NBA executive: Pelicans' ownership 'only cares about the Saints'

With Anthony Davis able to opt out of his contract with the New Orleans Pelicans after the 2019-20 season, the NBA's smallest media market is being thrust into the spotlight.

But there's a perception that within the Pelicans' own house, the golden child is their sister organization, the New Orleans Saints.

"The organization only cares about the Saints," an unnamed NBA executive told NBC Sports' Tom Haberstroh.

Both franchises are owned by Gayle Benson, who inherited the teams after the death of her husband, Tom Benson, in March 2018.

With a 13-3 record this season, the Saints secured the top seed in the National Football Conference, earning a bye to a divisional matchup in the playoffs. The Pelicans, currently 17-22 as their regular season approaches the halfway mark, sit 14th place in the NBA's Western Conference.

But beyond the differences in the recent on-field and on-court results, there is a significant amount of operational synergy between the two teams. The Pelicans are the only NBA team that shares its staffing and practice facility grounds with a football team. Mickey Loomis, Pelicans president of basketball operations, is also the Saints' general manager.

In particular, the overlap between the teams' training staffs - populated heavily by those with a background in football - has raised the eyebrows of someone close to superstar big man Davis: his longtime trainer, Marcell Scott.

"Let the Saints be the Saints," Scott told Haberstroh. "They get all the recognition (in New Orleans) anyways. As a city, we need basketball guys with basketball guys and football guys with football guys. That's how you get better as an organization."