All-Star Point Guard Jrue Holiday Admits New Orleans Pelicans Name Is 'Funny'

Jrue Holiday's new team makes him giggle.

Not because the thought of tweezing Anthony Davis' lone eyebrow prescribes fits of laughter, or even because he's been watching Austin Rivers shoot free throws. 

But because he plays for the New Orleans Pelicans.

“I mean, it’s funny, I’m not going to lie,” Holiday admitted of his team's name, per Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated. “It’s funny saying it. ‘We’re the Pelicans.’ But I’ve said it about half a million times now, so I’m used to it.”

First off, Holiday has been a member of the Pelicans for barely a month. If he's already said "Pelicans" half a million times, it's high time he embraced a more versatile vocabulary. 

Tough to argue against his amusement, though. Pelicans is a rather comical moniker to go by, especially for someone coming from the Sixers.

Alas, the Pelican is the Louisiana state bird. It would have been less funny (and more intimidating) had the state bird been a man-eating vulture, but it's not.

There's nothing hysterical about what the Pelicans have done since the season concluded, though. Acquiring Tyreke Evans and Holiday himself were two aggressive plays that made New Orleans a better team, with a brand spanking new core they can build around.

The Pelicans even seem to be thinking about the playoffs already.

“[Ownership and management] want us to be competitors,” Holiday said. “Starting off this year being the Pelicans, starting off something new, I think we’re doing it the right way. … We want to make the playoffs, especially with the moves that we made.”

Securing a postseason berth may be a tad ambitious this early into the experiment. The Western Conference is stacked. Finishing in the top eight isn't going to be an easy task.

That it's even able to be entertained without Holiday or anyone else laughing as hard as they did at the team name is what's truly important. 

As for the nickname itself, it's grown on Holiday.

“I love it, the Pelicans, [Louisiana's] state bird,” he said. “Our colors are nice, our logo is nice, we just started on a new slate.”

A fresh start, for a team angling towards something more than a reoccurring lottery finish. There's nothing funny about that.

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