Early in Saturday’s first-round playoff game against the Orlando
Magic, Charlotte Hornets star forward Jamal Mashburn leaned over at
courtside and vomited. It was an altogether fitting gesture, since
it appeared as if the Hornets’ fans were calling in sick that
evening.
Just 9,505 were on hand in the cavernous 23,000-seat Charlotte
Coliseum to see the Hornets defeat the Magic in game 1, and only
10,323 were in the stands for last night’s contest, an overtime
battle won by Orlando to even the series.
It’s not all that surprising, considering the Charlotte Hornets
have been Dead Men Playing since early in the 01-02 campaign. The
team is poised to ditch Charlotte — its home for 14 seasons — for
New Orleans and luxury-box riches during the summer break.
Charlotte fans, shying from bedside duty with this terminal
patient, have stayed away in droves. And the crowd that showed on
Saturday was even 10 percent smaller than the season average of
barely 11,000 — second to last in the NBA.
It’s a shame, because the Hornets are gearing up to make a
strong run for the NBA Finals. The basketball playoffs can be a
grueling road to go down, but the Hornets have a couple of
advantages. They are healthy (other than Mashburn’s touch of the
flu). And though they are the fourth seed in the Eastern
Conference, the relative weakness of the East and an impressive
road record (23-18) afford them about as good a shot as the
top-seeded New Jersey Nets.
All of which begs the question: If the Hornets go far in the
playoffs, will anyone in Charlotte care or show up?
The absence of so many of Charlotte’s wide asses in the seats
for Hornets games amounts to a very determined protest. It’s not
that Charlotte’s a bad sports town. Far from it. The Hornets have
been a success story since setting up camp in the late 1980s. So
successful were they that they led the league in attendance for
seven straight seasons. Sellouts were the norm, and “the Hive,” as
the Coliseum is referred to, was a feared destination for visiting
teams.
No longer. Most people assign the blame to team owner George
Shinn, arguably the most loathed owner in sports (fierce
competition is supplied by Peter Angelos and Daniel Snyder).
“The dislike, the hatred, for George in this town right now is
incredible,” one former Charlotte city council member was quoted
saying recently. And this was from a loyal Shinn
supporter.
Not long ago George Shinn was the local boy made good, the
rags-to-riches entrepreneur who delivered a major professional
franchise to his hometown and helped bring Charlotte into the Big
Time.
But it turns out he had what is known as a Clinton problem. And
the folks in western North Carolina are a lot less understanding
about such matters than the New York and Washington press corps to
whom marital infidelities are charming facets of a public figure’s
character.
In 1997, Charlotte was shocked when Shinn was accused of sexual
assault. Criminal charges were never filed, and he was acquitted in
a civil trial. But he was far from exonerated. In the course of the
civil trial it was revealed that Shinn thought of the Charlotte
Hornets organization as his harem. A team cheerleader and another
front-office worker came forward with similar claims of sexual
harassment.
Plus the franchise committed several unpardonable acts. They let
stars like Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson, and Rex Chapman leave
for greener pastures. And Shinn refused to put up a modest amount
of money ($13 million) to guarantee the city would build him a
brand-spanking new $100 million arena with enough skyboxes to fill
the coffers.
Boneheaded moves coupled with a boner-sporting owner turned
Charlotte off to the Hornets in a big way, a seemingly impossible
feat for the first decade of the team’s existence. A subsequent
referendum to pay for a new arena went down to defeat, and Shinn
made it clear he wanted out of the Queen City. As if to spite
Charlotte, he spurned numerous offers to sell the team to
high-profile individuals who would keep the team in Carolina,
notably Michael Jordan and Black Entertainment Television mogul
Robert Johnson.
Once the season ends, the team will ship on down to the Big
Easy, an ironic destination in more than one way. Charlotte and New
Orleans couldn’t be more dissimilar. One is virtue, the other vice.
If Ned Flanders were to move from Springfield, he would go to
Charlotte. Plus, the franchise is deserting one city desperate for
a love affair with its team for another that flunked its previous
stint in the NBA. The Utah Jazz, if one recalls, fled New Orleans
several decades ago and, to be honest, haven’t really been
missed.
If Charlotte does win the up-for-grabs Eastern Conference title,
they would likely face the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
And they would most certainly lose to Shaq and Kobe Bryant. Which
is ironic, too, since Charlotte drafted Kobe Bryant out of high
school despite his professed refusal to play in such a cow town. In
an embarrassment to Shinn and the city of Charlotte, Kobe won the
standoff. The Hornets were forced to trade Bryant, and have watched
from afar as he has led the Lakers to several titles. Nothing would
be more fitting in this sad, bitter season than for the
executioner’s blade to be wielded by yet another of George Shinn’s
bungles.
