{"id":848331,"date":"2026-10-01T12:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/848331\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:21:17","slug":"coby-white-ready-to-lead-the-charlotte-hornets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/848331\/","title":{"rendered":"Coby White ready to lead the Charlotte Hornets"},"content":{"rendered":"

If anyone can endear themselves to Hornets fans like LaMelo Ball did, it might just have to be a homegrown player.<\/p>\n

In Goldsboro native Coby White, Hornets fans have that and more.<\/p>\n

But White is clear about one thing: He is not the next LaMelo Ball. He is Coby White.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I gotta do it my way,\u201d White said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see what that looks like for myself. I gotta do it the Coby White way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s media day gave players and head coach Charles Lee an opportunity to share how they are feeling heading into the 2026 NBA season. What hardly needed mentioning was the player missing from the room: LaMelo Ball, Charlotte\u2019s former cornerstone. And while Lee and his players emphasized the team\u2019s depth, NBA games are won and lost by star players \u2014 perhaps none more important than the point guard.<\/p>\n

\"Charlotte Charlotte Hornets guard Coby White on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com <\/p>\n

White, who came to Charlotte in February from the Chicago Bulls and re-signed with the team weeks after Ball was traded, is now that guy. And he knows it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m in a different role than I was last year here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But both he and his coach are believers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has embraced every bit of the challenge that\u2019s gonna come his way,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

White also showed, in his few appearances as a Hornet, that he can have a serious impact. In 21 regular-season games, he averaged 15.6 points across 19.3 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

That was enough for White to convince himself and Lee that he really can play the game his way.<\/p>\n

\"Charlotte Charlotte Hornets guard Coby White on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com <\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t need to play the point guard position like anybody else in the NBA, or anybody that was in that seat previously,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWhat he\u2019s done throughout his career has already been really effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, to elevate the team the way Ball did, White will need to add other elements to his game. For Charlotte, White averaged just 3 rebounds and 3 assists, compared to Ball\u2019s 4.8 rebounds and 7.1 assists.<\/p>\n

Lee has a plan for that, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to help him become an even more overall basketball player,\u201c he said. \u201cI think offensively, he\u2019s always shown that he can score. Now he\u2019s gotta find that balance a little bit more of the scoring and the passing, playing off the ball at times, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

White, who said he\u2019s always trying to develop, is ready to take on what he acknowledged is \u201ca lot of responsibility and a lot on my shoulders.\u201d He says it\u2019s why he wanted to re-sign with Charlotte.<\/p>\n

\"Charlotte Charlotte Hornets guard Coby White on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that in order for me to become the player that I strive to be \u2014 that I dream of becoming \u2014 I have to take on this challenge,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think I\u2019m ready for it at this point in my career, maturity-wise, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spiritually, in part, because of where he now finds himself, back home in North Carolina, where he grew up, became the state\u2019s all-time leading scorer in high school basketball history, and played one year of college ball at UNC.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t make this stuff up,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you would have told me two years ago that this is where I\u2019d be sitting at right here, I wouldn\u2019t believe you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published October 1, 2026 at 5:00 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If anyone can endear themselves to Hornets fans like LaMelo Ball did, it might just have to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,685,6],"class_list":["post-848331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-basketball","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-hornets","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117365629905590517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848331","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=848331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}