THE GOOD LIFE
S P O RT S
Turning Back the (Shot) Clock
Historic sports memorabilia like these Dell Curry and Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues cards are on display at Pressley Park Restaurant in south Charlotte. Curry and Bogues were teammates from 1988-89, the Hornets’ inaugural season, until 1997-98, Curry’s last with the team; Bogues was traded early that season.
BY ANDY SMITH
THE LAST DANCE, which debuted in April on ESPN, is the biggest sports documentary of the year so far. It centers on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, the last of six NBA Championship Bulls teams led by North Carolina native Michael Jordan—now the principal owner of our very own Charlotte Hornets. So how did the Hornets—the O.G., George Shinn-owned, pre-move to New Orleans, pre-Bobcats, pre-uptown arena version—do that season, anyway? Below, four things to know about that team: THE ROSTER Fan favorite Muggsy Bogues was traded to the Golden State Warriors early in the season, the team’s 10th, for B.J. Armstrong (who had played for the Bulls’ first three championship teams). Also on the Hornets’ roster: Vlade Divac, Anthony Mason, and Dell Curry, whose young sons—Seth and Steph—were students at Christian Montessori School of Lake Norman. Head coach Dave Cowens was in his second of three seasons. Paul Silas took over after Cowens’ resignation in 1999 and coached until 2002, when the team moved to New Orleans.
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CHARLOTTE IN 1998 The population of the Charlotte metropolitan area was an estimated 1,350,000. Today, it’s estimated at 2,637,000. The Carolina Panthers had played only three seasons. The Charlotte Knights were in their last season as an affiliate of the Florida Marlins. The team switched to the Chicago White Sox in 1999. The mayor was Pat McCrory, the most recent Republican to hold the office. Bank of America was formed that year, after NationsBank acquired BankAmerica.
THE RECORD The team finished 51-31, third in the Central Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference. The Hornets beat the Atlanta Hawks in the first round but lost to the Bulls in the conference semifinals, losing two of those games at the Charlotte Coliseum. The old arena on Tyvola Road, nicknamed “The Hive,” was demolished in 2007. ATTENDANCE The Hornets led the league in home attendance for eight of its first nine seasons. It was second in 1997-98, behind—you guessed it—the Bulls. The Hornets’ consecutive sellout streak of 364 games ended in November 1997. At the time, it was the second-longest streak in the NBA—behind (again) the Bulls, who were on game 465 of what would become a 610-game run. The Hornets’ 2018-19 home attendance ranked 23rd of the league’s 30 teams.
ANDY SMITH is executive editor of this magazine.
COURTESY
ESPN docuseries examines the final Bulls run. How did the Hornets fare that season?
