Hornets Believe: Six Players Visit Hornets Day at the Zoo
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com
February 15, 2011
If you could be any animal at the world-famous Audubon Zoo in the uptown portion of the city of New Orleans, which creature would you choose?
Hornets players Aaron Gray, D.J. Mbenga and David Andersen answered that question and several others during their visit to the team’s annual Hornets Day at the Zoo event on Sunday, Feb. 13. The fun-filled four-hour event, which also featured appearances by the Hornets’ entertainment teams including the Honeybees and Stingers, was attended by hundreds of fans. Many of the attendees arrived wearing Hornets jerseys or other team apparel.
After tossing free T-shirts to a large crowd of fans, Gray told the audience that he would prefer to be a lion, because “it’s the king of the jungle.” Mbenga’s animal of choice was a tiger – the 7-footer then growled into a microphone to pretend he was one, to the delight of a multitude of youngsters who were listening. Meanwhile, Andersen – a native of Australia – said he’d like to be an animal that is common in his home country, a kangaroo.
The trio of players joined teammates Trevor Ariza, Willie Green and Marco Belinelli in interacting throughout the day with zoo visitors, including signing autographs for everyone in a lengthy line of Hornets fans. When asked to name his favorite animal that lives in the Audubon Zoo, Ariza asked “Do they have lions here?” After being told that yes, there are lions at Audubon, Ariza agreed with Gray on his choice of favorite animal.
Meanwhile, Green said that his favorite animal is “all of them.” The husband and father of young children added, “I enjoy seeing all of the different types of animals they have here. I like to just walk around the zoo with my family and have a great time.”
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