Charlotte Hornets: 15 greatest scorers of all-time
By John Buhler
(2000-05). Jamal Mashburn. 11. player. 170. . SF
- 20.6 PPG, 2,386 points, 2 Charlotte seasons (2000-02)
- 41.1 career field goal percentage w/Charlotte
- 35.9 career 3-point percentage w/Charlotte
- NBA All-Star w/New Orleans (2003)
- All-NBA Third Team w/New Orleans (2003)
Jamal Mashburn was an outstanding basketball player during his four years with the Kentucky Wildcats. He came into the NBA with a ton of praise as part of the “The Three J’s” with the Dallas Mavericks alongside point guard Jason Kidd and shooting guard Jim Jackson. However, none of the success Dallas had hoped for with that trio transpired.
Mashburn would be traded mid-season to the Miami Heat in 1997, where he would play a supporting role alongside great players like Tim Hardaway and former Hornet Alonzo Mourning. Then in 2000, Mashburn would find himself playing ball professionally in the Queen City in a package deal that sent sharpshooter Eddie Jones to South Beach.
Though only a good, but not great player in his first seven seasons in the league, Mashburn would go on to have his best stretch of seasons in the NBA playing for the Hornets. Overall, Mashburn would spend his final four seasons with the Hornets, having his tenure with the club split in half between Charlotte (2000-02) and New Orleans (2002-05).
While Mashburn would have his best professional season in New Orleans during the 2002-03 campaign, where he made his only trip to the NBA All-Star Game and was an All-NBA Third Team player at forward, his No. 11 ranking is more about his time in Charlotte and only slightly influenced by his time in New Orleans.
In two seasons in Charlotte, Washburn shot 41.1 percent from the field and an impressive 35.9 percent from beyond the arc, given the era that he played in. He averaged a solid 20.6 points per game in his two Charlotte seasons, accumulating 2,386 points in the process.
It seems that Mashburn finally put it all together in the last third of his career with the Hornets. He played for a stretch there like the consensus All-American he was at Kentucky that went No. 4 overall to Dallas in the 1993 NBA Draft. His well-rounded scoring game, both in the paint and outside the perimeter, was key to him having a sound 11-year career in the NBA, with those best years coming in Hornets uniform.