What is the signature play in the history of each NBA franchise?
Charlotte Hornets: Alonzo Mourning sends Charlotte to the second round
It took the Charlotte Hornets four years to qualify for the postseason after entering the league as an expansion team in 1988.
A 44-win season in 1992-93 earned them the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and a matchup with the Boston Celtics. Larry Bird had retired following the previous season, but Boston could still rely on the presence of Kevin McHale and Robert Parish in the frontcourt.
(Side note: Reggie Lewis added 20.8 points per game for the Cs during the regular season. Sadly, he slowly crumpled to the floor in Game 1 with a heart problem and would leave the game and miss the remainder of the series. He died that July.)
After the Celtics had claimed Game 1, the Hornets rattled off two wins in a row. In a best-of-five series, that put them one win away from their first-ever second-round appearance.
Game 4 appeared to be sealed after Charlotte built up an 18-point lead heading into the final frame. A furious comeback by Boston netted a 103-102 lead after Sherman Douglas stripped Larry Johnson at the top of the key and took it for a layup with 39.7 seconds left.
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The Hornets had taken Game 2 from the Cs in Boston, but their inexperience would put them in a massive hole in a potential elimination Game 5 against a championship-tested opponent. In a way, this was their only shot at advancing.
After some previous theatrics, a missed Larry Johnson fadeaway went out of bounds off Boston, granting the Hornets one more shot with just 3.3 seconds remaining.
Inbounder Dell Curry found an open Alonzo Mourning just above the left elbow. With so little time, Mourning took one dribble right, stepped back and unleashed a top-of-the-key jumper that fell through at the buzzer.
0.4 seconds were added back to the clock, giving the Celtics a last-ditch effort that went awry, sending the Hornets to the conference semis in their postseason debut.
The Hornets would promptly lose in five games to the New York Knicks. For an expansion franchise still getting its feet wet in the NBA, simply being there, and the big-time shot that put them there, was a much-needed step in the direction to relevancy.