Due to the recent struggles of the Charlotte Bobcats, the organization has had the luxury of several lottery picks. While most of the youngsters have first honed their skills at powerhouse D1 schools like Indiana, Kentucky, Connecticut and Duke, the Bobcats strayed away from that trend in 2011 when they picked up Bismack Biyombo. After two seasons, the undersized center from the Congo has yet to make a significant impact. In year three, it might just be a make or break year for the 21 year old.

Biyombo went from possibly second rounder to a lottery talent in a matter of weeks in the spring of 2011. Many teams fell in love with his long limbs and raw ability. Although he is just 6’9”, he is able to play like a true seven footer thanks to his build. It was unanimously accepted that his offense was a work in progress, but then again, so was fellow countryman Serge Ibaka.

One thing that has hurt Biyombo is that he simply does not have the type of talent surrounding him as Ibaka. It is hard to get minutes on a team that has trouble scoring, when in fact you can’t score yourself. His 5.0 points per game average is not making him a daily fantasy sports star by any means. In fact, his only promising daily fantasy sports statistics right now are his rebounds and blocked shots.

Heading into the 2013-2014 season, Biyombo’s minutes will definitely be challenged. First, the Bobcats took Cody Zeller with the 4^th overall pick to help provide some offense down low. Then, management went out and signed Al Jefferson to a favorable deal, allowing them to possibly add two starters to their frontcourt.

In Year 3, Biyombo might be able to settle into a nice role as an energy bench player. He will still have to play 20-30 minutes a game, but he can focus on what he is instead of what he isn’t. He probably is never going to be a guy who can be relied on in daily fantasy sports to put up numbers, but he can be a productive rotation player who hustles and provides value on the defensive end. That’s probably not the value the Bobcats were hoping out of the #7 overall pick, but Biyombo just seems lost on offense.

Every Charlotte Hornet fan remembers where they were on January 12, 2000 when they heard of the traggic car accident that took Bobby Phills’ life. Every Charlotte Hornet fan remembers February 9 when they retired the #13 jersey up into the Charlotte Coliseum rafters.Framed jerseys were presented to Kendall Phills (his wife) and Bobby’s parents, Dr. and Mrs. Bobby Phills Sr. The inscription read, “Son, Husband, Father, Teammate and Friend.”

“This tribute by the organization was put together as a way to remember Bobby as a player and as an active member of the Charlotte community,” Sam Russo, Hornets executive vice president of business, said before the ceremony. “His jersey hanging from the rafters will be a constant reminder to everyone walking into the building of what a positive role model he was.”

David Stern said, “Bobby Phills represented the very best of the NBA. We all know Bobby was a talented and competitive player. But he was also one of the most respected members of the NBA, a valued teammate and a caring member of the community. He will be greatly missed by the entire NBA family and basketball fans around the world.”

Bobby Phills was a leader on and off the court and an icon for the Charlotte Community. His family, Kendall Phills and his two children Bobby Phills III and Kerstie still live in Charlotte and we should bring his legacy back home where it belongs for them.

We would like to petition for the Charlotte Bobcats (soon to be Charlotte Hornets) to begin negotations with the New Orleans Pelicans to bring Bobby Phills’ jersey to the rafters in Time Warner Cable Arena.

This would be a great way to bring attention to the “Bobby Phills Scholarship Fund”

Home

PETITION:
https://www.change.org/petitions/charlotte-bobcats-new-orleans-pelicans-david-stern-adam-silver-return-bobby-phills-jersey-home-to-charlotte?share_id=xBlaGEnAjS&utm_campaign=twitter_link&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition

We questioned Ron Rivera’s coaching last year but pretty much chucked it up as a loss and crossed our fingers for this year. If you were like me, you were very optimistic about the Panthers 3 weeks ago.

Well the 24-23 loss yesterday to the Bills….YES the BILLS… really angered a good portion of the Carolinas. So much so that “#FireRonRivera ” was trending WORLD WIDE on Twitter within the hour after the game ended.

We are not here to discuss Ron Rivera’s “job” security.

Some of y’all may remember the discussion late last year about whether the Bobcats or the Panthers would have the faster turn around. After the firing of Dunlap I would have said without hesitation the Panthers.

With the Bobcats strong presence this off season, with free agency pick ups and a surprisingly good draft choice (feels weird to say all that with bobcats in the same sentence) and the Panthers struggling coaching staff and the players inability to get in sync with this system they are running,  I have no idea who I would say has the advantage anymore.

So I present to you this perplexing choice!

Who do you say will make the turn around first? Panther or Bobcats?

With the new season fast approaching Scotty and I are looking for a fresh perspective to join our “Bring Back The Buzz” Blog Team.

All we ask is that you be well versed in Charlotte Hornets history, the current Charlotte Bobcats team/news and that you bring a new outlook and opinion on professional sports in the Carolinas. With a blog that has over 100,000 hits this could be a very exciting opportunity to have your voice heard by Buzz City!

We will be taking writing example submissions at our email BringBackTheBuzz@gmail.com

Good luck! we look forward to reading your write ups!

 

We have seen this first concept by Ian Bakar (A) floating around the internet for some time now and wanted the complete version up with all the logos and see how yall compare it to Big Dub’s (B) (The concept we have been using for a little over a year now) side by side. POLL AT THE BOTTOM!

A)

You can see the rest of Ian’s other concepts and art work here: http://ianbakar.com/

B)

Well a lot of the people who questioned the change to the Hornets have been silenced. The skeptics wondered about whether or not our claims of a resurgence of fan support would be validated when the time came. Boy was it!
Here are some quotes from Pete Guelli (Executive Vice President and chief sales and marketing officer)

“New ticket sales are up 59 percent from last year.”

“What’s really encouraging about that is the vast majority of those people have taken advantage of the two-year season ticket program,”

“The number of fans signing up for the two-year plan accounted for more than 50 percent of new sales.”

“We’re very close on a number of new sponsorships,” Guelli said. “There are many, many companies that have not been interested for a number of reasons that are entertaining dialogue around the return of the Hornets.

“That’s where it all starts. If you can get in, have a constructive dialogue. This rebrand has opened up a number of doors that had remained closed since Mr. (Robert) Johnson purchased the team.”

“A slow window turned into a hot sales opportunity,” Guelli said. “The sales in our team stores have doubled this summer from where they were last year.”

“The universal support has created a lot of momentum internally and you can only achieve these numbers if you have motivated employees and this rebrand has helped us do that,”

-rebrand will cost 3 Million

“We’re almost there right now,” Guelli said. “The fact that (ticket sales) are going to occur over a two-year period … When we calculate those numbers on top of what we know we’re going to do from sponsors, we’re almost there, so moving forward we’ll be looking at upside.”

We’ve also been told that the “Buzz City” apparel has 100% turn around in the team store. This is extremely encouraging to see this type of support for this franchise considering that just last year we came in 24th for home attendance when compared to the other teams in the NBA. Now we are in the top 10 for ticket sales in the NBA and the season hasn’t even started yet.

RUMORS:
*What you are about to read has not been validated by the Charlotte Bobcats organization*
Once again we have some more news from “the inside”. This has been told to us by a couple people very close to the rebranding process.

They said that at this point in the process a logo has not been chosen yet but they do have 8 potentials for the Hornets. The majority of these and the most popular ones are sticking to original Hugo look but with a little bit more aggressive twist, a more muscular Hugo with “angrier” eyes and expression. Which is refreshing considering the complete “sissification” that happened to the Hornets brand in New Orleans. They realize the value of the brand loyalty and recognition and don’t want to ruin that.

Some logos are completely different but are not getting as strong support as those similar to the original Hugo.

To answer the question that has been bothering so many people. Pete Guelli also said that they have not finalized a color scheme but for the time being are using the Carolina Blue for legal reason not yet fixed with the league.

Now our source has stated that most of the design proposals are sticking with the TEAL & PURPLE as the main colors and may use the Carolina Blue for small “details”. This will give them ability to make more apparel designs.

Again this is all hearsay. Take all this with a grain of salt.

STAY TUNED! We will bring you the BUZZ as soon as we hear

Jonathan Jones is a reporter for the Charlotte Observer and covers the Carolina Panthers. While interviewing Cam Newton he got this UNBEEELIEVABLE response!

This is awesome to see Cam Newton really putting his roots down in Charlotte and understanding the culture we have created!

A study was done on which NBA teams had the largest “Social Media Equity” or presence among social media outlets ( ie Facebook and Twitter) and I’m not saying Bring Back the Buzz or We Beelieve: Charlotte…take back your Hornets! had anything to with it 😉 but CHARLOTTE IS RANKED #4!!!

That means out of all 30 NBA teams Charlotte has the 4th largest presence!! (it takes into account our performance and market size)  

“In absolute terms, Charlotte performs relatively poorly in terms of social media metrics.  However, when we adjust for team performance and market size, the team does fairly well.  This indicates that the Charlotte market has fairly resilient fans, and likely speaks to the potential of the market if a consistent winning team is developed.”

Read the rest of the article here:

https://blogs.emory.edu/sportsmarketing/2013/09/02/social-media-equity-the-nba/ 

 

 

 

To give you an idea of just how much of an international brand the “Charlotte Hornets” are, I decided to post this map of the visits to ourwww.bringbackthebuzz.com website over the past year. Since July of last year we have had over 35,000 views from almost 100 different countries, as well as multiple visits from every single one of the states in the US. 

The other amazing thing about the “Charlotte Hornets” brand is that while the team is located in Charlotte, it is popular throughout the Carolinas. Between North Carolina and South Carolina we have had visits from people in over 313 different cities and towns. 

So dont ever let someone tell you that people outside of Charlotte don’t care about the Hornets!!