{"id":833379,"date":"2026-09-11T23:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T23:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/833379\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T23:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T23:30:15","slug":"hornets-first-round-picks-throw-out-first-pitch-at-charlotte-baseball-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/833379\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets&#8217; first-round picks throw out first pitch at Charlotte baseball game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sept. 11, 2026, 9:01 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte Hornets rookies Christian Anderson Jr. and Hannes Steinbach attended a Charlotte Knights baseball game.Anderson Jr. threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game against the Buffalo Bisons.The two players, selected in the 2026 NBA Draft, also met with fans and signed autographs.Steinbach may start at center for the Hornets, while Anderson Jr. is projected as a reserve point guard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">As minor league baseball enters its final stages this summer, the Charlotte Knights (Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox) had two special guests during their final homestand of the season. Ahead of a game against the Buffalo Bisons (Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays), <a data-autotag=\"e256e96c-b58f-4300-a36c-9b2c6d336797\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/charlotte-hornets\/5312\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Charlotte Hornets<\/a> rookies Christian Anderson Jr. and Hannes Steinbach were in attendance, with Anderson Jr. doing the honors of <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HornetsReddit\/status\/2098258991570718969\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">throwing out the first pitch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Not only that, but the German duo took the time to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KnightsBaseball\/status\/2098238272979824642\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">meet fans<\/a> and sign autographs prior to the game. After finishing ninth in the Eastern Conference last season, the additions of Steinbach and Anderson Jr. are well-anticipated for the Hornets, as the two went No. 14 and No. 18 overall in the recent 2026 NBA Draft. Ahead of opening night, Steinbach has a <a href=\"http:\/\/therookiewire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rookie\/2026\/09\/04\/predicting-hornets-depth-chart-before-the-2026-27-season\/91613444007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">chance to start<\/a> at center for the Hornets, while Anderson Jr. will likely enter the season as the team&#8217;s third point guard behind Coby White and Dennis Schroder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">For more NBA content, check out the BasketBaltes podcast:<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@BasketBaltes\/videos\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@BasketBaltes\/videos<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/basketbaltes\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/basketbaltes\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sept. 11, 2026, 9:01 a.m. ET Charlotte Hornets rookies Christian Anderson Jr. and Hannes Steinbach attended a Charlotte&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[72400,7,684,473,3878,685,6,90348,72761,72762,73216,72404,98787,72468,73668,72935,72444,72422,72405,72406,72558,72403],"class_list":["post-833379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-hornets","tag-nba","tag-sourcerookie-wire","tag-sstssportsnbarookie","tag-sstsnrookie","tag-tagbaseball","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagbuffalo-bisons","tag-tagcharlotte-hornets","tag-tagcoby-white","tag-tagdennis-schroeder","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117255013891636621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833379","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=833379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}