As I sit in the library reading article after article written by other NBA franchise citiy’s papers discussing their upcoming games against the Bobcats, I grow more and more frustrated by our situation. One jokes about the game like why worry about it, lets focus on the next match up. Another takes it more serious but talks as if they feel sorry for OUR franchise. The next discusses our potential and youth and how in years to come we will be better. NONE of them analytically address the game that is coming the night of the articles’ conceptions!
As I log off the computer I am swept by this feeling of utter HOPELESSNESS . I stand up and subconsciously scan the rows of computers in front of me and what do I see?…4 Charlotte Hornets hats scattered throughout the room. A smile creeps on my face and I decide to go up to each person and find out their stories. Here I am Mr. Bring Back The Buzz (friends jokingly appointed name) wearing a Bobcats hat. This is gonna be interesting.
The first one is a husky guy, late twenties, obviously a graduate student hard at work. I talk to Chris for a good 10 minutes. In this time I found out how his father use to take him to Hornets games growing up and that he lost his interest in the NBA early into the 2nd season of the Bobcats. Surprisingly not for lack of skill on the team but from the absense of emotional connection with the young franchise. Of course I ask him about the possible rebrand and how he felt about it. He becomes reanimated with this new topic and he says “They could count me as a fan!”
I shake hands and say goodbye to Chris and walk over to two gentlemen sitting close to one another. While I talk to these two guys, they tell me that they are both in an English class and got assigned a group project together. They both arrived at the library simultaneously adorned in Charlotte Hornets hats. They are both Bobcats fans excited for a fresh start and identity that means something to the city they both were born and raised in. The average fans emotion. Very similar to me!
Finally I walk up to a very pretty brunette sitting by herself perusing Facebook. I ask her about the hat and she tells me that it is her boyfriend’s hat (who is from Hickory) and that she stole it from him. I laugh and ask her why she took this treasured good from her boyfriend. She says that even tho it is his favorite hat she just loves the colors and hes just going to have to deal with the fact that is hers now.
As I leave the library I look back on the encounters I just had and realize. Wow, I just ran into every type of fan there is. You have the “Old Purist”, “The Thick and Thins” and the “Bandwagon Rider”! This movement caters to every type! This is Charlotte Hornets 2.0
I push through the double doors with a renewed sense of HOPE and hits me, that’s “The Hornets Effect”