The 2000–01 Charlotte Hornets season was the 13th season for the Charlotte Hornets in the National Basketball Association.
Season summary
Off-season The Hornets had the 19th overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft, and selected center Jamaal Magloire from the University of Kentucky. During the off-season, the team acquired Jamal Mashburn, P.J. Brown and Otis Thorpe from the Miami Heat, and re-signed free agent and former Hornets guard Hersey Hawkins, who played for the team from 1993 to 1995.
Regular season With the addition of Mashburn and Brown, the Hornets won four of their first five games of the regular season, posted a five-game losing streak, but then posted a six-game winning streak afterwards. The team posted two seven-game winning streaks in December, and between February and March, and held a 26–25 record at the All-Star break. The Hornets finished in third place in the Central Division with a 46–36 record, earned the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, and qualified for their sixth NBA playoff appearance.
Mashburn averaged 20.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, and led the Hornets with 103 three-point field goals, while David Wesley, who moved into the shooting guard position, averaged 17.2 points, 4.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game, and second-year guard Baron Davis showed improvement becoming the team's starting point guard, averaging 13.8 points, 7.3 assists and 2.1 steals per game. In addition, Elden Campbell provided the team with 13.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, while Brown provided with 8.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team. Off the bench, Derrick Coleman averaged 8.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, while second-year forward Eddie Robinson contributed 7.4 points per game, and Magloire provided with 4.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. Coleman was replaced with Brown as the team's starting power forward, and only played just 34 games due to an irregular heartbeat and weight problems.
During the NBA All-Star weekend at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., Davis was selected for the NBA Rookie Challenge Game, as a member of the Sophomores team, and also participated in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Meanwhile, Wesley participated in the NBA 2Ball Competition, along with Dawn Staley of the WNBA's Charlotte Sting. Davis also finished in fifth place in Most Improved Player voting.
The Hornets' home-game attendance continued to decrease, as the team finished 21st in the NBA with an attendance of 615,424 at the Charlotte Coliseum during the regular season.
NBA playoffs In the 2001 NBA playoffs, the Hornets all wore headbands to show team unity; in the Eastern Conference First Round, the team faced off against the 3rd–seeded Miami Heat, who were led by the All-Star trio of former Hornets players, Eddie Jones, Anthony Mason and Alonzo Mourning. The Hornets managed to win the first two games over the Heat on the road at the American Airlines Arena, before winning Game 3 at home, 94–79 at the Charlotte Coliseum to win the series in a three-game sweep.
In the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, the team faced off against the 2nd–seeded, and Central Division champion Milwaukee Bucks, who were led by the trio of All-Star guard Ray Allen, All-Star forward Glenn Robinson, and Sam Cassell. The Hornets lost the first two games to the Bucks on the road at the Bradley Center, but managed to win their next two home games at the Charlotte Coliseum, before winning Game 5 on the road, 94–86 to take a 3–2 series lead. However, the Hornets lost the next two games, which included a Game 7 loss to the Bucks at the Bradley Center, 104–95, thus losing in a hard-fought seven-game series.
In March, during the regular season, the Hornets applied with the NBA to move the team to Memphis, Tennessee for the following season, due to their decline in home-game attendance. However, they withdrew their application due to the rise of their attendance during the NBA playoffs, after sweeping the Heat in the first round, and with a capacity crowd of 22,283 in Game 3 at the Charlotte Coliseum.
Aftermath Following the season, Coleman was traded back to his former team, the Philadelphia 76ers, while Robinson signed as a free agent with the Chicago Bulls, and Hawkins and Thorpe both retired.
Draft picks
Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 1 19 Jamaal Magloire C Kentucky
Roster
Regular season
Season standings
Playoffs
|- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 1 | April 21 | @ Miami | W 106–80 | Jamal Mashburn (28) | P. J. Brown (7) | Baron Davis (8) | American Airlines Arena20,085 | 1–0 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 2 | April 23 | @ Miami | W 102–76 | Jamal Mashburn (22) | P. J. Brown (8) | Baron Davis (4) | American Airlines Arena16,500 | 2–0 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 3 | April 27 | Miami | W 94–79 | Davis, Mashburn (21) | P. J. Brown (12) | Jamal Mashburn (8) | Charlotte Coliseum22,283 | 3–0
|- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 1 | May 6 | @ Milwaukee | L 92–104 | Jamal Mashburn (23) | Elden Campbell (13) | Baron Davis (7) | Bradley Center18,717 | 0–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 2 | May 8 | @ Milwaukee | L 90–91 | David Wesley (20) | P. J. Brown (11) | David Wesley (7) | Bradley Center18,717 | 0–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 3 | May 10 | Milwaukee | W 102–92 | Jamal Mashburn (36) | P. J. Brown (16) | three players tied (6) | Charlotte Coliseum17,392 | 1–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 4 | May 13 | Milwaukee | W 85–78 | Jamal Mashburn (31) | P. J. Brown (13) | Baron Davis (7) | Charlotte Coliseum18,756 | 2–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 5 | May 15 | @ Milwaukee | W 94–86 | Jamal Mashburn (24) | Elden Campbell (10) | Jamal Mashburn (8) | Bradley Center18,717 | 3–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 6 | May 17 | Milwaukee | L 97–104 | David Wesley (27) | Jamal Mashburn (9) | Jamal Mashburn (7) | Charlotte Coliseum23,509 | 3–3 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 7 | May 20 | @ Milwaukee | L 95–104 | Baron Davis (29) | Elden Campbell (10) | Jamal Mashburn (9) | Bradley Center18,717 | 3–4
Player statistics
Regular season PlayerPG82 82 3,192 408 598 170 36 1,131 38.9 5.0 7.3 2.1 .4 13.8SG82 82 3,106 224 361 128 16 1,414 37.9 2.7 4.4 1.6 .2 17.2C 80 79 2,811 742 127 78 92 676 35.1 9.3 1.6 1.0 1.2 8.5PF 78 78 2,337 608 104 60 140 1,022 30.0 7.8 1.3 .8 1.8 13.1SF 76 76 2,989 576 411 85 13 1,528 39.3 7.6 5.4 1.1 .2 20.1C 74 0 1,095 295 27 18 78 339 14.8 4.0 .4 .2 1.1 4.6SF 67 6 1,201 198 59 50 32 498 17.9 3.0 .9 .7 .5 7.4SG 59 0 681 80 72 33 9 183 11.5 1.4 1.2 .6 .2 3.1PF 49 4 647 145 29 12 7 138 13.2 3.0 .6 .2 .1 2.8PG 43 0 403 50 39 6 1 103 9.4 1.2 .9 .1 .0 2.4SF 42 0 469 92 24 9 5 164 11.2 2.2 .6 .2 .1 3.9PF 34 3 683 184 39 10 21 277 20.1 5.4 1.1 .3 .6 8.1SF 30 0 197 35 8 2 5 45 6.6 1.2 .3 .1 .2 1.5SF 4 0 41 3 1 3 0 17 10.3 .8 .3 .8 .0 4.3SF 3 0 13 1 1 0 0 0 4.3 .3 .3 .0 .0 .0†PG 2 0 15 0 0 1 0 4 7.5 .0 .0 .5 .0 2.0
Playoffs PlayerSF10 10 419 62 57 12 3 249 41.9 6.2 5.7 1.2 .3 24.9PG10 10 397 44 58 28 5 178 39.7 4.4 5.8 2.8 .5 17.8SG10 10 394 30 39 16 1 170 39.4 3.0 3.9 1.6 .1 17.0C10 10 385 100 11 12 14 80 38.5 10.0 1.1 1.2 1.4 8.0PF10 10 287 79 7 5 11 121 28.7 7.9 .7 .5 1.1 12.1SF10 0 192 33 9 4 4 69 19.2 3.3 .9 .4 .4 6.9C10 0 110 28 3 0 6 39 11.0 2.8 .3 .0 .6 3.9PF 8 0 57 17 0 0 0 4 7.1 2.1 .0 .0 .0 .5SG 6 0 50 9 4 3 0 12 8.3 1.5 .7 .5 .0 2.0PF 5 0 88 25 6 4 2 27 17.6 5.0 1.2 .8 .4 5.4SF 2 0 12 3 1 2 0 5 6.0 1.5 .5 1.0 .0 2.5PG 2 0 9 1 2 0 0 3 4.5 .5 1.0 .0 .0 1.5
Awards and records P.J. Brown, NBA All-Defensive Second Team Baron Davis, longest field goal in NBA history at 89 feet distance on February 17, 2001
Transactions August 1, 2000
Traded Ricky Davis, Dale Ellis, Eddie Jones and Anthony Mason to the Miami Heat for P.J. Brown, Rodney Buford, Tim James, Jamal Mashburn and Otis Thorpe. September 21, 2000
Signed Hersey Hawkins as a free agent. October 2, 2000
Signed Terrance Roberson as a free agent.
Waived Rodney Buford. December 19, 2000
Waived Terrance Roberson. January 26, 2001
Signed Doug Overton to a 10-day contract. April 10, 2001
Signed Scott Burrell to a contract for the rest of the season.
Player Transactions Citation:
References