Cleverly, Williamson has associated himself with the sport that people care most about here — football — appearing at games involving the Saints, Tulane and Louisiana State. And he has developed a kind of bromance with Brees, the Super Bowl winner who gave him a framed jersey that said, “To Zion — Passing the torch to you!” For this summer’s ESPY Awards, Brees dressed his three sons in maroon tuxedos almost identical to the one that Williamson wore.

Football’s imprimatur has been more than enough to persuade Pelicans fans. An estimated 10,000 showed up for a public practice. The team has sold more than 12,000 season-ticket packages, a franchise record. Its lone home preseason game drew an announced sellout of 17,954. There were empty seats but no vacant enthusiasm.

“The only thing that would come close for me to what we’re experiencing with Zion would be David Robinson getting out of the Navy and coming to San Antonio,” said Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry, who was an assistant with the Spurs in the 1989-90 season.

New Orleans is not a place that expects perfection. It is patient and willing to grant second chances. It stuck by the Saints through 20 consecutive nonwinning seasons as an expansion franchise. But just as this city knows how to put out the welcome mat, it knows how to hold a grudge, even if playfully.

After a referee’s blown pass-interference call during the N.F.C. championship game in January probably kept the Saints out of the Super Bowl, the town held a Boycott Bowl parade and concert. Less gleefully, a Saints fan filed a lawsuit against the N.F.L. that reached the state supreme court in Louisiana before being dismissed.

So when Davis asked to be traded, and then was after last season, it was no surprise that feelings were hurt. To hear fans tell it, it was not just that Davis left, but the way he left — wearing a “That’s all folks!” T-shirt to his final game in New Orleans.

“We might be ‘the City that Care Forgot,’ but it’s not that we don’t care,” said Rick Sanchez, a Pelicans season-ticket holder. “You can’t leave us high and dry. You don’t want to be with us, we don’t want to be with you.”