Who are the Ten Greatest Charlotte Hornets of All-Time?
By John Griebel
With the Charlotte Hornets’ strange history, which is unlike most NBA franchises, picking their top-10 players of all-time can be difficult.
The Charlotte Hornets have an interesting, if not storied, history. After just 14 seasons in the NBA, the franchise moved to New Orleans in 2002. Just two years later, the Bobcats were born. Despite the ties to the city, all records and history remained with the New Orleans franchise. It wasn’t until 2014, when the Hornets name returned to Charlotte, that the history was restored as well.
I didn’t have any explicit set of criteria or rules while making this list, but I did follow a few general axioms. When ranking players in their historical context, peak vs. longevity is often a contentious debate. In general, I tend to slightly favor a player with a higher peak than someone who might have had a longer career.
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However, when considering players within a single franchise, I think the argument should sway the other way. After all, someone can’t be a great Hornet in just one season. Keep that in mind while reading.
First, a quick historical side note:
While researching this piece I discovered that Al Jefferson was selected to the All-NBA Third Team in 2013-14, without making the All-Star team. I assumed this was a rare occurrence. As it turns out, that’s not the case at all. In fact, there have been 28 times where a player who did not make the All-Star game was selected to the All-NBA third team.
Furthermore, this has happened for the second team 23 times, and seven times for First Team All-NBA! This illustrates perfectly why it’s silly to use All-Star selections as a criterion for the Hall of Fame. With that soap box out of the way, let’s take a look at the ten greatest Hornets of all time.