July 2nd, 2026 Spotlight Player OTD: Michael Holton Born in Seattle and an alumnus of UCLA, Michael Holton was always a west coast guy. He’s still there, as a matter of fact: Holton is a part of the broadcasting team for the Portland TrailBlazers as their studio and radio analyst. But the best season of his six-year NBA Career came on the east coast with Charlotte. Funny enough, while it wasn’t a regular season game, Holton’s best season came in Charlotte first-ever NBA season as an expansion team… In the Hornets first-ever real organized game — the rookie summer league tournament (way different from what it is now) vs the Hawks — Holton scored a team-high 15 points. Holton led those Hornets in scoring that night, and those 15 points make him the first Hornet to lead his team in points. Is that a bit dramatic, sure. But I guarantee you Michael Holton remembers it. He had been taken by the Hornets in the expansion draft after starting just 3 combined games in the two Blazers’ seasons prior. He actually had a contract option that needed to be picked up, so despite Charlotte taking him in the expansion draft, he still had to prove himself before the Hornets made that club option decision. On August 24th, 1988, the Hornets exercised that option and brought Holton onto the team’s first-ever NBA roster after he had a spectacular summer. In 25.3 MPG, Holton had his best pro season to this point in his career, only matched by his 59 games started as a rookie in Phoenix. Holton finished ‘88-‘89 with 8.3 PPG, 6.3 AST, 1.6 REB and 1 STL per game. The aforementioned rookie year for Holton in Phoenix saw him average 8.4 PPG, but Holton also finished that season averaging 2.7 AST/game as compared to his 6.3/game in Charlotte 4 years later as the team’s primary starter. Yes, starter. Michael Holton started 60 of Charlotte’s first 61 games in that inaugural season to Muggsy Bogues’ 21. Bogues didn’t fully take over the reins until the final games of the season; Muggsy’s 21 starts were the final 21 games of the regular season after Holton injured his right ankle against Detroit in late March of 1989. Holton was the only other serviceable option for Coach Dick Harter in ‘88-‘89; the only other rostered point guard was Rickey Green, who only played in 33 games as compared to Holton’s 67. When Holton hurt his ankle, the Hornets even cut green to make room for another guard since they didn’t like the idea of Green upping his role to where Holton’s was. He ended up being a very common trade candidate throughout that first season as an expiring contract, but it never happened. Holton ended up returning for the team’s 1989-1990 (Charlotte’s 2nd) season, but it would be his last in the NBA. Would’ve been interesting to see what would have happened had the ankle injury not happened. Funny how things work though. Bogues started to pickup more and more minutes slowly but surely as that first season progressed… but it genuinely took Holton’s injury happening to force Dick Harter’s hand and go Muggsy full-time. The rest is history. Super interesting player to find out more about. Ultimately if you played a big part on that inaugural Hornets roster like Holton did… You deserve to be remembered in Hornets History. Some newspapers about Holton are below: