Charlotte Hornets fans, on the team’s 35th anniversary, hope magical days of old return

Wearing a big smile, a purple Muggsy Bogues jersey and one of his 80-plus Charlotte Hornets hats, Deshawn Freeman told one of his favorite stories.

The story centered on an early season game of the 2014-15 season, against the New York Knicks, after Charlotte’s NBA franchise changed its name from the Bobcats back to the Hornets. Kemba Walker versus Carmelo Anthony. New York versus North Carolina. The expansion team against the established team.

“It came down to the last few seconds of the game,” Freeman recalled. “I was actually talking to a police officer. He was from New York and was standing upstairs with us. He didn’t say nothing the whole game, and we were up two, and the only thing he said the whole game was, ‘Watch Melo.’”

Anthony hit a go-ahead 3. And then Walker, the brightest star the Hornets have had since its earliest and most glorious days, hit a layup with a few seconds to go, giving the Hornets a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

“And we’re going crazy!” Freeman recalled, losing himself in the memory. “I was sitting in the 200 level. You still felt the energy. That’s what made me get season tickets.”

Embracing the past and present

Freeman told this story just outside Spectrum Center, about an hour before the Hornets tipped off their season against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night. He was one of the throngs of longtime fans to filter into the uptown venue and see the Hornets prevail 116-110, all of whom happy to recall the Hornets’ history.

“That 2015-16 season, I’ve been a ticket holder since then,” Freeman said. “But I’ve been a Hornets fan since Alonzo Mourning.”

Wednesday night, like Freeman and many other fans explained, was surely about the past. It was the 35th anniversary of the debut of Charlotte’s first NBA franchise. There were Mourning jerseys and Bogues jerseys and enough nostalgia to transport you anywhere.

But it was also a hopeful day, fans said — one where fans could feel that those magical days could one day return.

“There are a lot of people who are still hanging onto history, of course,” said Hector Cortes, one of the biggest Hornets fans every time he steps into the arena and has been since he moved to the Charlotte area in 2006. He wore a Terry Rozier jersey and a large custom-made sombrero — just like he does at Charlotte FC games.

“I wasn’t here when they had the old arena on Tyvola,” Cortes continued. “But a lot of people, they know I wasn’t here then, but they tell me, ‘We want those days back, when we used to have sellout games at the Coliseum.’”

Those days might not be far. Cortes feels it.

Fans have faith that winning ways will return

The Hornets, in the basketball state that is North Carolina, never struggled for attendance, even during the franchise’s lowest moments. The team notched a sellout in last year’s season opener, but Wednesday’s 16,129 crowd was much more impactful.

Of course, sustained relevance is different. And that arrives with sustained success.

And those days might be close, too, fans said.

“I got faith in them this year,” said Dorine Thomas, who’s been a fan of the Hornets for 15 years. She later added with a loving, motherly chuckle, “They need to work on their free throws. ... Gotta pull together, as a whole, and have faith in themselves.”

The magic of three-plus decades ago hasn’t yet made its full return. The team looked good, though. Second overall pick Brandon Miller certainly did in his NBA debut. So did third-year point guard LaMelo Ball and seasoned vet Terry Rozier. Mark Williams notched a 13-point, 14-rebound stat-line, and PJ Washington played worthy of his offseason contract, and the Hornets won a game they so often lost last year — down 11 points in the second half, needing a spark to come back.

“We definitely thank the fans,” Rozier said after his 24-point game. “It’s a big difference from this year and last year. We don’t want to say it’s just cuz of the season opener. We expect the fans to help us out and be there all season long. But I want to thank them.”

The fans enjoyed it as much as the players did. And so did the owners, Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin, who were animated and sat courtside, much more visible than their predecessor, Michael Jordan.

The lifelong Hornets followers especially enjoyed it.

“I’m 45,” Freeman said. “I’ve been a Hornets fan since 1988. I’m from Fayetteville, and I moved to Charlotte because I wanted to go to a Hornets game.”

All these years later, he returned again, armed with the hopes that the magic of old eventually will return, too.