I had a surgical consult with Glen Perry a couple years ago. He was the official orthopedic doctor of the original Hornets from their inception to their departure to New Orleans. He's an incredible practitioner and an even nicer guy.
At any rate, we struck up a conversation over a piece of Hornets art he had on his office wall and ended up shooting the breeze about his time with the old Hornets for nearly an hour. He shared several great stories from from tending to Kurt Rambis after he suffered a Frank Brikowski elbow during the inaugural season, to tracking down the Lakers team physician on a golf course to vet Vlade Divac's back prior to their approaching LA to trade for him, to the Mourning contract negotiations (he confirmed Zo was offered at the time the most lucrative deal in basketball history, over $110 million in 1995, but Zo told Shinn still it wasnt enough at which point Shinn was insulted and immediately directed the FO to explore trade options)
Probably the most interesting stories he had involved Bob Bass though. Bass was a maestro with salary cap management and as fats has noted, flipping players for undervalued talent on other teams. People forget that 1) LA didnt make the Kobe/Divac trade as some shrewd maneuver because they foresaw Kobe being one of the greatest players ever. Sure, they liked him as a prospect but their primary motivation was unloading the 8 million in change on Vlade Divacs contract in return for some degree of value so they could clear the necessary cap room to sign Shaq away from Orlando the following month. They still wouldve made the trade even had Kobe been off the board 2) Vlade Divac was a high level center at the time and his insertion into the starting lineup helped Charlotte win 54 games the following year.
Perry said that 5 years after the 96' draft in Spring of 2001, he was on a team flight returning home from Milwaukee. He sat down next to Bass on the plane and could tell that he looked a dejected and that something was bothering him. Perry assumed it was the fact that the club had just blown a 3-2 lead to fall to the Bucks in the eastern conference semifinals. But when he started to talk to Bass, he revealed that he had watched Bryant drop 45 against the Spurs the previous evening and it was eating at him because he knew if the Hornets had that kind of firepower at the SG spot inbetween Mashburn and Baron Davis, they could have easily dispatched that Bucks team. He said that Bass was an incredibly introspective guy and that although Bass always defended the rationale behind the Kobe/Vlade trade publicly (and rightfully so since Kobe wouldnt work out for them and neither he nor the other 12 teams that passed on Bryant in that draft had any way to know how good he was going to be), missing on Kobe as a prospect privately haunted Bass for years.
Zo or Shinn
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Re: Zo or Shinn
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dmutombo321 wrote:I had a surgical consult with Glen Perry a couple years ago. He was the official orthopedic doctor of the original Hornets from their inception to their departure to New Orleans. He's an incredible practitioner and an even nicer guy.
At any rate, we struck up a conversation over a piece of Hornets art he had on his office wall and ended up shooting the breeze about his time with the old Hornets for nearly an hour. He shared several great stories from from tending to Kurt Rambis after he suffered a Frank Brikowski elbow during the inaugural season, to tracking down the Lakers team physician on a golf course to vet Vlade Divac's back prior to their approaching LA to trade for him, to the Mourning contract negotiations (he confirmed Zo was offered at the time the most lucrative deal in basketball history, over $110 million in 1995, but Zo told Shinn still it wasnt enough at which point Shinn was insulted and immediately directed the FO to explore trade options)
Probably the most interesting stories he had involved Bob Bass though. Bass was a maestro with salary cap management and as fats has noted, flipping players for undervalued talent on other teams. People forget that 1) LA didnt make the Kobe/Divac trade as some shrewd maneuver because they foresaw Kobe being one of the greatest players ever. Sure, they liked him as a prospect but their primary motivation was unloading the 8 million in change on Vlade Divacs contract in return for some degree of value so they could clear the necessary cap room to sign Shaq away from Orlando the following month. They still wouldve made the trade even had Kobe been off the board 2) Vlade Divac was a high level center at the time and his insertion into the starting lineup helped Charlotte win 54 games the following year.
Perry said that 5 years after the 96' draft in Spring of 2001, he was on a team flight returning home from Milwaukee. He sat down next to Bass on the plane and could tell that he looked a dejected and that something was bothering him. Perry assumed it was the fact that the club had just blown a 3-2 lead to fall to the Bucks in the eastern conference semifinals. But when he started to talk to Bass, he revealed that he had watched Bryant drop 45 against the Spurs the previous evening and it was eating at him because he knew if the Hornets had that kind of firepower at the SG spot inbetween Mashburn and Baron Davis, they could have easily dispatched that Bucks team. He said that Bass was an incredibly introspective guy and that although Bass always defended the rationale behind the Kobe/Vlade trade publicly (and rightfully so since Kobe wouldnt work out for them and neither he nor the other 12 teams that passed on Bryant in that draft had any way to know how good he was going to be), missing on Kobe as a prospect privately haunted Bass for years.
This was a good read... about us trading kobe away. Man that might have been the most upset I ever been as a sports fan. I knew kobe would be really really good. I was a obsessed with everything kobe up until we traded him. I knew the Lakers were ripping us off. I was happy when he started out slow for the Lakers and seemed like he might be just an Eddie Jones type player and then over night he was an allstar. I think brandy did it
UPDATED 7-5-2025
These are who I want with our picks in order
Fears
Raynaud
Kam Jones
Taelon Peter - or Will Richard
Chase Hunter - summer league invite
These are who I want with our picks in order
Fears
Raynaud
Kam Jones
Taelon Peter - or Will Richard
Chase Hunter - summer league invite