Charlotte Hornets GET B- Offseason Grade! | Charles Lee Visits Sickos | Who Wore It Best: #8

Charlotte Hornets GET B- Offseason Grade! | Charles Lee Visits Sickos | Who Wore It Best: #8

So, we already like to stop at the rotation station. We once again, for the second time in as many weeks, take a stop at the aggregation station. Kevin Pelton dropping grades on what each team did this off season. We bring back who wore it best. I don’t even know what number we’re on. It’s like the third off seasonason we’ve done this. And then letters from the front line. All today locked on Hornets. You are Locked on Hornets, your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. In a minute, cuz we live. [Music] It’s Locked On Hornets, part of the Locked On Network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. for free and available anywhere you get your podcast and that does include YouTube. There’s Doug Branson, a confused Doug Branson. We’ll ask him in a second. Every hornetsbox.com also uh locked on NBA with Matt Moore and Hayes doing a lot of different things in the pod sphere. I’m Walker Mail. You can listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3:00 p.m. You looking for content around you? Anything good come up while you were looking around you or what’ you what did you find over there? I was looking for post-it notes where I put contents. Um, you know, people don’t like it when I interrupt you on the show. And so what I found is that if I have Post-it notes near me, I can write things down and then I can bring them up whenever you get done yapping. It is like my nicotine patch uh for getting my takes off. So you’re telling me my burner accounts worked then. Yes. Well done. Great campaign. Great. Great. It took a long time. It took years and it took more burner accounts than I care to mention, but it finally worked. Please and thank you. Offseason grades. I found some content. Thank you, Kevin Pelton. As of this recording, it says on ESPN.com like an hour ago that Kevin dropped NBA offseason grades for each team. And of course, we’re going to talk about what grade the Hornets received. It was a B minus. Doug Kevin Pelton writes this, “The Hornets should be more competitive this upcoming season after finding playmakers to supplement LaMelo Ball. Charlotte’s offense collapsed without LaMelo last season, which doesn’t figure to continue with the additions of vets like Spencer Denwitty, Colin Ston, the return of Trey Mann, and of course, number four pick Coniple. The MVP of the summer league championship game, by the way, should help the Hornets shooting immediately.” So, pretty positive write up and the Hornets get a B minus. I did the quick scan of what every other team received on this report card, if you will. It looks like the Hornets placed 13th, tied for 13th. 12 other teams, I believe, maybe 12 or 13 teams received a higher grade. That means they received a B or higher, which puts them about average here, Doug, does this feel right to you? Without putting a lot of thought to it, because we just saw it, we’re talking about feelings. Summer is for feelings. It’s still summer. Does it feel right to you? Do the Hornets get a B minus in the middle of the pack? Well, I always feel nervous whenever anyone in the national media looks at the Charlotte Hornets and then cast a judgment on them because I have been trained uh in in that Pavlovian kind of way to wse when that kind of thing happens. And honestly, I thought this was a better grade than I expected because I I thought KP would look at the center position and say, “Hey, this team did not do enough to field a competitive center rotation.” But instead, he put the magnifying glass where I think it should be, which is the how they’ve stacked up at guard to not replace LaMelo if LaMelo were to get injured. Like if LaMelo gets injured, this team is pro is I wouldn’t even say probably is still going to be a disaster. If he’s injured for like 20 plus games this season, a large stretch because if you take any particularly a player like LaMelo of LaMelo’s stature, I think he’s a top 50 player in the NBA easily. And if he’s playing at his maximum is a top 25, potentially top 20 player in the NBA. If you pluck that player out of any lineup, it’s going to get significantly worse. I think he was close to like an 11point difference plus minus offensively for the Charlotte Hornets. Like Tyrese is close to that. Tyrese Hallebertton’s close to that. Kate Cunningham makes a big difference for the Pistons. Those are two guys that we often compare LaMelo to. You can’t lose those guys for significant time and expect to function as a team. But there were times last season when he was healthy, he would go to the bench and the Hornets offense looked lost. It it could not find open shooters. It could not get to the rim. It could not function. The offense looked terrible. That’s what I think KP is talking about. Those bench minutes when LaMelo is off the floor. Can the Charlotte Hornets function and not give up, you know, 11, 12 points very quickly? I think that that he’s dead on here that these additions are going to help that significantly. Well, and and you’re right. So, I was looking at the Tyresese Hallebertton record uh with him and with him off of with him on and with him off of the floor for the Pacers. Pacers are four and five. And I think that’s what you’re asking for. It’s for a team not to completely wither away when their star goes. And I think not only LaMelo getting hurt and not playing games, it’s going to destroy the Hornets season. But when your backup point guard gets hurt, then your season is also going to wither away. And that’s what happened with Trey Man last year. I think that was the plan. LaMelo is going to play as the starter, as the star that he is. And when he needs to get a little rest, here comes Trey Man because of what he did the back half of the season prior, because of what he showed us to be in preeason going into the regular season. We went over the stats in the 13 games that he played, he looked quite nice. You look at his onoff numbers, cleaning the glass, it neglects the garbage time stats. The Hornets are better with him on the floor. They are plus 4.4 four points per 100 possessions better offensively with Trey Mann on the floor compared to when he’s off. So when Trey man gets hurt, Doug, and you don’t have LaMelo, now you just don’t have any plan C. What what’s great about this is the Hornets said, “Okay, LaMelo gets hurt. Trey man only played 13 games and he had a back issue which he never came back from. Let’s go ahead and just draw up plan E. Let’s get five options out there so our offense doesn’t go into the you know what anytime any of those guards go to the pine or go to the training table. So I I it’s hilarious because it it’s the correct overreaction. Overreaction by very definition means that you you did something a little more than you really needed to. No man, this is an overreaction by the Hornets and I applaud them for overreacting to some of the guards that they lose. um if they if they’re gone now they they are much more prepared to deal with those types of losses. And I think the Colin Ston edition is the most important because absolutely even with LaMelo Ball on the floor he does something that I think e even their stars struggle to do which is get to the rim and on top of that you’ve added shooters that are going to space the floor more than we ever saw at any point last season. that’s going to give even more room because I think part of the reason that LaMelo struggled to get to the rim and draw fouls is because there just wasn’t a lot of space. Defenses did not have to respect the Hornets from beyond the three-point line. They had to respect LaMelo, but and and when the the the short time that we got with Brandon Miller healthy, they had to respect him and they did. They doubled him a lot to get the ball out of his hands, but other than that, I mean, they could just, you know, send a little bit of extra help, shade that close to the rim a little bit more, and that’s going to prevent u I think LaMelo, who is not like, you know, total supreme athlete, from being able to do exactly what he wants to do around there. So, just like I just look at all of these moves as so complimentary and working together. It’s almost as if like someone in the front office thought, hey, we should be more competitive. we should be more serious. Maybe we go out and get pieces that complement the pieces that we already have and maybe that would work. I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone’s thinking that, but you know, it would be a first uh if for the Hornets in like a decade. Well, so so they were thinking it and then they outright said it. whoever it was speaking with Keith Smith, but we did that episode last week, the anonymous front office exec when Keith was speaking to all these guys in the NBA. Spoke to one within the Hornets front office and they said, “We were looking to supplement LaMelo Ball, supplement Brandon Miller with those two guys being our pillars.” And those are the only two names he mentioned, but it’s oftentimes the only two players we mention as the building blocks of this team. And they went out and they tried to support those building blocks. Uh, last last thing for me, a little sn I have two things. One, I think a little sneak part of this is how many times last season, particularly at the beginning of the year, did it look like LaMelo felt like the world was on his shoulders? Felt like I’ve got to carry this team. It’s up to me. Okay. Hopefully, he he is a little bit less of that. Hopefully, he’s a little playing a little bit more controlled. Hopefully, he’s trusting his teammates a little bit more and he has every right to because the Hornets have now invested in the roster. Second thing, New Orleans Pelicans grade F. Haha. The only F. The only F as as far as I could tell. The only failing grade this given out by Kevin Pelton. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Everywhere. You know, I felt like we broke a little earlier in the first segment than usual, but it’s because we have a lot of work to do with this next segment. We have a lot. who wore it best. It’s everybody’s favorite segment that we never ever ever finish. It feels like this is the off season where we are going to finish it, but we have a long way to go, especially bringing everybody up to speed with all of the other jerseys, everything we’ve gone through already again um in who wore it best. Coming up next, LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by 5Hour Energy. 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What do you Locked on Golf? There you go. Locked on golf to receive 20% off your order. I hesitate just because of some of the mistakes I’ve made in the past. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders. Whether you’re meeting up with friends trying to turn 18 holes into 36, you guys are monsters. Get the energizing boost you need to power through. Order transfusion flavored 5-hour energy shots today. More lockdown hornets ahead. [Music] Here we go. Do we need a 5 hour energy shot to get through this next segment because you have a lot of work to do just bringing people up to speed on all of the numbers that we’ve deemed already certain players wearing those numbers best. Well, first of all, we have a lot of new listeners to this podcast thanks to a summer league championship run. A lot of and thanks to a Mark Williams trade that never happened at the Los Angeles Lakers. I love that we still have people that have just kind of they saw the island on their way by like, okay, we’ll we’ll settle here. Oh, cool. I like this island. We don’t need to leave. Low bar. I like I like the decor in this low bar. I like the vibe. Okay. A little kai. Interesting. I like this drink. Flavorful. Who wore it best? This is a segment that we’ve been doing for three silly seasons now. And it’s essentially we put every jersey number in Hornets history under the microscope from number 98 to number 0. We’re going to ask the question who wore it best. And we’ve been posting polls on YouTube over the past couple of seasons. If you and I have an argument, like if we can’t come to a determination, we leave it up to the people. But because the Hornets history is what it is, a lot of these are are pretty uh I don’t know if self-explanatory is the right term. They’re apparent. They’re very apparent who wore it best. Here are the rules. You can only take into account their time in Charlotte and only when they wore the jersey number. So, I think the only thing we can do because it’s been a silly season since we’ve done this is to recap the full list. Are you ready? The only other rule, the only other thing I want to clarify is, yeah, players that have worn a new jersey number. Um, are we going over those just in passing or do we want to spend a tiny tiny bit of time with those guys? You tell me. No, this will this is very important actually to today’s number which is the number eight. You can only consider the even if they switch jersey numbers, you can only consider the time in which they wore that particular jersey number. No, I’m I’m going with Taj Gibson is my question. Like are are we when we do all these number are we gonna spend some time on Taj who now has worn 67. There’s no time as the only player. Not if we want not if we want to finish this. Not if we want to finish this list. I I’m along for the ride. All right. Just I’m following you, baby. Let’s start. All right. Deep breath. Here we go. Number 98, Arnoldis Kubaca. Number 67, Taj Gibson. New addition to Who Woree It Best? Number 55, Chris Douglas Roberts, CDR. Number 54, Lee Nalon. Nails. Number 52, Matt Guyger. The Geger counter. That’s it. Number 50, Amecha Okafor. Rookie of the year. Not Dwight Howard. M Oakor. Number 45, The Hammer. Armen Gilliam. There you go. Number 44, Derek Coleman, DC. Number 43, Anthony Toiver. It’s all over it. Number 42, PJ Brown. You got something on Anthony Toiver? Uh, just laughter. That’s it. Number 42, PJ Brown. Number 41, Glenn Rice. I know you have something on Glenn Rice. I love him, my guy. Number 40, Cody Zeller. Godzilla. Bald spot. Number 39. That’s mean. Tom Tolbert. No bald spot here. Tommy with the frosted tips. Bald dome. Yeah, straight up. Well, he did go. He eventually went there, but before that he was Tommy T with the frosted tips. The before and after on Tom Tolbert is ridiculous. Number 35, Gerald World Class Glass, who claims the number 35, I think, solely because he had an amazing nickname of Gerald World Class Glass. Number 34, J.R. Reed. So nice they brought him back twice. Number 33, Alonszo Morning, of course. Number Liam McNeely, you’ve got no chance, buddy. You should have picked a different number. Yeah, sorry. Number 32, Hersy Hawkins. Number Hawk. Number 31, Kurt Rambus. Rambo. Number 30, Dell Curry, DC 4-3. Number 28, a new addition, Marcus Garrett. Congratulations, Marcus. Welcome, Marcus. No one. Any nickname there? No. No name. Okay, I got to look it. I’ll look it up when I when I get a chance. Number 27, Dwayne Jones. Number 25, Big Al Jefferson. Number 24, Mash, Jamal Mashburn. Number 23, Jay Rich, Jason Richardson. Number 22, Johnny Newman. 21 Jamal Mcloire. Number 20, Ray Ray Raymond Felton. Number 19, PJ Haristen. That’s right. PJ Haristen wore it best. Number 19. No, this one’s even funnier. I don’t know that any two names are funnier back toback than PJ Harist at number 19. At number 18, the only player to ever wear the number 18 for the Charlotte Hornets, Miles Plumbley. Oh god. Yeah. Number 17, Bryce Drew. Number 16, Scotty Lewis. Number 15, sorry, Scotty. Number 15, Kemba Walker. Number 14, Mace Anthony Mason. Number 13, Kendall Gil. Number 12, Vlatty Divage. Vlatty. Number 11, McBob, Josh McRoberts. Number 10, BJ Armstrong. And number nine, Gerald Henderson. Endo. Um, the only one I think I think you might have missed Eric Williams with number 88 in 2007. Did we go over that? I don’t know. That that that’s the only one. He’s the only guys who have worn that. That must have been added because why would we have missed that one? I think basketball reference went back and added that somehow. You know, he played five games for the Hornets. Okay. five games in total in 2006 2007 and I guess war number 88. Anyways, look, he’s on the listelcome. He’s on the list. Yeah. All right. Okay. Number eight. Are you ready for uh to go over I got to bring up my list here. Are you ready to go over number eight? Yeah, we’ll do it after the break. It’s No, this is fine. Yes, I am ready to go over number eight. Give me all the players worth considering. Uh a number of players have worn the number eight. Eddie Johnson in 1994, Tony Farmer in 1998, in 2001, Terrence Robertson. Robersonson, Terrence Robersonson, let’s go with that. In 2001, that concludes the original Hornets. Then moving on to the Bobcats, Steve Smith, vet in 2005. I’ve got some stuff on Steve Smith if you want it. DJ White from 2011 to 2014. Ben Gordon from 2013 to 14. Bismac Biombo from 20 2015 to 2021 there’s a gap of time there where he did not play for the Charlotte franchise. So but Bismac Bybo his second stent was in the number eight. His first st if you remember was in the number zero. Uh Johnny O’Bryant from 27 to 28 J O Montres Harold in 2022. Dennis Smith Jr. in 2023 and the owner of the eight number now is Nick Smith Jr. Oh, two Smith Juniors. How about that? This one’s tough. Probably not for all the right reasons. Montre Harold. Yeah, I I I don’t probably not. But here here is the way that we would attempt to talk about it. we have some oneoffs or even some halfyear offs with some of these numbers because I I do think Montre Herrell that that little stretch like that half season after we traded for him underrated in terms of the twoman game that he developed with LaMelo like I I actually didn’t like that Montre didn’t play all that much in the playin game because he seemed to be only only one ready offensively that should have got that got James Brago fired in my mind it was it was bad and and LaMelo and Montre made sweet music with one another. It felt like Montre while yes, defensively not good. Offensively was fun. Like I have fond memories of Montre during that season. Dennis Smith Jr. opposite end of the court defensively we all loved him. Everybody wanted him back and gave us the the one solid season certainly defensively. Ben Gordon just just can’t be a part of this after how terribly it went the the latter half I guess of his tenure here in Charlotte. But I do think with Ben, you forget the 75 games that he played and three-point shooting, but you know, it’s not enough to be in consideration. Doug, does it kind of have to be Well, before we before we give our answer, you had Steve Smith stuff. Do you want to drop the Smitty stuff on us? Uh, so Steve Smith was brought into the Bobcats in 2005, so very shortly after the Bobcats. I don’t know if I feel like that was it was the second season. uh brought in as the veteran leader and they really hyped it up. We’re gonna bring in a veteran leader for all of these young mostly expansion draft players that we have on the roster now. Um and then he gets hurt in like February and then they eject him. They trade him back to Miami as like a ceremonial thing before he retires. Uh so Smitty not not very long for the Bobcats world. Interestingly though, they put him on the IIL uh and brought in Matt Carroll. That was the a lot of Bobcats fans were well I mean Matt Carroll’s been on the radio broadcast for the Hornets for a long time. Uh but Matt Carroll began the first of his two stints as a Bobcat uh with the okay Steve Smith ejection. Okay. Steve Smith interesting for 2005 the only season that he played here with Charlotte. I guess it kind of has to be Bismac Bybo, right? Yeah. I mean, his second stint, he had his best scoring season as a as a Bobcat/Hornet with 7.4 points per game in the 1920 season. If you don’t remember the 1920 season, don’t don’t worry. It was the lost season. James Burggo second season as head coach. They won 23 games. They uh it was the season before LaMelo was drafted. So you had this weird mix of like old run 15 16 like Marvin was on the team, Zeer was still on the team. They bring back Biz the year before in the trade that that trade was to remove. See, I get it all confused now. I’ll Well, it’s the Dwight Howard stuff, right? Isn’t Isn’t there Dwight Howard stuff in there somewhere where they they bring him back from Orlando? I’ll look it up. I’ll get the translation. I think yes, exactly. So the Dwight Howard is involved, but it traces all the way back to the Lance Stevenson debacle. But so you know that that was a very lost season of Charlotte Hornets basketball. You might remember it as the Devonte Graham season. He had an amazing season. Terry Rosier starts to come online during that time as well. Uh but Bismac, he starts 29 games really. I mean, let me count it up here. I mean, almost 100 games started in the threeyear stretch where he wore the number eight. And so that’s just a lot of work. I feel like yes, you have to give it to him. Um, okay. So this is this is gross, but this is the transaction. As part of a three-team trade, Bismbo was traded by Orlando with a 2019 second round draft pick, which later turned out to be Cody Martin, and a 2020 second round draft pick that later turned out to be Yam Madar to the Hornets. The Bulls traded Jerian Grant to the Magic. The Hornets traded Julian Stone uh loved his presser. I remember that in 2018 to the Bulls. And the Hornets traded Timothy Mosgov to the Magic in a reroute. The 2019 second round pick, least favorable pick as well along with the 2020 second round pick which was least favorable. So three team trade, all of the picks. Bismac. He was basically just swallowed salary by the Hornets after the Magic gave him that big-time contract, his series with Toronto, parlaying that into a big-time contract. And remember that was I guess what, the summer of 2016, right? Yeah. 20 2016 he got that uh that big deal. Uh yeah, 2018. Mosgov and Bambbo, guys that signed big contracts because of the salary cap spike and Mosgov was the Howard connection. So the Hornets traded Howard to the Nets to get Mosgov and then Mosgov was moved. That’s right. Where was I? I was like in some botanical garden when all of this was going down and it was I was on some kind of like vacation and I’m reading this. Yeah, it’s happening in June. I’m reading all of this and going what the hell am I what the hell am I doing? What has my life become? I I really that if you want just a summer homework, not even homework, just a summer like weird thing to do if you have literally nothing else to do. I think it would be fun to go back and watch some of our shows during that time. I can’t imagine us talking about these transactions and and trying to make sense of any of it. Well, you know that you’d have to listen because we weren’t on YouTube, but to go back and listen to some of those pods that that was that was a time. It’s so funny. It’s probably better that we weren’t on YouTube. We probably had like bags under our eyes. Oh, yeah. Well, and it’s so funny. I remember where I was when Bismbo. Why? It’s the It’s like the JFK assassination. That’s like we all remember where we were. Where were you when the Hornets traded for Bism again? I was at Salude in Nota. Shout out. I probably ordered like three coffee porters after that just and downed him to the face. All right, here we go. Bism again. Coffee porter. Coffee porter. I’m drunk. But that’s okay. But see, I don’t want to underell this because I think you and I both remember where we were because I think you and I both had the same feeling of like, what the hell have I devoted my life to? Why? Why am I It just It keeps go It keeps rotating. We No, this can’t be. And then of course the next season, LaMelo, it’s a whole new era. One player can wipe it all away and give you hope again. That was as long as I feared it would be. It was as long as I feared. Coming up next on the Locked on Hornets podcast. Congrats Biz everywhere. We move to letters from the front line. Rummage a little bit in the sicko satchel. Every hornetsboxcore.com. All that good stuff that Doug provides coming up next. Last segment. [Music] All right, take us away Doug. What you got for the people? Oh, we have some letters from the front line. I’ve been asking for these on subtext. Join subtext.com/lockedon hornets. It is the official home of the sicko satchel where you can submit your questions and your letters from the front line of the sickness. And we have one here from Schuman. Unfortunately, people in my neighborhood are very aware of my sicko status and are always quick to mention any Hornets related tidbit to me. Uh, pause here. Does this happen to you, Walker? Are you Do you walk around your neighborhood and people come up to you because I know you’re the Hornets guy and they just hit you with a What’s this Coniple guy all about? I I mean, a little Well, I my my neighbor is a Hornets fan, also a Charlotte 49er alumfan, and so it’s not like he ever bugs me about it. When we talk, we’ll often talk about sports, but no, Rodney, that’s not Rodney is my guy. Like that that’s this is the neighbor that I share driveway beers with. That like that that’s a true neighbor. So, not really not in the spirit of what he’s talking about. Okay, let’s get back to this letter. Sorry. I love them all and hope it infects them with my malady. One day, my seven-year-old nextdoor neighbor ran to my house top speed to knock on my door with a present for me. He and his dad have been doing a project together where uh they wrote letters to retired athletes with with old cards for them to sign. Very sweet father-son stuff to be sure. He handed me a card and told me that he doesn’t know who this player was and wanted me to have it. I’m thinking maybe it’s a classic Hornet like David Wingut or J.R. Reed or Kelly Trapuca. Nope. I am the proud owner of an autographed Dave Hoppin NBA Hoops basketball card. Dave Hoppin. Dave Hoopin. Hoppin. Uh former guest of this former guest podcast. That’s right. That’s right. Former guest of this show. We have now we we remember where we were when Charlotte reacquired Bismbo. And we’re the podcast that also had Dave Hoppin on as a guest. And what what I remember most about having him on, which real quickly, we had him on because we were doing some summer silly offseason thing. I forget why. I I forget what segment we were rolling with at that time, but we had Dave Hopping on. And I just remember him being so It was wor It probably was. It probably was. Honestly, I remember him being so surprised. I asked him, “All right, Dave, how surprised were you when when somebody asked you to hop on their NBA podcast and have you done this before?” Um, I was really surprised. No, I’ve never done this before. I’ve never hopped on a basketball podcast. Like, yeah, of course you haven’t. I’m going to I’m going to guess that he hasn’t appeared on another one. But I love that. That’s exactly I feel like the spirit of what Letters from the Front Line should be. It’s when you’re Hornets fandom, it intersects with what you experience in your everyday life. Uh he also Shiman also called Dave Hoop and Hoppin the proto Mason Plumbley. Uh shout out to his neighbor Thomas the kids. They’re going to be all right. Well they’ll be all right Shiman if you explain to him the importance of the gold that he had in his hand in the Dave Hoop and Hoppin NBA hooves basketball card. Bad news for Hoppin though. He wore the number 42 and if you remember from the last segment we gave that uh to PJ Brown. That’s a tough number. Jammensky, who should get some credit for also being an announcer. And then uh not getting credit here, but I just want to mention that Shawn May also wore the number 42. Okay. He he did not wear it best. I don’t know if he’s second or third on that list to be honest with you. He wore it biggest. He did wear it biggest. Ray Ray also in in uh that competition. The North Carolina guys, they got big. PJ Haristen. God, Carolina, shout out to their nutrition team. And well, no, I’ll say I went to Carolina. and I’m an alum and their dining halls are excellent. Okay. I I I also Yeah. Coming out is what you’re saying? Yeah. I wore it. Well, when I went to Charlotte, we we still had RDH with a lot of people called Rather Die Hungry when that wasn’t the So, I was I was not all that big after freshman year. Sophomore year ate off campus, then I got big. Uh, all right. Real quickly, we should mention the Crown Club event event at local where Crown Club, those guys, this is hilarious. It’s all about the sickness. It’s all about the joke of it. I appreciate so much that Crown Club decided to host a summer league championship viewing party at local. Um and and a lot of people attended like a lot a lot of people went to this. We all wanted t-shirts. Yes, we wanted t-shirts. Uh, and to your point, it’s when when we win something like even a semi note, we’re here to celebrate it. We will show up and and Crown Club put that to the test. And so, shout out to those guys for throwing this down. Um, not only did the Crown Club guys show up, a lot of the people in the Crown Club show up, people outside of it, they were there, too. I saw people that I’ve talked to in passing um, you know, out at tailgates, out at whatever event, right? I I saw some of their pictures out there. Charles Lee, Charles Lee showed up and I thought that was a really cool gesture from the head coach to go to local and gladand with a lot of the fans and take pictures and everything that we heard from some of the fans in attendance. All they could discuss was how nice of a guy Charles Lee is. I think that’s genuine. It’s the only thing that I’ve picked up on in any of my interactions with Charles. So really cool that he was out in the community while the community was celebrating something that the Hornets accomplished this off seasonason. You only do that, I would think, if you’re Charles Lee, you would only do something like that if you expect to win. Like if you expect to deliver something to these fans, why would you show up if uh you did not expect to do that? If you if you just thought, I’m going to this event where I’m going to disappoint people next season. No, of course there are expectations for this team. And and also I would say like shout out to Charles Lee. If you’re going to drop all of these platitudes on us and and some of them, you know, I I think some people would regard as like a little bit cringey. Like we’re all about hard work and I think they’re super important. Some people think they’re cringey. If you’re going to do that, then go to these type of events where people are going to eat that stuff up. The sickos eat that stuff up. We we because we’re all about just clinging to any piece of winning, any piece of hope, any piece of of this leadership showing some interest in wanting to get involved with the fans. Yeah, man. It’s awesome. And and again, just one of these things that I will continue to point to and go, wh why didn’t they do this five years ago? Why didn’t they do it seven years ago? Like there were some when they were a competitive basketball team towards the like 15 16 I do remember there were some bigger like offseason events like they even had in that what’s that it’s like a convention center that’s right it’s on the blue line they had like a big fanfest event during that time um so they they’ve done some stuff like this they’ve done some like epicenter you you’re not talking about the epicenter it wasn’t the epicenter it was like a convention center uptown near the blue line and they had this like huge fanfest where they were like interviewing players. You go to all these different stations. Um, but that was a team hosted thing. This is different in that it’s fan hosted and you’ve got the team saying, “All right, I will, you know, bless you with my presence.” It’s it’s nice to see. Yeah. Yeah. Hugo was there. Uh, Charles Lee and I believe Hugo signed the Crown Club flag. Um, so that Yeah. And and Charles going there and taking all of the pictures. I mean, you know, so Crown Club, they quote tweeted a lot of this. I I’d have some Hornets follows out there where they were tweeting out pictures with Charles. I mean, it is it is daunting, right? You could roll your eyes if you want to. That’s fine. Like it when Charles shows up, he knows he’s going to be bombarded with fans. Again, roll your eyes if you want to, but it’s a real thing, right? Like, you know, you’re showing up and you’re not going to have any time whatsoever. You’re showing up understanding uh every five seconds someone’s going to want to take a picture with me. Every single second somebody’s going to want to talk ball. every single second someone is going to want to buy me a drink. Someone’s going to want to I know the horror, right? 100%. Right. I just just make sure you keep that same energy when you see me. Fair enough. When you see me at a bar up town, keep that same energy. Doug’s going to be passed out. People are going to be signing his forehead, not the Crown Club flag when he’s passed out on the table at local. Yeah. Just just cool stuff from Charles putting in effort with the fans. I think that’s my point in all of this. He’s putting in effort to engage with the community and that’s something that doesn’t go overlooked. That’s you just hit it. Effort is is the the the correct word. The minimum effort. That is we’ve seen them go above and beyond that. But all we’ve been asking from this team for years is show the minimum effort that you give a damn. And they have not been able to clear that low bar. So instead of clearing that even meeting that low bar or clearing it, Charles Lee says, “No, forget that. I’m going to the Crown Club bar. I’m going to local and I’m gonna be with the fans. It’s amazing. I can’t be more excited for this season. Speaking of local, you talk about places I used to get down at. Younger Walker. All right. Local. Local was the spot, baby. Love me some local. That’ll do it for Locked on Hornets. Thanks for making us your first listen. Who available any who wore it drunkest? Me. I wore it drunkest at local back in my my partying days. Um, locked on Hornets, thanks for making us your first listen. locked on NBA needs to be your second listen. Doug Hayes, Matt Moore, all those guys doing a great job during the regular season, off seasonason, they’re still at it, folks. Again, make it your second listen anywhere you get your pods. And I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me, WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m. Have a great rest of your day. I think Wednesday we’re looking at Wednesday and Thursday of this week. We’re three days a week. For those that might be joining us and having not caught our last episode, just joining us today for the first time in a while, we usually go five days a week, not for the next two months or so, seven weeks, something like that. We’ll be going three days a week. We’re looking at a tentative Monday, Wednesday, Thursday schedule, just so you guys know what’s up. So, have a great rest of your day. Have a great Tuesday. We’ll be back with you Wednesday. [Music]

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