Everyone understood that selling the NBA on New Orleans, a small market that already had a professional football team and lacked corporate sponsors, would be difficult. “We were long shots,” Thornton said. At the time, the median household income in New Orleans was $38,000 a year. On top of that, New Orleans’ TV market — which ranked 43rd nationally — would have been the smallest in the NBA. NBA commissioner David Stern had not hid his feelings that he was deeply skeptical of the move. “Stern, he resisted,” Wooldridge said. “It was a question of whether two pro teams could survive in that smaller market. Of course, he (Stern) had had a bad experience previously with the Jazz.”