Will the Charlotte Hornets ever be truly represented in the Basketball Hall of Fame?

It’s quite an honor to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Charlotte Hornets have three such players, but each only spent a handful of seasons with the team. Will the franchise ever have an inductee who was best known for wearing purple and teal?

As of now, there are nearly 400 members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. That sounds like quite a bit, but basketball has been around for nearly 130 years. That makes it a little over a century older than the Charlotte Hornets, who have three members in the Hall of Fame.

Alonzo Mourning, Vlade Divac, and Robert Parish all wore Hornets jerseys at some point in their careers and all three were great players deserving of the honor of being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

But, if you were to ask the average NBA fan (and even some experts) with what teams they associate those players, most wouldn’t initially list the Charlotte Hornets.

That’s perfectly fine because both Alonzo and Vlade had more success with other franchises during their prime. Parish was in the twilight of his career when he joined the Hornets, so most rightfully associate him with the Boston Celtics, with whom he won four NBA Championships.

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At some point in the near future, the Charlotte Hornets should hopefully have a Hall of Fame player who is synonymous with the team.

So, when will the Hornets get theirs? Well, it could be a very long time. The Charlotte Hornets have sported some very good players over the years, but the franchise still has zero NBA titles and few of the players who have donned a Charlotte jersey have even won one with another team.

Right now, the closest I can think of that is still playing would be Kemba Walker. The all-time leading scorer in team history certainly deserves to have his Hornets jersey retired one day, but he hasn’t had a Hall of Fame-caliber career, at least not yet.

The Basketball Hall of fame covers more than just the NBA. It covers college, the Olympics, and other international divisions. Kemba has an NCAA championship with UConn, and that certainly played a part in him get drafted by Charlotte.

He’s also played for Team USA in several international tournaments and is among the finalists to represent the U.S. in the Olympics in 2021. Yet, without an NBA title, I’m not sure even all that gets him in.

He currently has his best shot at an NBA title with the Celtics, but even if he were to win one there, that qualification is with Boston, not Charlotte, so while his tenure in the Queen City was a long one, the title in Beantown might usurp that just by itself.

So, what about any other former players? Glen Rice might be the most applicable guy here. He has an NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers, but he was the third scoring option on that team.

He, too, won an NCAA championship and was voted Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four while playing for Michigan, so that covers his college ball. He was also an All-Star MVP and scored more than 18,000 points in his NBA career.

Would his three years in Charlotte be enough for people to count him as a Hornet, though? He was an All-Star for all three years and that aforementioned All-Star Game MVP was in his second year in Charlotte, so that might be enough.

Then again, that title, despite not being the main scoring option on that Lakers squad, does cloud things just a little. I do think at some point, he will be inducted, but whether fans remember him as a Charlotte Hornet remains to be seen.

It might be quite a while before we see an unquestioned Charlotte Hornet being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Perhaps it will be one of the guys currently in the league. Given how players are so frequently moved in the current landscape of the NBA, that would be a nice change of pace.

If not within the next 20 or 30 years, then one has to assume it will happen eventually, unless the team is moved again or something much, much worse happens.

Time will only tell if it ever happens and Hornets fans will certainly remember which Hall of Fame players wore their colors, but it might be some time before we get a true, bonafide inductee. Here’s hoping it’s in our lifetimes.