Charlotte Hornets bumped from worldwide leader

Bad news for fans of the Charlotte Hornets who were looking forward to watching their matchup with the San Antonio Spurs on ESPN. The worldwide leader has opted to bump the Hornets-Spurs matchup in favor of a game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Denver Nuggets. Additionally, next Friday’s game time has changed from 10 PM Eastern to 8 PM.

It is unfortunate for the Hornets to not get the shine of a nationally televised game on ESPN and lose their only non-NBA TV game with this distinction. But it is hard to argue with the network’s decision here. A game between the Pelicans and Nuggets will not only have better viewership it will feature two teams that are genuinely good rather than a matchup of two teams with 13 combined wins at this moment. When taking these facts into consideration, it is easy to understand why they decided to opt for a matchup that people will actually tune in to watch rather than one that will not garner the same viewership numbers.

Decisions like this one from ESPN just come with that territory of being an irrelevant team and could serve as a massive reality check for the new ownership group in Charlotte, which could result in across-the-board changes being made at some point in the near future. The Hornets are not built properly, as the organization believed this roster was capable of a lot more than what they actually are. The poor roster construction combined with the laundry list of injuries has contributed to the complete disaster that has been the first 33 games of the 2023-24 NBA season. Expect many more situations like this one to occur until the Hornets find a way to escape the NBA’s basement, a proposition that is going to take a bit more time than the organization realized before this season began.