Which Hornet/Bobcats era team did you grow up watching?

[JustBuzzin]

I remember when I first started watching basketball as a teen the 97-98 Hornets Glen Rice was the star. I remember seeing him on tv but not truly understanding the team concept of the Hornets. I was just watching MJ at that time because his games would be on tv the most.

It wasn't until the early 2000's when I started watching Hornets games. That was the Jamal Mashburn/Baron Davis era. Those teams were so fun to watch. I just remember getting those local games at night during a school weekday. I would just watch those games and thinking im becoming a fan of the Hornets.

Jamal Mashburn is still one of my favorite players of all time. Dude was so smooth and could score in multiple ways. Baron Davis was also fun and exciting to watch him come up as a young player.


What Hornets/Bobcats era team did you grow up watching?

[Rich4114]

We were spoiled from the late 90's up until the time they moved. Those teams were competitive and a few were what I'd consider a contender. The Glen Rice teams were probably my favorite followed by the B-Diddy/Mash/Wesley team. I started off as a fan in like 94-95 when those starter jackets were popular. I could've liked the Bulls like all of my friends or picked a different, cool team with awesome colors. And since I'm stupidly loyal, here I am!

[MPM]

Old man. My pops had season tickets for the inaugural/first Hornets season. I went to a lot of games and scalped a lot of tickets (at way above face - sellouts=goldmine). All sorts of memories those early years - for some reason I distinctly remember Zo's first rookie shot - it was like an 18-footer he swished and I remember yelling 'no, no, no' as he launched it as no one had seen his jumpshot game in college.

[Bassman]

My start with the Hornets was well before they were born. The first chatter about a possible NBA franchise, and the unlikely hero George Shinn, had my immediate attention. I was married and had a very young son when the Hornets were formed via the expansion draft. We took our son to a “meet the player” event at the Concord Mall, where Tim Kempton was signing autographs. I told my son to ask Tim to stand up when he met him. Tim graciously unfolded himself from a too short table, stood tall and my son backed up into me trying to see the top of the giant! First season, our first in person game was the Hornets Christmas period contest with the mighty Bulls and Jordan. The coliseum was the loudest event I’ve ever attended, of ANY KIND, in my life. As loud as a NASCAR race. Beating the Bulls that night was a moment none of us will ever forget. We went to at least 3 to 5 games per year while they were here. Another great experience was having a friend get us access to the back, where we stood right at the entrance to the locker room before the game. We got to meet Zo and LJ, all the others!

So my era started at the beginning and has carried forward through their disastrous exit, our own personal move from Charlotte to Missouri, then to Florida, and now back to Missouri. I adopted the Bobcats when they were born, and was glad to get the Hornets back. It has been a long journey, and frustrating in many ways. We are long suffering, not quite Cubs level, but it’s high time we get back to being contenders like the heady days of Zo, of Glenn Rice, etc.

[Rays Pompadour]

Like the Hornets, I was young and idealistic those heady first years. I was hooked when Kurt Rambis rebounded a miss and put it back for their first win against Jordan and the Bulls. Kelly Tripuka cried in the locker room. Muggsy Bogues boxed out Patrick Ewing for a rebound. Suddenly, everything was possible.

What made it all real for me was being able to watch the Hornets on TV. I made it to a few games live, but new family, new house, no money. So...TV was the answer. And my love affair with the Hornets carried through the heartbreak of dealing Zo to Miami, losing the lottery and Dwight Howard to Orlando, and the horrible move to New Orleans. But when the Bobcats came to town, well, it wasn't the same.

I've had a hard time caring for the new Hornets like I did the old ones. I thought Larry Bird would have been a better franchisee in Charlotte than Bob Johnson. My distaste with that choice hasn't improve much since then. Hope returned when Jordan bought the team, but they just haven't won and they've made some astoundingly boneheaded organizational moves. To top off my general malaise, the Hornets play behind a pay wall and I refuse to fork over yet another subscription fee on top of the massive monthly amounts I already give to other pay services.

I'm not all that young or idealistic anymore, nor are the Hornets. It's just as well. We've both been through enough over the years to know to take the longer view.

[Robot Rock]

My first Hornets memory is probably 1996 or 1997 but I was all in by 1997-98. Love that team, even though it’s gotta be, by average age, the oldest in franchise history.

[fatlever]

All of them

1st game I saw live 1988 vs Utah jazz.
Watched season opener at a dive bar on Monroe rd called Lanny's 10th grade with my parents.
Never missed a televised game that I can remember. In early days only away games were on local cable. Home games obviously sold out. No such thing as streaming or league pass, only you had the rare giant satelite dish.so listened to a lot of games on radio.

[SpearNMgicHelmt]

I was with the Hornets from day one. My favorite lineup was the early heyday with Muggsy, Dell, Scott Burrell, LJ, and Zo, a group of players rich in both personality and talent, with the biggest stars being guys we had drafted. Though there were some successful squads after that thanks to the machinations of Bob Bass, none of them had that classic team's level of pizzaz.

In recent years, it was starting to feel like we were developing a similar type fun core with the highlight reel excitement of LaMelo and Bridges, accentuated by Eric Collins delivering his over the top reactions. Then the Bridges off-the-court situation largely derailed my optimism.

But with Mark Williams looking like a star and Miller coming in, I'm feeling pretty good again.

[GiggitySmalls]

Zombie, Grandmama, and mugsy

Sent from my SM-F936U using RealGM mobile app

[Hornet Mania]

I grew up watching the LJ/Zo Hornets, started being aware of the team around 1992 but I was still a bit too young to really follow them religiously. Plus it was harder to do that back then with a lot of games not being televised, you had to check the papers or have ESPN to get scores when the game wasn't broadcast. 1997 was the first year I followed all 82 games, and I've been on the bandwagon ever since.

Young fans would find it hard to imagine that we were just about a model small-market franchise back then. Sometimes a contender, almost always a winning team, making the moves necessary to keep out heads above water even with ownership sabotaging things by being insanely cheap. I recall we let something like 30 free agents in a row walk for nothing, in an era where a lot of them were excellent role players we'd developed.

[HornetJail]

first memories are of Baron Davis in the Coliseum but didn't watch regularly till the early Bobcats years.