Voodoo doctor: Pelicans are 'jinxed'
Alvin Gentry asked for a voodoo doctor to chime in on the New Orleans Pelicans' spate of injuries, and one took the call.
Belfazaar Ashantison, a Bayou-local voodoo practitioner for 25 years, told Brett Dawson of The Advocate that the Pelicans' troubles can be blamed on the supernatural.
"I do believe, honestly, that they are jinxed, for lack of a better word," Ashantison said. "I think there’s a negative energy that keeps surrounding them."
Tortured by ill-health since the preseason, the Pelicans dropped from a 45-win season to a paltry record of 27-46. Every projected starter has missed an extended stretch, and the team has had to call upon five additional players on 10-day contracts to get by.
Their injury sheet as of Tuesday was positively ridiculous. In all, the Pelicans have missed 267 games due to injury and are slated for 63 more absences through the final nine games of the season.
| Player | Injury |
|---|---|
| Anthony Davis | Left knee |
| Ryan Anderson | Sports hernia |
| Quincy Pondexter | Left knee |
| Tyreke Evans | Right knee |
| Bryce Dejean-Jones | Right wrist |
| Eric Gordon | Right finger |
| Jrue Holiday | Right eye |
| Alonzo Gee | Right quad |
| Norris Cole | Lower back |
Priestess Cinnamon Black of the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum has a solution.
"You would do a ritual of some sort," Black said. "You would do a blessing. I would give them a gris-gris bag for good health."
Ashantison proposes something else. He sees the Pelicans as weighted down by too much negativity, and suggests spiritual cleaning.
"The easy way around that is a spiritual cleansing," he said. "There’s a number of different ones you could do."
Whatever the solution may be, it's too late to save the season. The Pelicans can only take the steps necessary - both physically and spiritually - to prevent a repeat.