The Charlotte Hornets Dynasty

Prologue
PROLOGUE

July, 2013


When to final buzzer sounded to close out the fifth and final game of the 2013 NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant walked off the court for the last time. It ended in defeat, a crash-and-burn kind of finish. Looking back, that’s only fitting.

Throughout most of his seventeen-year career Bryant had ruled over the NBA, going to the Finals ten times and winning a staggering eight NBA championships. As Bryant walked off the court the curtain was also coming down on the Charlotte Hornets dynasty, which had risen from expansion to become the standard bearer of excellence for professional basketball.

Everyone knew it was over. Now we can look back on the history of the greatest modern dynasty in professional sports.

If we were to truly trace back the origins to the route beginning we need to go back to the day of the 1994 NBA Draft, and to a transaction that did not even involve the Hornets.



NEXT: The Trade
 
The Trade
THE TRADE

July, 1994



Frustrated at their inability to get over the play-off hump, the Seattle Supersonics were exploring a trade that would send shockwaves through the NBA.

The Chicago Bulls had won three consecutive championships behind Michael Jordan, but when he retired it all ended. The Bulls were defeated by the New York Knicks in the second Round of the 1994 play-offs in seven games. The Chicago front office felt that the time for a rebuild had come, particularly with Horace Grant’s departure to Orlando.

The Bulls had one of the best players in the league in Scottie Pippen. But all things come to an end. On Draft Day, the Bulls agreed to send Pippen to Seattle for young star Forward Shawn Kemp and veteran Ricky Pierce. The teams also exchanged their First Round picks.


NEXT: The Return
 
The Return
THE RETURN

1994-95 NBA season


The 1994-95 season saw the new-look Seattle Supersonics win 58 games, but they fell to the San Antonio Spurs in the second round. As great as Pippen, Gary Payton and Detlef Schrempf were, the team was weak on the interior and the Spurs’ David Robinson and Dennis Rodman dominated the paint. The Spurs however, would self-destruct in the Western Conference Finals against defending champions Houston Rockets.

In Chicago, the 1994-95 season began with a remodelled team led by Kemp and Croatian star Toni Kukoc. The Bulls struggled with inconsistency and a weak backcourt rotation.

Late in the season however, everything changed.

Amid much fanfare, Michael Jordan made the momentous decision to return to the NBA. Despite being rusty he instantly transformed the Bulls into one of the league’s most dangerous teams and they won 13 of their last 17 games. Behind Jordan, the Bulls’ momentum carried them into a Second Round series against the Orlando Magic but they came up short, ultimately losing 4-2.

The Magic went on to lose the Finals to Houston 4-0.


NEXT: Winners and Losers
 
If the Bulls make the Pippen-Kemp trade, I don't think that MJ would have returned to the Bulls (or the NBA, for that matter). I think he even said that once.
 
Top