Top 50 Charlotte Hornets
Entering the National Basketball Association as an expansion team in 1988, the Charlotte Hornets have had an interesting history, though not necessarily a successful one. Many speculated that the city could not support professional basketball, despite North Carolina being a haven for the college game.The pundits were proven wrong as though they played like an expansion team, the attendance was huge and they led the NBA in that category during their inaugural season. Charlotte suffered through the aches and pains of being an expansion team, but finally, they made the playoffs and has a few good players which gave them national attention, though when they slipped back, the attendance wasn’t there and they fell to the bottom in that category and management moved the team to New Orleans following the end of the 2001/02 season.
While that might seem like it would doom professional basketball in Charlotte, the state had already shown it could support hockey (the Carolina Hurricanes) and football (the Carolina Panthers). The NBA wanted to give it another try, and in 2004, the Charlotte Bobcats were born, though again feeling the pains of expansion. Despite the challenges, Charlotte has emerged as a city with one of the best basketball programs in the NBA.
Meanwhile, back in New Orleans, the team sought to come up with a team that reflected their own region. For the 2013-14 season, they were renamed the Pelicans, and the city of Charlotte looked to get back their old name, which after one year they had. This is where it becomes very interesting for our purposes.
The new Charlotte Hornets absorbed the history of the old Charlotte Hornets, which splits the career of many “Hornets” whose best years are divided between New Orleans and Charlotte for our Top 50s.
This list is up to the end of the 2024/25 season.
Note: Basketball lists are based on an amalgamation of tenure, traditional statistics, advanced statistics, playoff statistics and post-season accolades.
The Final Four MVP and NCAA Champion with the University of Connecticut, Kemba Walker, did not have the same team success with the Charlotte Hornets, but this does not mean that he has not put up very good numbers in the pros. He certainly did, as he moved up to our number one spot for this franchise. The Point Guard was a decent scorer whose overall game improved year by year in Charlotte, and while…
While Gerald Wallace never had the word “Hornet” on his chest, with the amalgamation of Bobcats/Hornets history in Charlotte, this is the man who we are christening the greatest Charlotte Hornet of all time.
While we can’t say we never really understood the Grandmama gimmick, Larry Johnson made an immediate splash in Charlotte and gave the team a “buzz” around the league.
While he may not top the list, standing at five feet three, Muggsy Bogues is definitely pound-for-pound the best Charlotte Hornet of all time. Bogues spent 10 years in Charlotte, where the pint-sized Point Guard continued to defy logic and became a fan favorite not only in Charlotte but across the entire NBA.
Dell Curry is the man who holds the record for being the all-time leading scorer for the Charlotte Hornets. He also has many other records in Charlotte history, but his “low” rank stems not from being a superstar in the National Basketball Association, but from his slightly average stats over an extended career as a pro in Charlotte.
Three for three. Glen Rice played three seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, and in every NBA campaign he was named to the All-Star Game, the second of which saw him win the game's MVP and cement himself as a must-watch player. Rice would also go “three for three,” averaging over 20 Points per Game as a Hornet, including 26.8 PPG in the 2006-07 campaign, a season in which he also led the National Basketball Association…
The second overall pick in the 1992 Draft (behind Shaquille O’Neal), Alonzo Mourning made an immediate impact in the NBA for the Charlotte Hornets. Playing his first three seasons with Charlotte, Mourning would be an All-Star twice and would average a spectacular 21.3 Points, 10.1 Rebounds, and 3.1 Blocks per game as a Hornet.
Anthony Mason would put up some of the best numbers of his career as a member of the Charlotte Hornets. In the 1996-97 season, he would lead the NBA in Minutes per Game, and that year would put personal bests in Points, Rebounds, Assists, and Blocks per Game as well as PER and VORP.
The second overall draft pick of the Charlotte Bobcats and the first-ever pick for the Charlotte Bobcats gets a bad rap in many circles. Many articles have been written calling him a bust, but the fact remains that Okafor averaged a double-double every season of his run in Charlotte and was also the Rookie of the Year.
Nicknamed "Big Handsome", Cody Zeller completed his first eight seasons with Charlotte before signing with Portland as a Free Agent in 2021. While Zeller will never be confused for a flashy player, he has proven to be certainly capable and is often praised for his unselfishness and dedication to team play. A cerebral player, Zeller rarely makes mistakes, and his likability usually hides the fact that maybe he hasn't reached the level that should be expected of…
Playing the first five seasons of his career as a Hornet (though only the first three in Charlotte, which cost him a few spots on this rank), Baron Davis came out of UCLA as the third overall draft pick and would become an All-Star in his third year in the NBA. Davis would blossom into one of the better Point Guards in the NBA in a Charlotte uniform, and he would continue that growth when…
Undrafted out of Baylor, David Wesley proved a lot of people wrong when he successfully transitioned to Point Guard and put up solid numbers when he made his way to Charlotte. Wesley would put up his most significant Points per Game Average as a Hornet, though he was not always as productive as he should be as a distributor. Still, Wesley was a decent Point Guard for Charlotte during his tenure and warrants this high…
The Sixth Man of the 2005 NCAA North Carolina Tar Heels Championship Team and former 2nd Pick Overall would sign with the Charlotte Hornets nine years after his collegiate glory. Williams was not a star in his six seasons in Charlotte, but he was a dependable player with three 10-plus Points per Game seasons. His run in Charlotte ended when he was waived and joined Milwaukee for their 2020 playoff run.
Elden Campbell was with the Charlotte Hornets for three and a half seasons (plus another half-season when the team was relocated to New Orleans). While Campbell would put up some of his best offensive numbers as a Hornet, he would also be known for his defensive skills, which would always made him a coveted big man in the NBA. It was not an accident that Charlotte made the playoffs three years in a row while…
An All-Big Ten First Team player from Michigan, Miles Bridges was taken with the 12th Overall Pick in 2018 by the Los Angeles Clippers, only to be immediately traded to Charlotte. After a decent rookie year (7.5 PPG in 21 MPG), Bridges settled in as a regular starting forward as a sophomore, but his progression was not as fast as the Hornets were hoping for, and he was relegated to more of a bench role in…
A surprise free-agent signing, Al Jefferson came with a large paycheck and high expectations. While Charlotte has not become a power in the East, Jeffersonone, on his part, has certainly done his part to make the team as competitive as possible. In his first season with Charlotte, he averaged a double-double and made Third Team All-NBA, finishing eighth in MVP voting.
The path to the NBA for LaMelo Ball might be a template for others to follow, though few people have a father like LaVar Ball. The youngest Ball brother forewent college, playing overseas and nationally in his father’s developmental league, honing his skills and parlaying that into a Third Overall Pick in the 2020 Draft. Many predicted that LaMelo would become the best in the family, and early in his career, that appears to be the…
Eddie Jones was already a certified star from his time with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he went to two All-Star Games; however, as a member of the Charlotte Hornets, Jones made his third All-Star appearance and posted his best scoring numbers and PER. He also led the NBA in Steals per Game (2.7 in 1999-2000), and was third in Defensive Player of the Year voting that year; the highest finish of his career.
After four years with Boston, Terry Rozier was traded to Charlotte as part of the deal that sent Kemba Walker the other way. The transaction allowed Rozier to become an NBA starting guard, which he has to date taken advantage of.
The fifth overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, Raymond Felton was the Point Guard for the North Carolina Tar Heel team that won the NCAA title just before his draft. Felton was not a champion in Charlotte, but Felton was a solid scorer and distributor in the pros.