Stern: Horents have not applied for new name yet

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- NBA Commissioner David Stern says the New Orleans Hornets have yet to file required paperwork with the league to change the team's name.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- NBA Commissioner David Stern says the New Orleans Hornets have yet to file required paperwork with the league to change the team's name.

However, Stern says he won't object to whatever new name Hornets owner Tom Benson might choose because he knows it will be "sensible," and that the league could expedite the process.

Stern is visiting New Orleans as part of regularly scheduled travel to league cities.

Benson has said since purchasing the club last spring that he would like a new name more representative of the region, rather than the name that came with the team from Charlotte in 2002.

Benson owns the rights to the name Pelicans, once a New Orleans minor league baseball team, but Stern says the Hornets have filed to protect five unspecified names.