Yes they really supported them early..when they sucked. Now they had a playoff team and tried to get the local govt to help with a new arena and the public in Charlotte said SCREW YOU!!! Thats bigtime support..wow They definitely need a new team there asap! Remember, it is what have you done for me lately. The owners are complete buffons..no arguement there. But I question the idea of expansion so early to a city that did not want anything to do with the team the last few years and thumbed their collective noses at trying to save them. Unlike a city down south who did what we had to keep the team where it belonged.
Maybe it had something to do with ownership, since the city was willing to build a new arena: if the George Shinn would sell the team. No, they simply refused to do anything for an owner that hadn't done anything for them. There was a period of YEARS when the Hornets didn't retain a single free agent. Talking about cheap. Yes, sadly, we all know that - just check out Rockets attendance. Once again, the entire thing was a problem with the owner, not the Hornets. Back when the populace had faith in ownership, everything was fine. George Shinn is one of the worst 3 ownesr in the NBA.
Francis Mobley Griffin Ming Nachbar Taylor/KT * Norris Rice *- This will be based on how Taylor recovers from injury. If he does recover and play well, you keep him on the list. If he is mediocre or just plain bad, you take him off...since nobody's going to want a mediocre player with a large contract. No expansion team will want Cato's contract either. I don't see how anyone can put Maddox on this list. He's a 2nd rd pick that may not even make this years team, so how do you keep him on a team 2 years from now just like that?
Yes i feel there's no point talking about an expansion draft, cause there are not going to be any new teams for the next 5 years, so when i'm 22 then we can talk.lol
If Charlotte did get a new team do you think the NBA would place the current New Orleans Hornets in the midwest division as a part of realignment? That would be very bad IMO. The east loses a good team in exchange for an expansion one and our own division gets a lot tougher.
I believe they were talking about the 2004 season as the possible first year of an expansion team in Charlotte. If 2004 is the year, it's premature to talk about who to protect. Who would even be on our roster by then? I wouldn't worry about the Hornets in the WC either. Their ownership is the competent version of Don Sterling. They are pretty good at fielding a competitive, even playoff team with a relatively low payroll. However, they are not willing to pay what it would take to really be competitive for the championship. Haven & SirCharlesFan are right, imo. Charlotte had great fans for many many years. They had great attendance, sellouts and a loud homecourt until sustained abuse by management finally drove them away. The recent low attendance has everything to do with the owners and nothing to do with the team. Even this last season when the owners told the city to take a hike, they still got more fans in the arena than the Rockets could.
