pelicans get from Philadelphia on 2013 draft night for Nerlens Noel?
Jrue Holiday
Kobe Bryant. It was his first MVP award in 12 seasons and stayed his only one; his Lakers had edged Paul's Hornets for the conference's top seed by a single game.
Q 14Which Hornets forward joined Chris Paul as a first-time All-Star when New Orleans hosted the game in 2008?
David West
David West. In 2015 he opted out of his Pacers contract and took a pay cut from $12 million to about $1.5 million to chase a title, and it worked: he won championships in 2017 and 2018.
Q 15Which veteran coach left the broadcast booth to lead the Pelicans in 2020–21 and was gone after one season?
Stan Van Gundy
Stan Van Gundy. He swapped a TNT microphone for a young roster, went 31–41 and missed the play-in, and within months was back calling games on television.
Q 16Who bought the Hornets from George Shinn in December 2010 for about $300 million?
The NBA itself
The NBA itself. With no viable buyer in sight, the league stepped in to keep the team where it was, which left commissioner David Stern with the final say on its trades until a new owner arrived.
Q 17Which team got Chris Paul in December 2011 after David Stern vetoed a trade to the Lakers?
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Clippers. Days after the Lakers deal was voided, Paul landed with their arena co-tenants instead, and the Clippers' alley-oop attack was soon nicknamed 'Lob City'.
Q 18Which NFL owner bought the Hornets in April 2012 for $338 million?
Tom Benson
Tom Benson. The Saints owner had to accept a lease already agreed with the state, which tied the team to New Orleans through 2024.
Q 19Whom did the Hornets select with the first overall pick in the 2012 draft?
Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis. He entered high school as a 6-foot guard nobody was recruiting, then grew to 6-foot-10 and kept his ball-handling, which made him the top pick after one title-winning year at Kentucky.
Q 20The Pelicans' seasonal mascot is a giant baby named after which New Orleans treat?
King cake
King cake. Bakers hide a tiny baby figure inside the Carnival-season cake, so the team's oversized version roams games each year for as long as the cake is in the shops.
Jrue Holiday. He sat out the start of 2016–17 to care for his wife, soccer star Lauren Holiday, who had a brain tumour removed weeks after giving birth; he later won titles with Milwaukee and Boston.
Q 24Which first-time head coach took the Pelicans from a 1–12 start to the playoffs in 2021–22?
Willie Green
Willie Green. His team won two play-in games to get there, then took two games off the top-seeded Suns, the club he had left as an assistant a year earlier.
Q 25Which team swept the Pelicans in their first playoff appearance under the new name in 2015?
Golden State Warriors
Golden State Warriors. The sweep opened their run to a first title in 40 years, and before the Finals began the Pelicans had hired the champions' lead assistant, Alvin Gentry, as their next coach.
Q 26Which centre did the Pelicans get from Sacramento in 2017 for a package including Buddy Hield?
DeMarcus Cousins
DeMarcus Cousins. He played in the 2017 All-Star Game in New Orleans as a visiting King and was traded to the home team the next day; a torn Achilles ended his stay in under a year.
Q 27The Pelicans landed Nikola Mirotić in 2018 after which Bulls teammate punched him in practice?
Bobby Portis
Bobby Portis. The punch left Mirotić with a concussion and facial fractures before the season began; within four months he had joined New Orleans, where he helped win a playoff series.
Q 28Which team did the Pelicans sweep in the 2018 first round for their second-ever playoff series win?
Portland Trail Blazers
Portland Trail Blazers. The sixth seed swept the third without its injured All-Star centre, holding Damian Lillard to 35 percent shooting across the four games.
Q 29Who inherited ownership of the Pelicans and Saints when the team's owner died in March 2018?
Gayle Benson
Gayle Benson. His widow got both teams because, three years earlier, he had cut his daughter and grandchildren out of the succession; they sued over his competence, and a court found him fit to decide.
Q 30The Pelicans won the 2019 lottery on a six percent chance and drafted Zion Williamson first overall from which college?
Duke
Duke. His one season there was a national event: when his shoe split open seconds into a game against North Carolina, the maker's market value fell by about $1.1 billion the next day.