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He leads the Hornets in rebounds (8.4 rpg), steals (2.1 spg) and assists (7.7 apg) and constantly feeds the team’s leading scorer, Bridges (20.8 ppg), with passes that lead to high percentage shots. Keep in mind that he turned 20 just three months ago but his game is much more seasoned than that. He has improved in most areas and remains a highlight talent who demands and commands your attention.Ĭheck out some of LaMelo Ball's best plays from the start of the season. Much of this is due to LaMelo, the reigning Kia Rookie of the Year who is already a first-name-only player. Even better, the Hornets aren’t an afterthought, drawing fans on the road thanks to their breezy style of play.
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They’re 6-2 at home and flexing their chance to replicate the atmosphere at the old Coliseum, which was often the loudest arena in the league. The Hornets have already beaten the Nets and Warriors, the current conference leaders. “I think he likes the direction we’re going.” “I do know Michael is happy,” said Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak, whose personnel decisions have launched this renovation. This could be the best team Jordan has ever had, and while that sounds like being called the tallest man at a short man’s convention, the Hornets will take any good vibes they can get. They’re very much a work in progress, and yet that’s the key word - progress - that makes folks here suspect this team is not a cruel tease. LaMelo Ball is throwing slick passes and Miles Bridges is finishing them with authority at the rim and a smattering of other rotational players are doing enough to give the Hornets what they’ve always craved in the Jordan era: credibility and crowds and a climb up the standings, where they’re 11-8 and fifth in the East. Hornets owner Michael Jordan, shown in this 2019 photo, has reason to smile about his team’s start to 2021-22. Jordan is still around, and he’s in a happier mood, and there are friendly rumblings inside Spectrum Center on game nights, all because the Hornets are seemingly built to last - finally - and mainly because of a kid they didn’t let get away this time. You want to know the ultimate irony? This team has been owned by legendary six-time NBA champ Michael Jordan since 2010, yet has reached the playoffs three times since 2004. You want to know the ultimate sin? The Hornets drafted a teenager out of high school in 1996 and then immediately traded him for Vlade Divac. For every Muggsy, Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning and Dell Curry - tremendous players who laid the foundation and played exciting ball in the early- to mid-1990s - there was an Adam Morrison, an Emeka Okafor and a Zeller Brother (Cody, in this case). The franchise was doomed by too many bad drafts, coach firings and just plain crummy luck. To be fair, there were some decent seasons here and there, none of which gained any traction or gave the Hornets much buzz beyond the city limits. With LaMelo Ball leading the way, the young and talented Charlotte Hornets are making some early-season noise in the East. To be rather blunt, those attempts were met with the same fate of a hornet crashing into a speeding automobile’s grill. Wisely improve the present and go forth to meet the future with optimism and without fear.”įor the last few decades, the Hornets tried to duplicate the past, to recreate the noise, to find themselves all over again since leaving what was fondly nicknamed “The Hive” for newer digs downtown. On the plaque commemorating the Coliseum, there’s an inscription by the great poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, that reads: “Look not mournfully into the past, it comes back not again. This was once the site of the old Charlotte Coliseum, which drew enormous crowds and somehow still had enough room for all 5-foot-3 inches of Muggsy Bogues. Just inside a mixed-use development near the Billy Graham Parkway where babies are strolled and coffee is sipped, there is a small stone marker with a familiar sight preserved in bronze on the facade, providing a clue to what this place was before the developers arrived. Reigning Kia Rookie of the Year LaMelo Ball has brightened up Charlotte’s future.ĬHARLOTTE, N.C.