Originally, the new team was going to be called the Charlotte Spirit, but a name-the-team contest yielded "Hornets" as the winning choice. Franchises were also granted to Miami, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and Orlando. On April 5, 1987, then- NBA Commissioner David Stern called Shinn to tell him his group had been awarded the 24th NBA franchise, to begin play in 1988. ĭespite doubt from critics, Shinn's ace in the hole was the Charlotte Coliseum, a state-of-the-art arena that would seat almost 24,000 spectators, the largest basketball-specific arena ever to serve as a full-time home for an NBA team. Charlotte was also one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States, and was previously one of the three in-state regional homes to the American Basketball Association's (ABA) Carolina Cougars from 1969 to 1974. The Charlotte area had long been a hotbed for college basketball. George Shinn, an entrepreneur from Kannapolis, wanted to bring an NBA team to the Charlotte area, and he assembled a group of prominent local businessmen to head the prospective franchise. In 1985, the NBA was planning to expand by three teams by the 1988–89 season, later modified to include a total of four expansion teams. Until then, the team was controlled by Michael Jordan, a former NBA player and member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.įurther information: History of the Charlotte Hornets 1988–2002: Original Charlotte Hornets 1985–1988: Birth of the Hornets In August 2023, it was announced that a group of investors led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall had purchased a majority stake in the Hornets. As a result, the league considers the Hornets retrospectively having suspended operations from 2002 to 2004. On the day the name change became official, the franchise reclaimed the history and records of the original Charlotte Hornets spanning from 1988 to 2002. In 2013, the Bobcats announced they would rebrand to the Charlotte Hornets beginning with the 2014–15 season. They continued to play as the Hornets until 2013, when they changed their name to the New Orleans Pelicans.Īs part of an agreement with the NBA, Charlotte returned for the 2004–05 NBA season, known as the Charlotte Bobcats. In 2002, Shinn moved the Hornets to New Orleans as an expansion team. The Charlotte Hornets franchise was established in 1988 as an expansion team owned by George Shinn. The team plays its home games at the Spectrum Center in Uptown Charlotte. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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