Ode to the Charlotte Hornets

Usually I defer to Bob George in matters of sports but some recent news has gotten me more excited than I have been in a long time.  It was announced on Tuesday that the Charlotte Bobcats will be changing their name back to the Charlotte Hornets and the transition will go into effect at the start of the 2014 2015 season.  This for me and many other Charlotteans is a dream come true especially for those whose childhoods coincided with the birth, growth and unfortunate dissolution of the franchise.  The

birth of the Charlotte Hornets franchise represented a recognition of the potential that Charlotte had as a mid market city and contributed to it becoming one of the fastest growing cities in the US.  Not only that but it was clear that who ever was in charge of marketing the team was genius.   But unlike today where marketing schemes seem to be so contrived and transparent, the Hornets were able to develop eccentric characteristics almost organically (that is until Master P donned a Hornets jersey).  The city rallied around the team and sold out the Charlotte Coliseum for 9 straight seasons.  The Hornets would make it to the playoffs 7 times in 14 seasons and after a fizzling out of fan support we would lose the team in 2002.  2 years later basketball would return to Charlotte in the form of the Bobcats which was just terrible.  For nearly a decade Charlotte fans (including myself) have been reluctant to jump on the Bobcat bandwagon.  Just doesn't feel right.   I call myself a Bobcat fan but I'm totally not.  I dont own one stitch of Bobcats gear and luckily now I will never have to.  Undoubtedly there are a lot of naysayers who don't understand the significance of the name change but we here in Charlotte are going off blind hope here.  In a perfect world the name change from the Bobcats back to the Hornets would be like in that movie where the hopeless hockey squad District 5 turned into the Mighty Ducks and then magically became a better team because they believed in themselves.  I'm calling it now,  we WILL be a better teams as the

Charlotte Hornets.  Charlotte fans have been a fickle over the years,  there is no question about it, but if they can pull out a couple of early key wins the fans will get behind them.  Oh and to Michael Jordan: I love you but you've got to be a better evaluator of talent so that when the time comes the Charlotte Hornets can return to their former above average glory.  And to the fans:  dont take this shit for granted.  We wanted the name change and we got it now its time to support!  

And in case you were wondering here are the new Charlotte Hornets logo with the revamped type face and updated Queen Charlotte Crown emblem ---->