Poor New Orleans Hornets fans. The NBA team started the season miserably at 4-21, and ticket holders entered the New Orleans Arena on Wednesday night for what was probably going to be a beatdown by the 21-6 Chicago Bulls.

At least the Hornets faithful got some smiles on their faces before the drubbing, thanks to extended-stay visitor and actor/comedian Will Ferrell.

Ferrell, in New Orleans to shoot the movie "Dog Fight," introduced the starting lineups Wednesday night. And as Ferrell told it, Chicago Bulls star Carlos Boozer was not only a 6-foot-9 forward but also someone who "still stays with his mother."

Ferrell took biographic license with all 10 starters, sprinkling their introductions with presumably not-exactly-true nuggets and aspirations, such as Hornets guard Jarrett Jack wanting to become a rodeo clown, Bulls forward Luol Deng owning a pet dolphin named Chachi, Bulls guard Derrick Rose claiming "The Notebook" as his favorite movie, and Bulls center Joakim Noah being a horrible dancer.

(Well, he may have gotten that last one right.)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv3bYWuUUng]

The players seemed to go along with the ribbing by Ferrell, who played an ABA player/team owner in the 2008 movie "Semi-Pro." Hornets center Emeka Okafor looked like he was amused after hearing that at the University of Connecticut, he "majored in econ, but he minored in love."

After the game, which the Bulls won in a 90-67 blowout, Deng claimed he didn't hear his intro. But having learned about it later, he said he felt the Funny or Die co-creator let him off easy.

"To be honest with you, running out, I was worried he might say something worse. Saying that, I was like, 'All right, I got away with one,' " Deng told ESPNChicago.com.

ESPN Radio's Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic liked what they heard.

"You know what had to be so good about this is nobody saw it coming," Golic said during their radio show Thursday morning. "All of the sudden you see Will Ferrell walk out, and on the court you've got to be going, 'Uh oh.' "

Bulls guard Ronnie Brewer, whose introduction had him allegedly eating 20 hot dogs in an hour, had this to tweet following the game:

"And to those whose asked I've never ate 20 hotdogs in an hr thanks Will Ferrell for the lies lol," Brewer posted on Twitter.