The Charlotte Hornets’ GM History since 2004
By Brent Best
It’s no secret that the Charlotte Hornets have their fair share of great and terrible front office moves. In this piece, we’ll look over the ones made in part by the last four General Managers the team has hired.
The “reboot” of the Charlotte NBA franchise has seen four different general managers make a run at building a contender since the team returned in 2004. And while there have been decisions made throughout each’s tenure in which they did not have final authority, we can assume that they were heavily involved in all major decisions. It’s time to cover every GM from the birth of the Charlotte Bobcats to the revival of the Charlotte Hornets.
So let’s go back in time and review the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly from the four general managers of modern-day Charlotte NBA basketball with Bernie Bickerstaff, Rod Higgins, Rich Cho, and Mitch Kupchak.
First up is the GM in charge of the rebirth of Charlotte basketball.
Bernie Bickerstaff – 2003 – 2007
Bernie Bickerstaff was the 1st GM of the Hornets’ return to the NBA and was responsible for building an NBA team from scratch. He was the general manager from the 2004-05 season until the end of the 2006-07 season amassing a record of 77-169 (31.3% winning percentage).
Bernie Bickerstaff was a wise and talented piece of any front office, whether coaching or running an NBA team.
The Good – Their 1st draft pick was Emeka Okafor. The rules of being an expansion franchise granted Charlotte the 4th pick in the 2004 NBA draft which they traded along with their 2nd round pick and a “promise” to select Predrag Drobnjak away from the Clippers in the expansion draft to move up to number 2.
Okafor went on to become a double-double machine averaging 14 points and 11 rebounds in his 5 years in Charlotte. Those numbers aren’t hall-of-fame worthy but the Bobcats did not pass on any franchise-changing talent when they chose Okafor.
Following the rookie draft came the expansion draft. The most notable player selected was Gerald Wallace who had previously been an underutilized young player for a contending Sacramento Kings squad. “Crash” would go on to blossom into an All-Star caliber player and cracked the All-Star roster in 2010, the only Bobcat ever to do so.
The Bad – The team had 2 lottery picks in the 2005 draft and came away with Raymond Felton 5th overall and Sean May 13th overall. Both players were coming off leading the University of North Carolina to a national championship and the hope was that they would energize the fan base with their local ties.
Unfortunately, neither player came close to living up to expectations as Felton was solid but unspectacular in 5 seasons in Charlotte and May lasted only 3 seasons struggling with injuries and conditioning woes.
These decisions could arguably be put in the “ugly” category when considering that there was strong talk about Charlotte refusing to trade the 5th and 13th pick to move up in the draft for either Chris Paul or Deron Williams. Both players became all NBA caliber point guards with the former becoming one of the best point guards of all time.
The Ugly – It’s important to note that Michael Jordan took full control of basketball operations in 2006 so arguably the ugliest move in Bernie’s tenure can’t all be put on him. He was however still the general manager and allowed Adam Morrison to be selected 3rd overall in the 2006 NBA draft.
Morrison lasted just 3 seasons in Charlotte, never shooting better than 38% from the field and offered very little in terms of defense, rebounding, or passing.
After Bickerstaff, another GM was brought in to try and once again make Charlotte basketball a household name.