Who exactly is the Charlotte Hornets’ biggest rival?

This next and final team might be a bit of shocker, but outside of a brief period of time where they featured an all-time great, the two teams have been closer than one might think.

I would like to say that for brevity’s sake, I will be keeping this list to just three teams, but honestly, three is all that I might be able to use for this particular feature. Still, the best team has been saved for last and it’s one that I think Charlotte Hornets fans have really learned to hate over the years, for many reasons.

When you think of the Miami Heat, you think of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and older players, like Alonzo Mourning. You think of three NBA Titles in five appearances. You think of the glitz and glamour of South Beach. And some might actually think of the Charlotte Hornets.

More from Hornets News

• Hornets: Where does Brandon Miller’s ceiling rank among other rookies?
• Charlotte Hornets grade out mostly average in position-by-position ranking
• Hornets News: P.J. Washington makes bold statement on Brandon Miller
• Grade the mock trade: Hornets snag Tyler Herro, flip Gordon Hayward
• 3 Areas that the Charlotte Hornets should see improvement in for 2023-24

You also might think of how the two teams first came into the league together back in 1988. Or how they’ve swapped so many players while both were contending back in the ’90s, like Mourning and Glen Rice. Or, more recently, how they’ve played two playoff series against one another, with the Charlotte Hornets losing both.

Of course, you definitely remember LeBron James absolutely dominating Charlotte in his four years in Miami, never losing a single game against the Bobcats. Yes, that team dominated a lot of the NBA, but his domination of Charlotte was a borderline work of art, even coming from a fan of Charlotte basketball.

Outside of those years, though, the overall series has been closer. In 110 regular-season games against the Heat, the Hornets are 44-66. LeBron and company are responsible for 15 of those losses, all coming from the time he entered Miami right up until he left.

Let’s split that up and say the Bobcats win about half of those if LeBron doesn’t take his talents to South Beach in the summer of 2010. That’s now a record of 51-59, which is much closer and would somewhat mirror their playoff records against each other.

Charlotte has played Miami three different times in the NBA playoffs, winning the first series way back in the 2001 playoffs. That team nearly went to the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but first dealt with the Heat in quick fashion in the first round.

Since then, the Heat have won the last two series, sweeping the first-round series in 2014, thanks to you know who. Then, in 2016, the teams would take the series to seven games, only to see the Heat dominate in game-seven to end the Hornets’ season yet again.

Out of the three teams I’ve listed, Miami is geographically the furthest away from Charlotte. Yet, due to the two teams entering the league the same season, swapping quite a few prominent players during their early successful years, and the Bobcats suffering as LeBron James’ whipping boys during his time with the Heat, this rivalry might have the most fuel to add to the flames.

Sure, it was onesided for a brief window, and there is a massive difference in postseason success, but the honest-to-goodness malice and vitriol I’ve seen spew from fellow Hornets fans regarding the Heat, especially in that last playoff series, is palpable.

Perhaps the Charlotte Hornets can improve over the next couple of years and make a few nice runs in the playoffs. Even better, maybe those runs could feature matchups against the same team multiple years in a row.

Winning is one thing and that truly does help a team establish a fanbase, but heated rivalries take that passion up to eleven, and honestly, the Charlotte Hornets are due for that. It could continue against the Heat, stirring the embers of what could have been another great rivalry.

Or it could be another team that decides that the Hornets are not worthy of anyone’s respect. Whoever it may be, I for one cannot wait to absolutely hate another NBA team… in a friendly way, of course.