There are few surprises year to year in the National Basketball Association. We knew how good Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors would be. 55-5 is beyond our wildest dreams as basketball fans but we knew they’d be great. We knew the Spurs with their stellar free agent moves would be a force. We knew the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers would be the worst teams in the league. In fact, looking at the Eastern and Western conferences, we see a who’s who of all the usual suspects. Except for one. There is one team that unexpectedly lingers. One team that in the final playing year of Kobe Bryant and the sheer dominance of Steph Curry that is not covered and completely left out. This team is the Charlotte Hornets, the squad owned and operated by his airness himself, Mr. Michael Jordan.
The Hornets are currently tied with division rival Atlanta at 33-28. Atlanta has the tiebreaker making Charlotte the sixth seed in the East and playing the Celtics in the playoffs if the season ended today. The Hornets have wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Toronto Raptors and just completed a 3-0 season sweep of the highly competitive and highly ranked Indiana Pacers. The Hornets get their buzz from the team captain. The high-energy, fourth-year man out of UCONN, Kemba Walker. He is averaging 21 points a night and is more importantly the spark plug, catalyst and life of a strong fast-break team. When Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls fell to injury and had to pull out of the all-star game, he was replaced by teammate Pau Gasol, giving the Eastern All-Star team multiple power forwards. More than they even needed to use. Many fans were shocked that Walker was not called up. Some brave analysts even stepped up to ask “why not someone new? Why not Kemba?” Nonetheless, we were given no logical reason as to why he wasn’t chosen.
There are parallels between the Hornets and their neighbors on the other side of the queen city, the NFC Champion Carolina Panthers. In fact, they are huge fans of one another. Ron Rivera, Luke Kuechly and Jonathan Stewart regularly attend games court-side. Cam Newton himself makes the rare appearance in his custom Hornets jersey and dabs on the dance cam for the lucky crowd in attendance. The Panthers had a meteoric rise to 15-1 and a Superbowl appearance. However, still to this day, for some reason, nobody has ever and still doesn’t believe in them.
It must be something with Carolina teams. They don’t make negative headlines. They aren’t about fashion or showing off. Both teams have experienced veteran coaches who build year after year. I have to imagine coach Steve Clifford and Ron Rivera are friends. At least I’d like to. Both teams get better each year, they don’t make stupid and celebrity free agent signings and they play hard, stingy defense every night. The Carolinas have waited long enough to have great teams. The Hurricanes have a title already. I believe our lifetime is going to see more than the Panthers getting their elusive Super Bowl. It’s going to see Michael Jordan on top again when his team wins a Finals cup.
