Hornets Morphing into Pelicans

The new name for the basketball team formally known as the New Orleans Hornets has been announced. They will become the Pelicans. This was done to give the team a name more indicative of the region, to honor an old baseball team of the same name and because the brown pelican is the state bird.

But somehow, I can't visualize a pelican as embodying the grace, speed and accuracy that the game of basketball represents. And it reminds of an old poem that used to hang in the family cottage by the lake when I was a child:

A strange old bird is the pelican.
Its bill can hold more than its belly can.
It can hold in its beak,
Enough food for a week.
Although I don't know how the hell he can!