With the NBA looking to expand in the late 1980s, George Shinn, an entrepreneur from Kannapolis, North Carolina, wanted to bring an NBA team to the Charlotte area. Shinn's ace in the hole was the Charlotte Coliseum, a state-of-the-art arena under construction in Charlotte that would seat almost 24,000 spectators.
Originally, the new team was going to be called the Charlotte Spirit, but a name-the-team contest yielded "Hornets" as the winning choice. The name was derived from the city's fierce resistance to British occupation during the Revolutionary War,[2] which prompted the British commander, Lord Cornwallis, to refer to it as "a http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifveritable nest of hornets." The name had been used for Charlotte before, including a minor league baseball team that was located in the city from 1901 to 1972, as well as a World Football League team that played there from 1974 to 1975. In addition, the Charlotte 49ers and Davidson Wildcats of the NCAA play annually for the Hornets' Nest Trophy.
After years of work to land the franchise, on April 5, 1987, Shinn was awarded the new expansion team, which was later named "Hornets". The name was derived from the city's fierce resistance to British occupation during the Revolutionary War,[1] which prompted the British commander to refer to it as "a veritable nest of hornets." The team received a lot of attention when they chose teal and purple as their primary colors, setting off a fashion craze in sports in the 1990s, with many other pro and amateur clubs soon following with similar colors. The Hornets also popularized the use of pinstripes on uniforms, inspiring similar designs by various other NBA franchises.
In their 14 years in Charlotte, the Hornets compiled a 522–546 (.489) win–loss record in the regular season and 20–28 (.417) in the playoffs. The franchise advanced to the post-season seven times, advancing to the Conference Semifinals on four occasions.
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