demand would anger other owners as it could set a precedent. The city council refused to remove the statement, leading the Hornets to request a move to New Orleans—a move which would eventually return the NBA to that city for the first time since the Jazz moved to Salt Lake City in 1979. Before the Hornets were eliminated from the playoffs, the NBA approved the move. As part of a deal, the NBA promised that Charlotte would get a new team, which took the court two years later as the Charlotte Bobcats. In a 2008 interview with The Charlotte Observer, Shinn, who has not returned to Charlotte since the Hornets moved, admitted that the "bad judgment I made in my life" played a role in the Hornets' departure. He also said that if he had it to do all over again, he would not have withdrawn from the public after the sexual assault trial. Shinn emphasized how he was making amends by committing to New Orleans saying, "I've made enough mistakes in my life. I'm not going to make one here. This city needs us here. We're going to make this (New Orleans) thing work." The Hornets opened their inaugural season in New Orleans on October 30, 2002, against New Orleans' original NBA franchise, the Utah Jazz. In the first regular season NBA game played in New Orleans in over 17 years, the Hornets defeated the Jazz 100–75, and posthumously retired #7 of "Pistol" Pete Maravich during halftime. The Hornets finished the season with a 47–35 record but were defeated by the Philadelphia 76ers in the First Round of the 2003 playoffs. Following the season, the team unexpectedly fired head coach Paul Silas and replaced him with Tim Floyd. The Hornets began the 2003–04 season strong with a 17–7 start but sputtered at the end and finished 41–41. They lost to the Miami Heat in the First Round of the 2004 playoffs. After the season, Floyd was fired and the team hired Byron Scott as its new head coach. During the first two seasons in New Orleans, the Hornets competed in the NBA's Eastern Conference. The 2004–05 season saw the team move to the Western Conference's Southwest Division to even the number of teams in each conference after the Charlotte Bobcats started play in their inaugural season of that same year. In a season marred by injuries to the team's