The "what if" moment that changed every NBA team forever
By Cal Durrett
Charlotte Hornets: What if the Hornets weren't so unlucky?
The Charlotte Hornets are arguably the least lucky NBA team of the last 40 years, so much so that it is hard to pick just one what-if scenario. Instead, here are four. The first occurred in 1992, when they missed out on the number one pick and the chance to draft Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal.
To their credit, they did end up with Alonzo Mourning, but he ain't Shaq. Then, in 1996, they drafted Kobe Bryant, only to trade him to the Lakers for Vlade Divac. It gets worse. In 2010 and 2023, they again ended up with the second pick and missed out on the chance to take Anthony Davis and Victor Wembanyama.
During that 31-year span, and as a result of missing out on those players, they have largely been an irrelevant franchise. They even relocated from Charlotte to New Orleans and got a new expansion team that proved to be one of the worst teams in NBA history before dusting off the Hornets nickname for nostalgia. But all of that wouldn't have happened had they not been so unlucky.