In a bit of a shocking revelation, it looks like the Charlotte Hornets could play in some type of league-sanctioned play for the eight teams not invited to Orlando.
Charlotte Hornets fans have been left in a lull ever since the NBA season was put on hiatus back in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the top-22 teams in the league were able to continue their season, albeit, in an altered fashion, the Charlotte Hornets were seemingly relegated to preparing for the offseason.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski posted a tweet late Thursday afternoon, relaying what his fellow colleague at ESPN, Jackie MacMullan, had discovered earlier that day.
The details on this are very thin right now and no one really knows the structure or schedule of this event, if it even were to happen at all. If it does, it would give starved fans of the bottom-eight teams in the league something to watch in order to tide them over until the next season starts.
There is a chance the Charlotte Hornets could play again, but at what cost?
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The Hornets finished 23-42 and missed the playoffs for the fourth-straight season. Even before the year was cut short due to concerns over the safety of the players, coaches, and fans, they were already out of playoff contention.
When the NBA decided to resume the NBA season in a never-before-seen format, the Hornets were still on the outside looking in, being just outside of the bubble of the top 22 teams to make the newly-formatted continuation of the 2019-2020 season.
If this were to happen, the team would head to Chicago, but fans may wonder if the team would decide to participate at all and if so, would every player make the trip? Making sure all involved are safe is of the utmost priority and the league would do well to make sure this isn’t rushed.
We’ll await further details as this story progresses, but as of now, it does give Hornets fans a little bit of hope that they’ll get to see the current team play again. Whether anything meaningful will be on the line or if it’s simply just a glorified Summer League is unknown, but most fans have been itching to watch any kind of basketball, so most would take what they can get.
This is all tentative, of course, and while it appears the NBA seems to be in good faith, this could all fail to take place as concerns due to the pandemic increase as cases skyrocket across the country. It would be nice, however, to see the Charlotte Hornets play again.