The buzz is coming back to Charlotte?
Good luck with that.
The Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday announced their plans to change their nickname to the Hornets — the old nickname of the former NBA franchise that thrived in the Queen City for more than a decade.
Fans — those that think we still live in the good ol’ days — are ecstatic. But a name change isn’t going to do much for a franchise that is poorly run and still reels from the days when the old one basically found its own way out of town.
The Hornets, minus the championships rings and history of winning, were the embodiment of a professional sports franchise that was loved by its fans. It didn’t matter if the team won; people loved going to Hornets games because it was a family-friendly, exciting night out at an easily-accessible location that didn’t break the bank.
As a lifetime resident of Lincoln County, I attended too many Hornets games to count. I went with my family, and when I became old enough to drive I went with my friends. Before his untimely death my friends and I became the unofficial “Bobby Phills Fan Club.”
In short, people wanted to attend Hornets games — that is, until George Shinn showed his true colors.
Shinn single-handedly ruined the NBA in Charlotte. His greed and bad personal choices took a franchise that once led the league in attendance in multiple years to the bottom. He decided an uptown arena was a good idea, but it wasn’t. He is a self-admitted womanizer who let his personal affairs steer his business decisions.
In short, the Hornets went right down the drain with Shinn’s character.
The sting — no pun intended — of Shinn taking the Hornets to New Orleans is still there. The city of Charlotte and its neighboring communities — to Lincoln County and beyond — gave their all to the Hornets, and Shinn threw it in their faces.
Former owner Bob Johnson tried to revive what was once an NBA hotbed — the Bobcats moniker is a reflection of his name — but the fans haven’t bought it. The downtown Charlotte arena isn’t fan-friendly. Downtown Charlotte isn’t fan-friendly. And when your team stinks as bad as the Bobcats do, you need those things in order to draw fans.
The no-longer-standing Charlotte Coliseum and the Charlotte Hornets of old offered those things. That’s why the team could lose 62 games in its inaugural season yet lead the league in attendance the same year.
I, along with my dad, uncle and cousin, attended the very first Hornets game — a blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. We had a blast. We went to blowout loss after blowout loss, and each time we had a blast.
The Miami Heat and the Hornets (along with the Orlando Magic and the Minnesota Timberwolves) were part of a four-team expansion in 1988. The Heat are currently the face of the NBA and the Charlotte Bob-nets are not.
Renaming the Bobcats the Hornets — the Charlotte Observer reported, per incoming NBA commissioner Adam Silver, that it usually takes a minimum of 18 months to rebrand a franchise — is a step in the right direction. But it’s just the first of many more that need to be taken to get things back to the way they used to be.
Two seasons from now the Charlotte Bobcats may become the Charlotte Hornets, but they’ll never be the real ones. Their stingers were yanked a long time ago.
Ryan Herman’s column appears in The Free Press on Wednesdays. Reach him at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.