September 2nd, 2026 Spotlight Player OTD: Larry Johnson LJ changed everything for Charlotte… and I mean in a much greater sense than just the Hornets alone. Had it not been for the Hornets and their success, the Carolina Panthers would’ve never come around. The popularity and proof of concept that Charlotte could host a real-deal pro NFL franchise all started at the Coliseum… And had Larry Johnson not happened, who knows if the NFL would’ve viewed Charlotte as worthy enough for a pro team by the time 1995 rolled around. It may have happened eventually, but I use the anecdote above as a means of just touching the surface of how much LJ means to the history of this team. “Sensation” is almost an underwhelming adjective for Larry Johnson’s rookie year. Kendall Gill has said before that Larry Johnson had LeBron James athleticism and Hakeem’s footwork in his prime, and it was on full display in 1991-92. That’s where the famous Grandmama Converse ad happened, where LJ said famously that the shoes were “so fast and so light, my grandmama could whoop you in ’em.” The ad campaign featuring Grandmama aired for Converse for over five years, and it was so popular that the nickname stuck forever. The character was so well known that LJ appeared as “Grandmama” on an episode of Family Matters in 1993. LJ’s rookie year and the Hornets' 31 wins also led to Alonzo Mourning. Alonzo is what helped LJ and the Hornets immediately grab a playoff series win, and their success only furthered the “Grandmama” persona lore. Charlotte was now a nationwide brand, built on the back of LJ’s original success. LJ’s back, this time his non-metaphorical one, was also what brought the Hornets tumbling down the mountain in the end. The Hornets had committed an absurd salary early on in Johnson’s career, in large part thanks to the national appeal I mentioned LJ had before ‘Zo ever even came in. The contract was for 12 years and a reported $84 million, which was completely absurd money in 1993. To put it into perspective, George Shinn had paid $32.5 million for the entire Hornets franchise just six years earlier. Now, Larry Johnson alone was getting $84 million. And this is where the timing of the whole thing gets interesting. Johnson had already been diagnosed with a herniated disk in his back that July. The Hornets still gave him the extension in October. At that point, LJ had already been Rookie of the Year, an All-Star, Second Team All-NBA, and had just led Charlotte to its first playoff appearance and first playoff series win. So I understand why they did it. But man… $84 million was a LOT of faith to put into a 24-year-old with a back that was already becoming a problem. And the back didn’t magically get better. Johnson missed 31 games in 1993-94 after suffering a deep lower-back sprain, and Charlotte went 9-22 during the stretch he was out. He came back in March, but the Hornets were already basically cooked by then. And this is where I think LJ gets underrated. Because he didn’t just lose the athleticism that made him so special and become a shell of himself. He changed his game. A LOT. The explosive, above-the-rim power forward who had bullied people during his first two seasons started moving further away from the basket and developing a legitimate perimeter game. In 1994-95, LJ made 81 three-pointers. He’d made 16 total in his first three seasons. He still averaged 18.8 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 4.6 AST, played 81 games, and made another All-Star team in ‘94-’95. He wasn’t the exact same LJ anymore — but he was still LJ. The next season’s 1995-96 Hornets team — LJ’s last in Charlotte — was still competitive, too… Despite trading Alonzo Mourning for Glen Rice right on the precipice of the ‘95-‘96 season beginning, the Hornets and an adapting Glen Rice still won 41 games. They still missed the playoffs altogether, and that’s when Bob Bass continued to change it up entirely. CONT. BELOW AFTER HIGHLIGHTS/NEWSPAPERS:

Family Matters - Theme Song (A cappella)

A message from the family of Dolly Parton.

A golden retriever suffering from seizures seemingly lost her spunk — until one day her owners brought home a miracle cure — a duck named Louie. @SteveHartmanCBS is On the Road.

August 2nd, 2026 Spotlight Player OTD: Muggsy Bogues I tell anyone I can that, despite a majority of people having massive respect for Bogues because he was 5’3, it’s always understated how much of a physical specimen Muggsy was coming out of Wake Forest. The guy had calves the size of some people’s head, was easily one of, if not THE, fastest player in the league, and was NOT a negative on defense way more often than not. It’s pretty easy to argue that Muggs was the most athletic person 5’5 and under in the entire world. Truly. He also has one of highest assist-turnover ratios in NBA history — 18th overall in NBA history for all players over their career (Magic is No. 1 all-time, for example). At multiple points in his career he averaged more steals per game than turnovers. Rick Bonnell wrote in an article one time, one I couldn’t find and it was quite frustrating, but he said once in the early Hornets’ days something along the lines of: Bogues was the player who most embodied the name of the team in which he played for — quick, pesky, and ready to sting you out of nowhere (with a steal). Again, paraphrasing, but I remembered it all this time because the sentiment was 100% true. Kenny Smith said once even that “95% of the guards in the league had to change the way they played when they played against Muggsy.” No amount of scouting reports ever took away his ability to take advantage of his opponents not being used to a matchup of his size. He played big minutes for multiple coaches in Charlotte because he was the real deal, not because he was lucky. He had come up playing against guys in Baltimore who sharpened his skills from day one… Muggsy played at the legendary Dunbar High School alongside the late, great Reggie Lewis — whose last ever pro game was during the Hornets first playoff victory in 1993 — as well as David Wingate (future Hornets teammate) and Reggie Williams. These Dunbar teams are widely regarded as some of the best high school basketball teams of all time, and it was lil ol Muggsy who was the leader of those teams, from all accounts. But he also grew up in a part of Baltimore where Bogues has said many times himself was far from the best place to be growing up. He was shot at 5 years old, even. By the time he made it out to Wake Forest, he’d go on to have a historic career with the Demon Deacons… paving the way for kids in NC like Chris Paul years after him. Before the draft, Muggsy was on the 1986 Gold Medal-winning Olympic team in Spain at the FIBA world championships; it was the last fully collegiate team ever sent to the tournament before NBA players could play. He was drafted 12th overall by the Bullets in 1987, and only played his rookie year there alongside Wes Unseld before the Washington left him unprotected in the ‘88 expansion draft, where Charlotte grabbed him. It was a questionable decision at the time; Charlotte wanted to play fast, though, to help alleviate their talent discrepancies early in the team’s tenure. It was easily one of the best decisions Charlotte’s ever made, and Bogues still holds countless records for the team. He’s also incredibly active in the Charlotte community and is consistent in giving back to the city which believed in him so much initially. I want to see his number in the rafters now that LaMelo is in Minnesota. Just wanted to put that out there. Thanks for all you do for the city, Muggs. 🫡 Some Bogues highlights and newspapers are below:

July 22nd, 2026 Spotlight Player OTD: Matt Geiger Matt Geiger, in terms of his importance to Charlotte, is most notably known for a few things… all of which we’ll get to, of course. Drafted by Miami: In his third year, Geiger became a part of the Heat’s deal that wound up acquiring Alonzo Mourning from Charlotte. The backstory there is one that’s probably too long for even me to get into, at least not until Alonzo Mourning day. Alongside a Miami ‘96 first-round pick, Glen Rice, of course, and 1994 12th overall pick Khalid Reeves… Geiger found himself in Charlotte, as well, heading into Allan Bristow’s final year as Hornets’ HC as a part of that Mourning deal that pieced together the core of Charlotte’s inevitable 54-win team in 1996-1997. In Geiger’s first-year under Bristow (‘95-‘96), the Hornets went 41-41, but Geiger seemed to thrive; he averaged an (at the time) career-high in minutes and points at 30.5, and 11.2 per night, respectively. This was the season before the infamous Kobe Bryant trade brought Vlade Divac to Charlotte. That 1996 summer also brought new HC changes, with Dave Cowens taking the reins. Things seemed to go okay that first year. The Hornets won 54 games like I mentioned in 96-97, and Geiger was an incredible backup option for Charlotte behind Divac. But in 1997-1998, Geiger’s last contract year before free agency, things got really sour when Vlade Divac got hurt. Well, really it was later down the line than that. Geiger would start in Divac’s place during the regular season and took advantage of the extra playing time to prove he was starting caliber heading into free agency. A hamstring injury towards the end of the year and before the playoffs is what ultimately made things sour between Matt Geiger and coach Dave Cowens. When asked about the timetable for Geiger’s return ahead of the ‘98 Atlanta series, Cowens said, “Matt’s still got his ass-pull, or whatever it is…” Geiger would then fire back in the media himself before the playoffs, saying: “When I’m ready to play, I’ll be on the court. Other than that, I can’t do any more,” Geiger said to a local news station in Charlotte. “I know my own body; I don’t care what any doctor said. I know whether it doesn’t feel right, and it feels like I could be injuring myself worse.” Geiger would also add about his relationship with coach Cowens, after the news reported that Cowens said Matt should “try and give it a go” to play against Atlanta: “I honestly lost a little bit of respect for him that he would even think someone — one of his players, especially, I’d gotten a good relationship with him — would think that I wouldn’t do anything I could to be on that court. And I told him (Cowens) that; and he took it in. It was probably just a lack of communication between him and myself, but I thought I didn’t need to have that with him. I thought I had that with the trainer and the doctors. I feel like I don’t have to explain my injury to him unless he asked, and he never asked.” Certainly a fiery ending, to say the least. Geiger WOULD end up coming back in the Atlanta series, but Cowens didn’t hardly play him. He even got DNPCD’s in the second round vs Chicago. To Geiger’s credit: His brother had cancer during his final season. Dude was going through a lot. Geiger would go on to sign with Philadelphia in unrestricted free agency, where he’d become an integral piece in Allen Iverson and Larry Brown’s Sixers team that went to the Finals against the Lakers. Some videos and newspapers are below:

July 13th, 2026 Spotlight Player OTD: Eddie Jones In retrospect, Eddie Jones was the definition of a stopgap player during his time for the Charlotte Hornets. I don’t know that many “stopgap” players turn out to have career years in their short tenure with a team before finding another home, like Steady Eddie did in Charlotte before Miami. Jones didn’t just have one of the better years of his career with the Hornets, he had THE best year of his ENTIRE career with Charlotte… After being a part of the Glen Rice trade with the Lakers right after Dave Cowens resigned, Eddie Jones helped first-time head coach Paul Silas finish the year 22-13, and they barely missed the playoffs. One game out of the eventual Eastern Conference champion Knicks in 8th, as I mentioned yesterday. Jones showed his flashes then both offensively and most definitely defensively despite missing the postseason. Jones exploded in year two though for the aforementioned best 82-game stretch of his pro career (played/appeared in 72 games): Eddie averaged 20.1 PTS, 4.8 REB, 4.2 AST, 2.7 STL (lead the NBA), and .7 BLK on 43/38/86 shooting splits. Jones finished 3rd in DPOY voting but was somehow second-team all defense, was 3rd Team All-NBA and had the only All-Star appearance of his career. The Hornets made the playoffs as the fourth seed in both Eddie Jones and Paul Silas’ first year, and finished just ahead of their playoff opponent Philadelphia on a tiebreaker alone. Both teams finished the year 49-33; Charlotte won the regular season series over Philadelphia and Allen Iverson 3-1 that year, big thanks in part to Eddie Jones’ heroics. Despite homecourt advantage in a five-game series and having beaten the Sixers 3-1 in the regular season — Jones and the Hornets fell to Philadelphia… 3-1. It was the year Iverson went to the Finals, and Charlotte matched up with them better than anyone in the East because of Jones’ defensive prowess. For real. Really unlucky performance in the playoffs. Rightfully so, with his contract ending, Eddie wanted a max extension for his career-year… but this was a team who just traded Glen Rice because he was due money. George Shinn and Bob Bass did the same with Eddie, and set a record-breaking (at the time) nine-player sign-and-trade with the Miami Heat centered around Eddie Jones and his contract extension. This is the trade which sent Jamal Mashburn, PJ Brown, Tim James, and more to Charlotte in exchange for Jones and others. Like Rice before him, a Jones trade at least left Charlotte in a good place as he left. We all know what Mashburn would do. Eddie still holds records defensively, and stands only alongside Gerald Wallace in this team’s entire history to have some of the insane single-game defensive stats you’ll ever see. Jones put himself in that stratosphere in just a year and a half tenure with the Hornets, and Steady Eddie deserves a lot more love than he gets from history, generally speaking. Some Eddie highlights (I usually try to avoid ones with music, but this one was Petey Pablo and it felt fair) and newspapers are below:

June 3rd, 2026 Spotlight Player OTD: Robert Parish The Chief, best known for his time as a nine-time All-Star in Boston, played two of his final three seasons for the Hornets. Parish averaged around 15 minutes a game in those two years, and was seldom a starter unless necessary. But he was initially signed to mainly be a mentor to Alonzo Mourning. “Coming off the bench behind a fine young center like Alonzo Mourning fits my style,” Parish told the AP when Charlotte signed him in 1994. He was an important veteran for Allan Bristow’s final two teams, and a stabilizer in the locker room when LJ and ‘Zo would get traded in the span of 6 months. Parish saw the trade transition through — despite being signed almost exclusively for ‘Zo — and played alongside Glen Rice during his first year with the Hornets, too. He was 41 and 42 years old during these two years, and still managed to put up a good many double-doubles in each season with the team. Parish also started 34 games during his final Hornets’ campaign in 95-‘96 at 42 years old. Scott Fowler and Charles Chandler of the Observer also reported in their Hornets Notebook that former Hornet Frank Brickowski and his agent weren’t thrilled at all about Parish’s signing with the Hornets in 1994. More so his agent than Brickowski himself. Stephen Blick, Brickowski’s agent, told Fowler, Chandler, and the Observer 2 days before Parish was signed that, “I’ll bet you all the money in your piggy bank that you’re wrong and Parish won’t sign in Charlotte.” That Wednesday before Parish was signed, Blick reportedly believed a Brickowski deal to return to Charlotte was all but done. That didn’t end up being the case, clearly. “That’s the toughest part of this business,” HC Allan Bristow told the Observer. “Once you get to know a player, especially with close relationship like I had with Frank, at some point you have to draw the line. We made a business decision (to sign Parish). I hope it doesn’t reflect on our friendship.” Parish played 21 years total in the NBA, and was inducted into the Naismith HOF in 2003. He would play one more year in the league after Charlotte, playing with the Bulls before he’d retire. Here’s a video from Parish’s introductory presser, and newspapers from when Parish first signed (including the Hornets Notebook where I read the info on Brickowski’s agent from Fowler/Chandler):

May 28th, 2026 Spotlight Player OTD: Glen Rice 🎂🎉 Happy birthday wishes are in order for one of the most fondly remembered Hornets of all-time: - Despite just 3 seasons, Rice was an All-Star every year in Charlotte; T-1st at 3 for most ASG selections in team history with Kemba Walker. - Only player besides Al Jefferson (‘13-‘14) to ever receive MVP votes. - Only All-Star Game MVP in team history (was when the ASG was also taken much more seriously by the players). Rice won MVP despite MJ finishing the same ASG with a triple-double. - Led Charlotte to a *still* franchise-high 54 wins in 1996-97… Charlotte finished as a SIXTH-seed in a powerhouse East despite 54 wins. 54 is, to this day, still the most ever wins by a team in either conference which finished sixth. - Rice’s 26.8 PPG in ‘96-‘97 is still highest-ever single-season points average by a Hornet or Bobcat. I compiled a bunch of different highlights from Rice’s time in Charlotte only — enjoy!:

May 27th, 2026 Spotlight Coach OTD: Mike Dunlap 🎂🎉 Dunlap was tossed into a near-impossible situation during his only year as Charlotte’s head coach: Following up a 7-win season. He was also following in place of Paul Silas, whose name, despite the historically bad lockout year, still garnered a ton of respect in the city of Charlotte. This is still the only NBA head coaching job Dunlap has ever had, but before Charlotte, he had a really successful stint in Denver as an assistant coach while Carmelo and Iverson were playing there. When the Bobcats hired him, Dunlap was the chief assistant coach at St. John’s, officially. But Dunlap was the interim coach of St. John’s during his final CBB season there pre-Charlotte. SJU’s acting head coach was recovering from prostate cancer surgery for much of that final year for Dunlap. Post-Charlotte, he also spent time as an assistant coach with Milwaukee when they won a championship. Dunlap’s three years as an assistant coach in Milwaukee were also all spent alongside active Hornets’ head coach Charles Lee. Lee was there two years before Dunlap, but they would both leave the Bucks after the 2022-2023 season when Milwaukee fired Mike Budenholzer as their coach. Charles Lee would go onto Boston, but Dunlap took a different route. Mike hasn’t coached in the NBA since Budenholzer was out in Milwaukee, but instead he took a Men’s Basketball head coaching position at Colorado Mesa, a D2 program in the state it’s name pays homage to. Ive posted both Byron Mullens and Reggie Williams recently, both of whom played their final Bobcats’ days under Dunlap as HC. Dunlap was one of THREE Bobcats’ head coaches from 2007-2013 who only got one season before being replaced. Had the ‘Cats landed the 1st pick in the 2012 lottery for Anthony Davis instead of MKG… Dunlap’s career could’ve started a lot differently, you’d think. Gerald Henderson got injured early in the year, and it led to an 18-game losing streak. Ultimately Dunlap was around for the young moments of a lot of players who stayed in Charlotte for a long time: Henderson was in his 3rd year, Kemba Walker was in his 2nd season under Dunlap, and MKG/Bismack Biyombo were both rookies. Newspapers from Dunlap’s hiring and firing are below:

Kendall Gill speaking on Larry Johnson, and how he was on track to be a HOF’er before his back injury:

Larry Johnson was special and usually one the first Charlotte Hornets people think about when they see the logo A Swiss Army Knife who could do a little bit of everything, he was an absolute PROBLEM (Via @NBAHistory 🎥)

March 24th, 2002 Hornets beat the Pacers 99-84 for the sixth win in a row Jamal Mashburn led the way scoring-wise for the Hornets with 36 points on 13/23 shooting from the field. He was 2/4 from beyond the three-point line. In honor of the real-time Hornets/Kings game right now — very reminiscent of the type of game Demar DeRozan played against the Hornets two weeks ago in Sac. Monster Mash also had 3 REB and 2 AST. 36 tied his season high in points by this time. Three other Hornets in the starting lineup had double-doubles: Baron Davis (21 PTS, 11 AST, 3 REB), PJ Brown (10 PTS, 19 REB, 4 BLK’s), and Jamaal Magloire with 14 PTS and 10 REB. PJ Brown was particularly happy about his performance based off of Leonard Laye’s quotes in these observer clips: “I was juiced today,” PJ told Laye. The only good kind of juiced a player can be was whatever PJ was feeling that day. Brown finished: “I was just having fun. This (kind of performance) is when I have the most fun. “I just felt energetic. I got good rest Saturday night and today. I’m a quiet guy. Everybody knows that. But I was jabbering a little bit more. I got my first technical of the season. I was kind of proud of that Brown had also told Laye sometime prior to this game that, “I’ve always said I’m the sixth option on a five-man team.” Meaning that, of course, he wasn’t afraid to do the dirty, non-thanks-from-the-media type of work. Rick Bonnell was notorious for his love of defense and dirty and it’s cool to see his co-worker clearly had the same admiration, and highlighted it here. Brown was involved in a double technical with well-known trash talker Reggie Miller in this game, like he mentioned in the quote above. Charlotte was on a win streak and fighting for a playoff seeding, and Miller had been suspended for two games for fighting less than a month before this. Someone had to break, and it was Indiana on this night. Observer clip (that you should all read) and quick game highlights: