So, the Conference Finals this year have been the Knicks and Cavs in the East (congrats to the Knicks for sweeping your way to the finals) and the Thunder and Spurs.

Fair warning that this is an opinion piece, so take it however you wish…

I find it sad that only one thing has been echoed loudly during this portion of the playoffs, and it was not at all the Knicks and their sweep. It was how ridiculous it is that SGA can’t stand up, and it is blatantly obvious he’s flopping, as does his entire team.

Gone are the days of physical basketball where there was some contact allowed. There was a time where you could hand check, there was a certain amount of body contact allowed, and most importantly, there were players who were good at drawing fouls without making it look ridiculously obvious.

I used to not like college basketball because I couldn’t believe how much contact was allowed before a foul was called. Now, I understand it more. At one point, there was indeed, more fouls being called in the NBA than in college because there was a little less leniency in the play of the game. The fouls were to keep players from endangering one another and also there was an expectation of playing basketball the right way and not sloppy.

Now, every sport, every official…they can control the tempo of the game, they can control how points are scored, and they can even control how long players wind up playing in a game, all from the toot of a whistle. 

Gone are the days where there was good physical play with the strongest and most skilled players could “rule the roost”. Now, the game is all about how shady you can be. How good of an actor you are can net you 20 foul shots in a game. This totally kills any chance for a game to have flow or any sort of pace to it.

I’m not targeting SGA for what he does, but he’s currently the primary person in the spotlight, and finally…FINALLY, the other teams, other players, EVERYONE is seeing it and saying something. I don’t believe anything will change until the NBA steps up and changes some rules.

I mean ask AI, and you get this:

AI Overview

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) hits the floor on 17.4% of his total playoff shot attempts. This rate is significantly higher than his star peers: James Harden (12%), Jalen Brunson (9%), Donovan Mitchell (8%), and Victor Wembanyama (4%). – Thank you, Instagram.

A detailed study tracking these falling percentages reveals the following breakdown:

·         On non-fouled shots: SGA falls to the floor 10.7% of the time.

·         On fouled shots: SGA hits the deck on 51.4% of his attempts.

Thank you Yahoo Sports

Players have tried to draw fouls for years, and some were very successful with it. Jordan got a fair share of those calls back in the day, but by the same token, the game was a lot more physical, and there had to be some pretty apparent contact to get the calls. Now, flail your arms, jerk your head back, fall to the floor, or grab a body part and a whistle is going to blow. Yes, things can be challenged, but the stoppage of the game play has already happened and a challenge just slows the game down that much more.

I love basketball. I love to play it, I love to watch it, and I love to write about it. It just isn’t the same game it once was. Live and die by the 3 is the norm versus rim rattling dunks, being a force in the paint with post up moves and shots, and players being known for their strength and skill. It’s just disappointing and honestly hard to watch.

Can the NBA fix the mess they have? Do they want to? What would make them try to fix it?

Money talks, right? If they aren’t making it…would they change what we have to suffer through?

Maybe the fans don’t mind, and I would to hear some feedback. I just know what I keep reading on “X”, Instagram, Facebook, etc., no one is really enjoying what they are seeing.

Thank you to Kyle Ingram for inspiring me to write this piece. 

His post on “X”:

“People will say “LaMelo needs to attack the rim more” or “He needs to figure out how to draw the foul” when the refs allow defenders to grab & push him “

He’s 100% right. If the refs won’t call it and he pushes to get the foul call by driving over and over, especially this season, he would have been on the injury report more than in the game. It’s sad. We would have the whole team injured before the officials would call a foul, putting us back at the bottom of the standings. 

That is the latest problem this season. We turn the franchise around and the NBA still refuses to call an even and fair game. It’s almost like they just keep reminding themselves that all of our dark years is our own reality and can’t let the REAL reality that we are now a good team exists

Refs can now, more easily than ever, control the game flow, game speed, dynamics on the floor, foul trouble of one team over another, number of foul shots attempted…it is not a good scene.

Watch a college basketball game and an NBA game.

College games, usually, the players get to play. Some contact is allowable. Basketball is a physical sport, but referees have to be consistent from start to finish, and a game that has tempo and flows is good, physical basketball.

Today’s NBA has turned into a game full of floppers. Players so desperate to shoot foul shots instead of showing strength and skill to score the ball. Play solid defense and have officiating be neutral. You have to allow the defense to play defense and make the offense play offense.

I honestly do not know how college players adapt to the NBA because college basketball is more like the NBA used to be than anything else. It’s happening in every sport anymore. I love basketball. I loved seeing teams battling it out, having some contact on plays, being physical. I want the teams to play hard and determine the outcome. I do not want the officials to control the game outcome. 

Imagine in the NCAA finals,  when the coach for Connecticut had his face locked against the ref’s. That ref calls a tech and the foul shots determine the outcome. It didn’t happen and thank God it didn’t. The NBA is a lot more subtle with their abilities, but they are getting sloppy. It’s easier to see favoritism to teams with more stars, with more popularity. The NBA is a business. Pro sports are businesses. They determine where to draw the lines between the skill of the players and the team’s ability to win or lose games. There’s more money in seeing Shai’s Thunder or Wemby’s Spurs playing Tatum and Brown’s Celtics, or Brunson’s Knicks than seeing a team like the Charlotte Bobcats…I mean Hornets, battle the Portland Trailblazers for the championship. 

Both teams have talented players and it would be fun to watch 2 young teams battle it out, but they aren’t the mainstream teams that have been on pedestals for years. The current pedestal teams have the NBA’s present “stars” on them, but even with the NBA draft putting college superstars on teams with the worst records, how would we ever see them play? The Hornets and Mavericks have had the best 2 players from the draft on the floor this year, battling for rookie of the year honors. The difference for those 2 is that one team is still gathering talent and the other one finally avoided the injury bug, established amazing chemistry, and started playing selfless, TEAM basketball. The result is that one team has been battling and clawing to make the playoffs for the first time in forever, and the pedestal teams have had to play starters against them at the end of the season in hopes of getting them out of the playoffs and the play-in.  Why is that? Because the Hornets have BECOME A FORMIDABLE THREAT IN THE NBA! No one wants to face us in the playoffs. The only way to keep us out is nights of 5 on 8 basketball, and even some nights, that hasn’t been enough. People will call me a “homer” in reading this. Just stop. I am a homer, but I’m realistic. If we were bad, I’d say we were bad and didn’t belong in the playoffs. I’d say we have been lucky we are where we are. I’ve watched a 7-win season and wrote 59 game recaps on how and why we lost. Not once was it just because of bad officiating. Talent is here. Chemistry is here. True team basketball is here. We have off nights, awkward lineups (which are sometimes necessary for many reasons), and we will lose games, but more often than not, we lose games because the refs swallow the whistle when we are on offense, or can’t stop blowing the whistle when we are on defense.

Sorry guys. I really thought about writing a game recap, or some sort of feel-good about our team and players, but I am choosing to point out what the league has become, and to share that one of the biggest drivers of the NBA Draft, the regular season, the playoffs, and the champions, are the NBA officials and the business…I mean team owners.

In the end, money talks and BS…well, you know.

Congratulations to the Greensboro Swarm on the G-League championship. Glad to see that in the G-League, they let teams, players, and talent determine the champions, and you guys 100% earned it.

Hello Hornets fans! Andrew Lail, writer from Trade Street Post here, dusting off the keyboard to be that, honest, to the point, straightforward writer that covered the Bobcats to Hornets for 12 years.

I think it may be time to “Bring Back the Post”.

Since I’ve been off the scene for a bit, bear with me. I wanted to start off by reintroducing myself, and to just let you know what Trade Street Post was all about. We were made up of a group of fans who loved NBA Basketball in Charlotte, we followed the Hornets until they were thrown to New Orleans. For me, I stopped paying much attention to the NBA until the Bobcats reappeared as the NBA in Charlotte again. TV coverage sucked, and the only way to see games were to find less-than-trustworthy feeds on the internet, or to listen to a radio broadcast. From those options, along with Yahoo having chat rooms, having back and forth banter with a few of the guys earned us the attention and the shot to run our own fan site. We would write game recaps player analysis, suggest trade ideas, and even offer up draft suggestion.

As we evolved, the goal became to become a voice. We didn’t want to be any voice, but to be the voice of the fans to the team. We also wanted to be the organization’s voice to the fans. Charlotte being a small-market team, there’s a closeness to the organization. The fans feel closer to the players. They feel like the guys are a part of their families. Because of that, fans can give some pretty harsh opinions. Harsh opinions can make families not talk. My goal was to always take fan opinions, filter them out and find better ways to share them with the team, then if the organization would respond, share it with the fans.

Enough about me, let’s talk about this team. These Hornets…our Murder Bees

Our Hornets are locked in to be in the playoffs this year. Aside from Charles Barkley and the TNT crew, who else knows? Who else is talking about the Hornets? What is it going to take to get respect in the league?

I ask this because I know we have all seen the foul shot discrepancies in our games. In an evenly called game, there are few teams in the league that can beat us. So, why can’t we get a fair shake?

Who can answer this for me?

What’s it going to take to get the NBA as a company and the officials to give us the respect we deserve.

We are, technically, poised to be the small-guy, underdog, hero-story of the NBA, should they be willing to embrace us.

Look at our franchise history:

Hornets franchise begins, leaves Charlotte, returns as the Bobcats who were historically bad, the GOAT of the NBA owns them and does nothing with them positively, and then, between passionate owners, great draft picks, good health, an amazing coach who has the locker room, and truly unselfish play, the Hornets climb up out of the darkness to become one of the most elite, talented, hard-working, blue-collar, and fun to watch teams that has ever existed.

There may be a run-on sentence or 2 in there, but damn it’s powerful and true.

As for our team and injuries this season, or the lack thereof, look at the makeup of this team.

I think…

no…I know that players like Kon, Kalkbrenner, and Miller have played games with nagging injuries, but there is a reason for that.

It’s a simple reason.

These guys want to play and they want to win. They want to be competitive and they want to lift Hornets basketball up to where it should be.

The toughness that they are showing is inspirational and it is writing the narrative of what this team is becoming It is defining our character and what our culture is. That Hive Mentality. It is a very real thing

Our rookies and other young talent has stepped in and shown the vets that they aren’t giving up, and they will play through pain, bad calls, missed calls, or whatever the league throws at them in order to get those wins…that was what was in their DNA. That DNA infected the entire team. Guys like Melo and Miles , the leaders, saw this and stepped up to be the leaders they needed to be.

Coach Lee did what he had to do in order to learn his players, to push them to their limits, and keep them out of their comfort zone.

Add in a guy with a motor and energy like Moussa, the support of Pat C. Cheering from the bench, and the passion for the city, for his hometown in Grant Williams. People have to understand the impact this creates and the importance of team chemistry.

The new ownership, the GM, the coaching staff, and anyone/everyone that has any sort of team contact to make the culture build and grow(and yes, we as fans are included in that…making a home court advantage a real thing again). We are all a part of an amazing group of chemists that have put all we have now together and created the culture of this team and given it a solid and positively image again

We even get to look forward to PJ Hall, Liam McNeely, to Salaün grow their talent and be solid layers for n the very near future.

Our draft picks have been stellar. These are actual good players that will be able to help the team.

Now factor in that we have first round picks this summer from other teams that will be mid-range in the draft, and a deep talent pool to choose from.

I truly believe that we are entering that era where we are not a middling team anymore, but will be a perennial playoff team for years to come. It’s been a long time coming.

Hive Mentality y’all

#KeepSwarming!

By D.A. Lail, edited by Andrew Lail

Everyone has their own opinions about racing at Daytona. Some love it and some hate it. With this playoff format that is in place, I’m starting to be one of the ones that hate it.

I’m starting to agree it’s a damn miracle no one gets killed. The playoffs format that NASCAR has in place basically only rewards wins. The result that comes from that is that everyone not in the playoffs drives like a maniac to win to make playoffs. This results in drivers having no regard for who they are racing.

I think this the case because after years of drivers talking big and bad saying “I’m gonna get their ass come next weekend”, then not doing anything the following week has given drivers a sense of security. They think, “I’ll drive though him to get this win because he won’t really get me back.” Then, If they actually do get them back and wreck them, NASCAR calls you to the hauler and throws you under the bus for getting revenge. This prompts drivers to stop getting payback, which then prompts drivers to think I’ll drive though him and NASCAR will protect me.

Prime example would be Ross Chastain. No one is going to do anything to get him back because he’s caused so many wrecks, it would be obvious if they retaliated against him. Larson knew that in racing teammates, he knows Chase can’t flat out wreck him because that will piss off Rick Hendrick, their team owner, and make everything worse. He can say he is sorry and will do the same thing the next week.

So how does this get fixed? No more “stages”. No more “overtime”. No more playoffs.

Dominant teams with skilled drivers will win races. They will also be consistent. Drivers and teams will be rewarded for being consistent and will be in the hunt at the end of the year. Basically, do what worked for 70+ years. Also, make the NASCAR rule book public. If you need guidance on this NASCAR, please see Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Richard Petty, and Carl Edwards.

You want the sport to grow? Stop trying to neutralize the field so “everyone can be a winner”.

“We have to be mindful of not taking our fans for granted.” 

– NBA Commissioner Adam Silver

The landscape of sports is changing. As players gain more power, so does the equity of the fan with ever growing ways in which they can engage with a team. There are only so many signs in an arena and there are only so many spots for activation spaces for partners of sports teams to pop their tent up and get fans engaged in their product or make impressions. The expansion is mostly digital/social and creating new ways to get in-front of fans at home and outside the arena.

Beyond the success of a sports team this is the main way teams are increasing their profits. Selling additional assets to partners. My point being in bringing up all this boring stuff is that the level of which fans choose to engage with teams is what makes them more money. Fans have been told they aren’t necessarily needed in sports and media has played a role in downplaying their importance as well but if the pandemic has taught us anything around sports and events… That is simply not true. That asset talk will come into play later.

Charlotte sports have become the frontier of innovation in supporters groups and what the fan experience truly means. From Roaring Riot to all of the Charlotte FC Supporter groups ( I always hate to name names because there are so many and they all deserve recognition. So to avoid being rude I will be broad) and dare I give ourselves a compliment?

Though they may not reach every fan the groups have done a tremendous job of doing some pretty revolutionary stuff at a grassroots level for a town that is pegged as not being a sports town. Charlotte deserves to pat itself on the back for that. Across Charlotte we truly are a Hornets nest of rebellion and fans are fighting to “CHANGE THE CULTURE”. The oldest sports team in this town is barely in their 30’s and the generation that grew up with these teams have taken the reigns with a vengeance to change the “wine and cheese” narrative. This city grows so fast that I often think we do not take a moment to marvel in what has happened because we are eager for the next task. So this is my “kudos to you Charlotte!”. When we started Bring Back The Buzz 11-12 years ago we couldn’t have imagined this city would be doing this from soccer to football to basketball and beyond.

That being said, we’ve still got some work to do. “what’s next?”

Last year for the first time in about 5 years my brother and I left the bottom bowl of Spectrum Arena and went back up top. There were several factors but the driving force for us was that it rarely felt like we were surrounded by “fans”. Up top we sit next to the same fans every night who care about the team and for some being their took sacrifices. They love this team. They become friends you see every night and talk about family with and have conversations about the roster and rotations I’ve rarely had down low. Also, the chances of me being asked to sit in the 4th quarter when the game is tied with 4 minutes left severely drops.

Now I’m not saying there aren’t passionate fans down below because we know them by name as a fanbase from Jameet, Charlotte Man, Sombrero Man etc. But the issue is they are speckled around the lower bowl. We’ve all made the jokes about how the lower bowl has a corporate vibe. Companies giving their best sales man of the month tickets to the game and he shows up wearing a blue and yellow polo unaware we are even playing the Pacers. We lack a real presence as fans in the paint.

On our trip to Atlanta for Crown Club pictured above we had an interesting experience. We were organized and loud in the upper bowl. plenty of Hornets fans in the arena. similar to how we feel sometimes in Charlotte when we look around and see a lot of opposing fans… The only thing that took us out of the game was (honestly we were losing bad BUT) that Atlanta had a supporters section that drowned us out because they had more numbers (home), were together, were organized and close to the court.

Next, we went to NOLA…

This time in New Orleans we sat down low next to the basket. Not a massive amount of people. about 30 in our section and 40+ around the arena.

We took over Smoothie King Center. New Orleans fans and media took to twitter to talk about how loud we were. We were getting messages from people hearing us through the broadcast as Dell and Eric commented on the presence. Sam Farber mentioned it on the radio broadcast BUT most importantly I could see the shock in the Hornets players eyes. I’m not gonna say those fans changed the outcome of the game but I will say they put a little bounce in the player’s steps. There were less of us BUT it sure didn’t feel like it.

Just a handful of fans in New Orleans did that. Imagine what could be done at the Hive with a similar collection of people to lead chants, stand all game and ensure this small market still has hope for a home court advantage when the Knicks, Lakers and Celtics of the league come to town.

Some of you may recall the Cat Crazies of the Bobcats days… a seven win season was not kind to those faithful warriors but it proves there has been a seed of this desire for quite some time in this city. Now just is the proper season to water and nurture that if we want to “Change the Culture”. We’ve seen the success of such an operation across town and even Tepper mentioned his desire to bring a section for the Panthers one day in the future.

The issue with the Panthers and Hornets is 20-30 years of season tickets, corporate sponsors seats etc. that you would need in order to carve out this section. Well Atlanta proved to me it’s possible if the desire from the team is there.

I think your average fan can see the benefit of such a section especially with recent evidence. The issue is the aforementioned desire from a team. Which brings in my opening paragraphs. Where can the fans create that desire? By the section being a partner branded asset that the team can sell.

I can already hear the groans but when some thing is dug in so deeply for so long we do not have the luxury of being a Charlotte FC who had a section from the very beginning. It will be a grind. The sponsored asset is likely needed to move the needle for the Hornets.

The key to the success of this is that this is a relationship of all parties and in order to succeed needs to be authentic in nature. The Hornets and partner must understand that the value in this section IS the fan and if you are going to have a “supporters section” the supporters need to be involved.

THIS was not an article on HOW but more about the WHY so I will not get into the details of 70% STH and %30 and all the logistics at this point. This article was to articulate that Charlotte is growing up and we have innovative ideas on how we want to support our teams. We would like that opportunity to build our culture especially when it can be a win on and off the floor for the Hornets.