I remember when the Hornets played for the city of Charlotte: Shooting guard Kendall Gill would shoot out the lights, power forward Larry Johnson (a.k.a. Grandmama) would put on a show, center Alonzo Mourning would pound the glass and dunk the ball, and the NBA's shortest ever point guard Muggsy Bogues would captain the offence and shutdown opponents on defence, and in response Charlotte would pack its Coliseum to watch their Hornets play.
Of course, this way of playing basketball was not brand new. The Lakers and Celtics of the 1980's transitioned out of the old center focus game of the "two-point" era popularized by Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell (Before 1979, all NBA baskets were worth two points anywhere on the court. Teams needed centers with strength and willpower to score and/or play defense). Fellow Eastern Conference championship contenders, Isiah Thomas' Detroit Pistons and Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls introduced a game of driving play and clutch perimeter shooting. The Charlotte Hornets were playoff contenders, but not championship caliber material: After their first 50-win season in 1994-95, the Hornets lost to the Bulls in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
A lost season followed, which began in the offseason with the Hornets trading away Alonzo Mourning to the Miami Heat for shooting star Glen Rice, a draft pick and two other players, and the Hornets failed to qualify for the playoffs. As the 1996 Draft approached, the Charlotte Hornets believed they were missing something: A person that could take over the game.
The day was July 1, 1996. The 1996 Draft was almost a week before with the Charlotte Hornets selecting two shooting guards in the first round. Their second pick (#16) was senior Tony Delk from Kentucky; the pick came to the Hornets in the Mourning trade. He led the Wildcats to another NCAA Championship in March of that year, so the Hornets felt they lucked out. Their first pick (#13) was a gamble out of Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania, but Charlotte needed a strong inside presence to replace Alonzo Mourning. Thankfully, the struggling Los Angeles Lakers had something to offer.
The "Showtime era" of the 1980's was a distant memory for Lakers fans. The days of star center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and star players Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Michael Cooper were gone; for the first time in team history, the center-driven game the Lakers popularized for the NBA's first fifty years of existence lost step with the rest of the league. The Lakers had Vlade Divac, their #1 pick from the 1989 Draft meant to replace the great Abdul-Jabbar yet the results were not there (For an in-depth synopsis of Lakers history, visit their website!)
Vlade Divac was an established NBA talent that could put the Charlotte Hornets over the top; all the Lakers wanted was their thirteenth pick from the '96 Draft: The unproven shooting guard out of high school.
July 1, 1996
To Charlotte Hornets: Vlade Divac, Center
To Los Angeles Lakers: #13 Pick from the 1996 NBA Draft (Kobe Bryant, Shooting Guard, Lower Merion HS, PA)
The focus on the Center position in basketball is not what it once was. In this one player transaction, the age of defense beginning and ending with the center, from the days of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, transitioned to the offense-oriented, perimeter focus of today. Charlotte never reached the NBA Finals, only reaching the conference finals once before moving to New Orleans after the 2002 season. During that time period, Kobe Bryant and then free agent acquisition Shaquille O'Neal racked up three consecutive NBA titles between 2000-02. However, the future of the game focused around players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Garnett. They are not giants, but none can understate their offensive and defensive presence on the perimeter as well as in close. Keep in mind there are great centers in the game today, such as Greg Oden of the Portland Trailblazers. Nevertheless, the focus of today's game is on guards and then forwards (see 2009 NBA Draft).
By the way, who did the Los Angeles Lakers select as their 24th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft? Derek Fisher, as in "0.4 shot" Derek Fisher :D
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