{"id":18390,"date":"2025-05-08T11:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/18390\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T11:22:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:22:19","slug":"charlotte-hornets-history-notable-players-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/18390\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Hornets | History, Notable Players, &#038; Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Charlotte Hornets,  American professional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/sports\/basketball\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">basketball<\/a> team based in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Charlotte-North-Carolina\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charlotte<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/North-Carolina-state\" class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">North Carolina<\/a>, that plays in the Eastern <a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" data-term=\"Conference\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/Conference\" data-type=\"EB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Conference<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/National-Basketball-Association\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Basketball Association<\/a> (NBA).<\/p>\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The team, originally known as the Bobcats, joined the NBA in 2004 as the league\u2019s 30th franchise. The team\u2019s owner was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Robert-L-Johnson\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robert L. Johnson<\/a>, an American media mogul who, with the founding of the Bobcats, became the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/African-Americans\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">African American<\/a> majority owner of a franchise in one of the four major team sports leagues in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">United States<\/a>. Although the Bobcats featured talented young players such as Rookie of the Year center-forward Emeka Okafor and forward Gerald Wallace, the team was not an early success: it finished with a losing record and in last or second-to-last place in its division in each of its first five seasons in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In 2006 basketball great <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Michael-Jordan\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Jordan<\/a>, a native of North Carolina, became minority owner and general manager of the team, and in 2008 Charlotte hired Hall of Fame head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Larry-Brown\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Larry Brown<\/a> to try to turn around the franchise\u2019s fortunes. In 2010 Jordan took over majority ownership of the Bobcats and <a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" data-term=\"relinquished\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/relinquished\" data-type=\"EB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">relinquished<\/a> his general manager position. Charlotte finished the 2009\u201310 season with the first winning record in franchise history, earning the team its first playoff berth. The Bobcats\u2019 success was short-lived, however, and Brown left the team 28 games into its losing 2010\u201311 campaign. During the lockout-shortened 2011\u201312 season, the team had an NBA-record-low .106 winning percentage, losing all but 7 of its 66 games. The Bobcats rebuilt and quickly bounced back from this nadir, posting a winning record and qualifying for the playoffs in the 2013\u201314 season.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/great-moments-in-sports-quiz\" data-link-module-iframe-link=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Serena-Williams-womens-single-trophy-Australian-Open-Januray-28-2017.jpg\" alt=\"Serena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the Women's Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (tennis, sports)\" class=\"rounded-sm mr-15\" width=\"70\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Britannica Quiz<\/p>\n<p>Great Moments in Sports Quiz<\/p>\n<p><\/a> Charlotte Hornets Results by Season: 2019\u201320 to 2023\u201324   season record playoffs          2019\u201320 23\u201342 missed playoffs   2020\u201321 33\u201339 missed playoffs   2021\u201322 43\u201339 missed playoffs   2022\u201323 27\u201355 missed playoffs   2023\u201324 21\u201361 missed playoffs   <\/p>\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In May 2014 the franchise was renamed the Charlotte Hornets\u2014which was the name of the NBA team that was based in the city from 1988 to 2002, before it moved to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/New-Orleans-Louisiana\" class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Orleans<\/a> and eventually became known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/New-Orleans-Pelicans\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pelicans<\/a>. (The team\u2019s name is a reference to the \u201chornet\u2019s nest\u201d of American rebels in Charlotte during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/American-Revolution\" class=\"md-crosslink \" data-show-preview=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">American Revolution<\/a>.) The Hornets returned to the playoffs in 2015\u201316 but again failed to advance past the first round of the postseason. After that lone playoff <a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" data-term=\"berth\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/berth\" data-type=\"EB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">berth<\/a> Charlotte has remained in the bottom tier of the NBA and failed to qualify for the playoffs. One bright spot has been the play of point guard LaMelo Ball, who was selected third overall in the 2020 draft and won Rookie of the Year in his inaugural season. The team managed to finish the 2021\u201322 season with a winning record, 43\u201339, but has subsequently regressed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In 2023 Jordan sold his majority stake in the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlotte Hornets, American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that plays in the Eastern Conference of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[1297,7,4922,684,473,3878,4921,4920,685,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-18390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-britannica","11":"tag-charlotte","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-charlottehornets","14":"tag-encyclopeadia","15":"tag-encyclopedia","16":"tag-hornets","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114471956905451263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}