The New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets announced today that
they have signed second round pick Brandon Bass.  Bass was selected by the Hornets with the 33rd overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft.

"Brandon had a stellar collegiate career that we followed closely at LSU and we look forward to his progression as a basketball player this season," said Head Coach Byron Scott.  "We became even more impressed with him as a person
once we got to know him."

The New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets announced today that
they have traded guard Dan Dickau to Boston in exchange for a 2006 second round pick.   Dickau, who became an unrestricted free agent following the end of the regular season, was signed by the Hornets before the trade in order to facilitate the deal.

"After we drafted Chris Paul, it became obvious that Dan would look to sign elsewhere in order to have a chance to compete for a starting point guard job," said Hornets Head Coach Byron Scott.  "Making this trade gives Dan that chance, which he earned by what he did for us last season, and it also prevents us from losing him without compensation.  We wish him the best of luck in Boston."

Dickau averaged 13.2 points and 5.2 assists in 67 games for the Hornets last season.  He was acquired along with a 2005 second round draft choice from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for guard Darrell Armstrong on Dec. 3, 2004.

George Shinn, owner of the New Orleans Hornets, predicts they will sell out all 35 of their home games in their temporary home this season in Oklahoma City.
"This is a wonderful market," Shinn said in a Rotary Club speech Tuesday. "It is just ripe for what we're trying to do."

More than 6,500 deposits have been placed on tickets since the team announced last week it will play this season in the 19,675-seat Ford Center, because the New Orleans Arena, where the Hornets normally play, was damaged by Hurricane Katrina and could take months to repair. Single-game tickets have not gone on sale yet.

Shinn said he was so shaken in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he hadn't contemplated relocating the team until NBA commissioner David Stern asked where the Hornets games were going to be played. Stern suggested Oklahoma City, Shinn said.

"I said, Oklahoma City? Are you kidding me?" Shinn recalled. "I'm serious. I didn't really think this would be a good market."

The New Orleans Hornets on Tuesday chose Southern Nazarene University as their training facility while they spend the upcoming season in Oklahoma City.

The Hornets will practice at the 7-year-old Sawyer Center on the NAIA school's campus in suburban Bethany. The team will use a spare locker room and have its own storage area.

"We did an exhaustive tour of all the possible facilities in the Oklahoma City region, and the Sawyer Center is a fantastic facility that exceeds all of the criteria that we had," Hornets coach Byron Scott said.

Terms of the Hornets' relocation agreement with Oklahoma City require the training facility have four treatment tables, two whirlpools, a coaches' office, a media room and a secured parking area. Oklahoma City will pay for the Hornets' use of the training facility, but can be reimbursed for the expenses if the team exceeds its revenues from last season.

NBA Commissioner David Stern announced today that Oklahoma City will be home to the New Orleans Hornets for the 2005-06 season, playing host to 35 regular season games.  The team will also play six regular season games in Louisiana.

?The devastation of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region has made it necessary for the Hornets to move to a temporary location for the upcoming season,? Stern said. ?Fortunately, the Hornets have received a gracious invitation from Mayor Mick Cornett and the business leaders and citizens of Oklahoma City to play their home games in the Ford Center, a first-class facility that we hope to fill with new Hornets fans this

season.?

The team will also play six home games at the Pete Maravich Center on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

?It was important to the Hornets and the NBA that we maintain a presence in Louisiana in anticipation of a return to New Orleans next season,? Stern said.

The New Orleans Hornets, displaced by Hurricane Katrina, could receive as much as $10 million from Oklahoma City, the state of Oklahoma and a group of businessmen as a fail-safe in case the team's temporary move to the state is not successful, according to an agreement pending approval by the Oklahoma City Council.

The agreement, which will come to a vote by the council Wednesday morning, calls for Oklahoma City to pay for the Hornets' use of the 19,675-seat Ford Center, a practice facility, downtown office space and housing for the upcoming season. If the team does not earn 5 percent more in local revenue than it made in New Orleans last season, Oklahoma City would be required to pay up to $10 million to the Hornets.

The state and a group of businessmen who have not yet been named have agreed to split those expenses if the Hornets do not meet the revenue benchmark of approximately $40 million, which would be adjusted downward if some games are scheduled outside of Oklahoma City.

However, if the team exceeds last season's revenues by more than 5 percent, Oklahoma City would receive 80 percent of the proceeds to cover its expenses. If all the city's costs are covered, the team and the city would split the remaining profits in half.

"The city will share a little bit of the risk, but the NBA is taking the vast majority of the risk in this deal," Mayor Mick Cornett said. "This is an untapped market, an unproven market for them. We're very appreciative that they're showing the confidence in us that they are."

Cornett said he expected the city council to give the deal unanimous approval.

"The intangibles are huge. To be able to illustrate your city on a worldwide global stage like the NBA is an opportunity not offered to very many mayors in very many cities," Cornett said. "It puts us in a level of equality with a lot of cities that we've never had that level of equality with before."

Troy Bell is home this weekend in Minneapolis while taking a break from workouts in Chicago.

Bell, 24, is expected to sign soon with the New Orleans Hornets, who might move training camp to Colorado because of the Hurricane Katrina devastation.

He was designated the amnesty victim of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Oklahoma City has reached a tentative agreement with the New Orleans Hornets to play at least part of the NBA team's upcoming season at the Ford Center, The Oklahoman reported on its Web site late Sunday.

Mayor Mick Cornett said a proposed lease is being drafted and he was not sure the public would have a chance to review it before the city council is asked to approve it at a special meeting Wednesday morning.

"We're calling a council meeting as soon as we can," Cornett told The Associated Press late Sunday.

Cornett said he expects a formal announcement before then by the NBA and team owners that the Hornets will play at least part of their 41-game home schedule at the Ford Center, which seats 19,675 when configured for basketball games.

"Everything is going well, but we still have a few details to work out," Cornett said.

A person with knowledge of the league?s negotiations told ESPN.com that it is very likely that some of the Hornets games will be played in the state of Louisiana -- in Baton Rouge -- but Oklahoma City is the clear front-runner if the team needs to play somewhere else.  The Ford Center in Oklahoma City, opened just three years ago, holds a capacity of 19,675 and was built to host NBA/NHL events.

Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett said he believes his city is the first option if all the games can't be played in the state of Louisiana. "They made it clear that they liked what they saw and that our arena was appropriate for NBA games," Cornett said. The mayor would not divulge any other details of a proposed lease such as some sort of ticket guarantee.

It's been 20 years since an NBA team called Kansas City home, but Kemper Arena still remains in the picture as a haven for the New Orleans Hornets.

Peter Fink, vice president of NBA Entertainment, toured Kemper last Thursday, a day before a five-member delegation of NBA officials visited Oklahoma City's Ford Center.

The Hornets' home court, the New Orleans Arena, is adjacent to the Superdome, which sustained an estimated $100 million in damage from Hurricane Katrina, and the club could be looking for shelter even beyond this season.

If the Hornets were to relocate for more than one season, they could be a candidate to move into the Sprint Center when it opens in the fall of 2007.

"We pretty much put this year and beyond on the table," said Larry Hovick, general manager of Kemper Arena. "But they're just looking around. In an effort to assist the Hornets, they are scouting the cities that have interest and fact-finding. They didn't say yea, nay, or otherwise.

"We have heard they want to stay closer to home, but we don't know at this time."