How the Hornets are building buzz as NBA season tips off

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Finally, the Charlotte Hornets are emulating their Buzz City moniker after years of buzzkill basketball.

For all but a handful of moments during the two decades since the NBA returned to Charlotte — first as the Bobcats and, more recently, as the revived Hornets — fans have had little to cheer.

The city’s second pro basketball expansion franchise arrived in 2004. And then promptly lost 64 of 82 games.

Over the 17 seasons the NBA has been back, Charlotte’s home team has won just 40% of the time, missing the playoffs in all but three of those years.

A casual observer could glance at last season’s 33-39 won-loss record and think it was more of the same: mediocre basketball. It wasn’t. Led by LaMelo Ball, now the reigning Rookie of the Year, the Hornets under head coach James Borrego narrowly missed the playoffs and were likely automatic qualifiers if not for a flurry of injuries late in the season. Indiana beat Charlotte in a play-in game for the final playoff spot.

Ball and a cast of up-and-comers including Miles Bridges, Terry Rozier and P.J. Washington, as well as veteran scoring threat Gordon Hayward, won plaudits from the likes of Magic Johnson last season with an up-tempo style. In the recently released annual survey of NBA general managers, Charlotte ranked third among the most entertaining teams to watch — quite a statement after years of not even qualifying as an afterthought from a national perspective.

CBJ’s cover story this week explores where the Hornets are finding success. Read it here.

(WATCH BELOW: BUZZ CITY: Hornets select UConn’s James Bouknight 11th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft)

BUZZ CITY: Hornets select UConn’s James Bouknight 11th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft

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