Via USA Today
I woke up this morning pretty angry.
Last night was a very rare occasion where neither one of us could either attend or watch the game. I can count on one hand how many times that has happened over our 7-8 years of existence but when we got the notification that we were heading into overtime with the Bulls our reaction was similar to this…
We have maintained for a long time that this team was just at times painfully mediocre with the potential to be above average. BUT when you can’t muster up the effort to beat a team that is on a 10 game losing streak at home…. WE ARE BAD RIGHT NOW!!!
Fun Fact: We were the last team the Bulls beat before they started their 10 game losing streak AND since the beginning of the season the Bulls have won 4 games… the Hornets account for 2 of them.
Many would say “But we were missing Cody, Frank, Lamb and Clifford”… NO. I refuse to let that be an excuse when we had our top 4 highest paid players on the court with our All-Star point guard. you win that game against the worst team in the league. You not only win it but by the time the 4th quarter rolls around we should have a comfortable enough lead that we get to showcase our rookie Monk to the home crowd and get him some needed playing time.
Rightfully so, Hornets fans showcased their anger and frustration with the franchise last night on social media. We mostly watched and listened and asked them a few questions. Here are some of the polls we asked on Twitter.
That’s a telling stat right there. It’s pretty Incredible that Kemba Walker is an All-Star BUT because of this team… he’s not. Because of this team we have many that believe Kemba, The player who has done more for this franchise than any player in Hornets history, may have to be coughed up to start over.
The $72,000,000 man. I mean… Who in the league would even touch that contract with him? Even if we wanted to, who would we have to package with him to make it even remotely digestible for another team? Dwight? the one sliver of hope we’ve had this season. Marvin? He hasn’t done anything since the Miami Heat playoff series. MKG? Monk? Now that would hurt. Let’s not even talk about it.
AHH the great debate. The process. Do we/you trust it? I mean haven’t we waited long enough in “NBA Purgutaory” (copyrighted BBTB 2015)? Haven’t we as a fan base done our time? 16 years and counting since we’ve won a playoff series. It took 14 to get a single playoff win. And would you even trust a franchise that has drafted MKG, Cody and Frank? But what is another 3, 4, 5 years of waiting to a Hornets fan?
Who’s fault is this?
And the peasants look past the soldiers and slowly lift their heads up to look at the nobles and king in the castle.
Let’s be honest. This franchise has done nothing for what looks like its going to be 14 seasons now. We’ve had 6 coaches in the past 10 years. The fan base threw them a raft with the rebrand begging the them to show life and things are beginning to feel all too familiar again. The rebrand was never meant to be the “fix”. It was meant to be a second chance to get things right. This may be shocking to some of you but this stint has been around for just about the same amount of time as the original Charlotte Hornets franchise.
Now I’m a visual guy so let’s take a look at the progress reports lined up.
| Original Hornets | Take 2 |
| 1988-89 | 20-62 | 2004-05 | 18-64 |
| 1989-90 | 19-63 | 2005-06 | 26-56 |
| 1990-91 | 26-56 | 2006-07 | 33-49 |
| 1991-92 | 31-51 | 2007-08 | 32-50 |
| 1992-93 | 44-38 E. Conf. Semis | 2008-09 | 35-47 |
| 1993-94 | 41-41 | 2009-10 | 44-38 E. Conf. 1st Rnd |
| 1994-95 | 50-32 E. Conf. 1st Rnd | 2010-11 | 34-48 |
| 1995-96 | 41-41 | 2011-12 | 7-59 |
| 1996-97 | 54-28 E. Conf. 1st Rnd. | 2012-13 | 21-61 |
| 1997-98 | 51-31 E. Conf. Semis | 2013-14 | 43-39 E. Conf. 1st Rnd. |
| 1998-99 | 26-24 | 2014-15 | 33-49 |
| 1999-00 | 49-33 E. Conf. 1st Rnd. | 2015-16 | 48-34 E. Conf. 1st Rnd. |
| 2000-01 | 46-36 E. Conf. Semis | 2016-17 | 36-46 |
| 2001-02 | 44-38 E. Conf. Semis | 2017-18 | ? |
Around the 6th season the Original Hornets had established themselves, besides the 1998-99 lockout season, as a consistent mid-40 win team that you could occasionally expect to break 50 on a good year. Consistent isn’t even a word I like using in the same sentence as the “Take 2”.
Now I know it’s not exactly fair to compare the 2 of them but it is more or less showing what can be done in 14 season and what we have done in 14 seasons.
This is the result, in our humble opinion, of complacency. As a fan base we’ve knocked the hornets nest before and forced, what felt like kicking and screaming, this organization into giving back our name. We deserve better. We should demand better. We have done our part to support this organization even when they didn’t exactly earn it and we have very little to show for it in return.
The question is what do we believe as fans we should do to make this change happen?
Bring Back the Buzz 
Complacency?!?! It’s incompetentcies! From the on court product (can’t draft, can’t trade, can’t properly decide who to re-sign), to the arena experience (same soundtrack from the 90s, upper deck concessions closed midweek, bullshit halftime shows such as CLT kids got talent, local high school bands etc)…this is an organizational issue.
I grew up in CLT and love the Hornets and the NBA, but I’ve cancelled my season tix until Cho leaves. I’m not letting his incompetent foodie self wipe his ass with one more of my dollars while destroying this franchise.
This rebuild will take a Hail Mary. Blowing it up isn’t an option. Players contracts won’t allow it and besides, as long as Jordan has final say on drafts, we will continue to miss out on the Klays, Bookers and Donavan Mitchell’s of the world bc Kemba won a title and Kaminsky and Monk had big games in college against uNC.
This fan base won’t take a rebuild either. They love UNC and Duke bc they win. They don’t need the Hornets. Quit making excuses. Rich Cho needs to go. The only thing that should be on his food blog until he gets fired is dicks. Sautéed, fried, deep dish, boiled, broiled, or puréed. He can have em all, but get him the hell outta town
Sounds like conditional loyalty to me.. Sounds like ppl spoiled from watching too much Unc and Duke basketball who also try and ignore their football teams bc they just can’t. Injuries aside, I still don’t think the team should be in panic mode but yeah that loss against the Bulls did look pathetic. The franchise does deserve more from Nic Batum and idk if it’s injury related but he has been a disappointment since really before he signed the contract. We haven’t played with our whole team but a few games this year but that isn’t a full excuse. This team doesn’t look like it plays as hard as it traditionally has in years past. The turnover margin is a record highs (guessing) under Clifford who has consistently put a team on a court that’s leading the league in lowest turnover margin.
Maybe the pieces haven’t gelled yet, idk. I was waiting for a while to see what the 2nd lineup looked like with MCW on the floor and just as soon as it happened we had to reshuffle the line up again bc of more injuries. From the Chicago game I saw a ray of hope though in this regard.. Play Graham! Even after everybody gets healthy give Graham playing time especially with that second unit. He brings the energy the second unit needs. This is the NBA and I’d bet he earned more playing time in the off season than the 2 rookies, not that I don’t like them but Graham in the line up is what might really spark the second unit the way it needs to be lit. Starters: Kemba, Nic, MKG, Marvin, Dwight. 2nd Team MCW, Lamb, Graham, Frank, Cody. Let the young boys learn some more and use them as necessary. Overall though we need Nic to start averaging a minimum of 15 from here on out. The 2nd unit is what’s hitting the Hornets more than anything. Causing Kemba to have to overwork (esp with other not stepping up). Like Clifford talks about in interviews, my money 💰 is on getting them to play better in order to be more successful as a team.
1. I’m confused how you got “conditional loyalty” from 14 years of support through painful mediocrity. 2. Neither one of us is a duke or unc fan.
The franchise has done a terrible job for a long time and fans demanding better is not the problem.