Carolina Dreaming : Great Things Are Expected of the Hornets, Who Find Potential Can Be a Burden

A funny thing happened on the way to the finals.

That was where the Hornets thought they were headed. They had admirers who said it was going to be this season, too--including the New York Times, which predicted a Houston-Charlotte matchup. The Hornets now complain about media pressure, but the day the story ran, owner George Shinn was so happy, he brought the paper to practice to show everyone they had arrived.

Lesson No. 1: It ain’t that easy.

Since then, Shinn’s $84-million man, Larry Johnson, has injured his back and might wind up writing off the season.

His $25-million relative bargain, Alonzo

Mourning, has gone out because of knee, ankle and calf injuries.

They have all had to learn about living up to expectations. Time is still on their side, but it hasn’t kicked in as fast as they had hoped.

“People saw this as an up-and-coming team, a team that could do some damage in the Eastern Conference, a team that played the Knicks as well as anyone, other than Chicago,� said newly arrived veteran Eddie Johnson. “So the expectations weren’t unexpected.

“What happened was, these guys didn’t understand what those expectations were; and that when somebody projects you to be one of the top-echelon teams, that means you’ve got to exert extra energy because now teams expect you and they’re going to come in and play harder. I think that’s what happened to us early in the year against some teams. We expected just to roll the ball out and win, and those teams came out and played a heck of a game.

“It’s been a struggle so far this year, but they’re starting to understand that the better you become, the harder it is to win. People always think it’s a breath of fresh air when you finish something. You finish high school and you hear all the stories about college and the partying and all that. But when you get to college, it’s harder! And when you get out of college, you get into the real world, you think you can take a break and you find out it’s extra hard. You’ve got to find a job.

“And it’s the same way with basketball. The better you are, the harder it is to keep achieving. And I think they’re starting to understand that. It’s not too late because it’s early in the year.�

There’s an easy explanation of how the Hornets got so good so fast: luck.

They were the NBA’s fifth-worst team in 1991, with seven of the 66 Ping-Pong balls when they drew the No. 1 slot in the draft lottery--a 9-1 shot--and got Johnson.

They were eighth-worst in 1992, with four balls, when they came up No. 2--a 16-1 shot--and got Mourning.

Before that, they had fallen over themselves like clumsy puppies. Shinn, a hyper-enthusiastic man who had worked his way up from janitor to millionaire, turned his years of being an Atlantic Coast Conference fan into injunctions to take the best Tar Heel, Blue Devil or Cavalier available. He bypassed his own front office to make the deal for Mike Gminski, who played at Duke. He urged the drafting of J.R. Reid of North Carolina. He yearned so for Ralph Sampson of Virginia that a Hornet official had to spend a week in Sacramento confirming that Sampson’s knees were shot.

Having made better marketing decisions, Shinn had room for error. Charlotte fans, already crazy about college basketball, flocked to the state-of-the-art arena on Hive Drive. From Dec. 23, 1989, the night they beat the Bulls on a Kurt Rambis tip-in, the 23,698-seat arena, biggest in the NBA, has sold out, 214 times through the end of January and counting.

When the 1990-91-92 drafts brought Kendall Gill, Johnson and Mourning, they had something to cheer for. The Hornets went up like a rocket, breathed rarefied air and became giddy.

They won their last five games last season and qualified for the playoffs for the first time.

They ousted the Boston Celtics on Mourning’s dramatic 20-footer in Game 4 and moved on to meet the Knicks. Anything but awed, the Hornets informed the Knicks they were their equals, at least.

Said Gill: “We have more talent than New York does. We just haven’t put everything together like New York has to this point.�

Said Muggsy Bogues: “You look at New York and you constantly wonder how they got 60 wins.�

So the Knicks showed them.

The Hornets had a 12-point lead in the first half in Game 1 at Madison Square Garden, but the Knicks outscored them, 31-15, in the fourth quarter and won.

Hot-tempered Hornet Coach Allan Bristow, resisting an invitation to compliment Pat Riley’s superbly conditioned players, sputtered: “Wore down? Are you kidding me? He was playing our game! Ask them if they got worn down. They’re the ones that aren’t used to this pace.�

The Hornets had a 13-point lead with 6:48 left in Game 2, but the Knicks shut them down again. Still unimpressed, Bristow sneered to reporters: “Their defense, I think it plays on your minds. We had the opportunities, we just didn’t convert.�

Sighed Doc Rivers: “That’s Allan Bristow.�

Back in Charlotte, the Hornets won Game 3 in two overtimes. Johnson scored 31 points and got so excited once, after making a shot, he just began jumping up and down on the baseline.

But the Knicks won Game 4 on 34-year-old Rolando Blackman’s 20-foot shot with five seconds to play. They won Game 5 in New York.

Experience counts in postseason play, and the Hornets had just begun to get theirs.

Last summer, the Hornets traded Gill, who was threatening to become a free agent, but replaced him with Hersey Hawkins, less temperamental and a better shooter.

Shinn then fired the shot heard ‘round the league, signing Larry Johnson, who still had four years on his contract at $3 million a year, to an $84-million, 10-year extension. General managers everywhere winced.

“I think there was a sense of shock,� Orlando’s Pat Williams said. “I don’t think anyone expected it. There was no warning. The question was, why then?�

Commissioner David Stern asked Shinn if he realized he had just given one man more than twice the $32.5 million he paid for the franchise.

Nonetheless, the Hornets claim not to have heard.

“(The reaction) wasn’t as great as you think it is,� team President Spencer Stolpen said. “There’s only one or two people who dared say it to my face, and when I explain it, every one of them seems to understand it. I think a lot of them are just jealous that they didn’t have an owner and/or a player to put those two things together.

“We were thinking that, one, we wanted to keep Larry here. We didn’t want to go through the Gill situation. Two, with the collective bargaining agreement ending this year, we didn’t want to play games with what the numbers were going to end up to be. Larry rolled the dice that he’s not going to underprice himself over the next few years. We rolled the dice that he’s going to be the player we think he is.

“So far, I don’t think any one of us regrets the deal.�

So far, actually, it’s a disaster.

In a charity game in July, Johnson reached back for a tomahawk dunk and felt something pull in his back. It wasn’t supposed to be serious, but when training camp started, Johnson’s right leg was weak.

“He tried to go in training camp early and he couldn’t, so we just gave him the four weeks off,� Bristow said. “He hadn’t been playing 100%, and then he re-injured it in the Detroit game right before Christmas. Whether this is related to the same injury they don’t know, but it’s certainly the same area.

“People don’t realize, yeah, he can still occasionally get the big numbers, but he’s not doing the explosive stuff that Larry did the last couple years. Yeah, he can battle his way into getting 29 points and 15 rebounds, but he’s not ready to take Charles Barkley one on four and dunk over him. That’s what he did his first couple years.�

At first, the Hornets had hoped that Johnson would return in December. Then in January. Now he is scheduled to be re-evaluated during the All-Star break this month amid speculation he might not be back before April.

“If I knew we could get Larry back at full strength in March,� Bristow said, “I’d take it.�

Meanwhile, Mourning had his own troubles. A knee injury cut short his training camp, after which he left the lineup because of a sprained ankle, then a bruised calf.

Not that this season would be hard for them to beat, but the Hornets’ best days do lie ahead. They have four veterans on the last year of their contracts. By renouncing them, they can duck under the salary cap and make a run at a free agent, Horace Grant, or, Shinn’s dream, North Carolina native Danny Manning.

“I think we need some time,� Stolpen said in the sunnier days when the Hornets thought Johnson would be back in a couple of weeks. No question another player, another big guy, would probably help. I think we’re one piece away from not only a run, but a consistent long run.

“The challenge is to compete with ourselves. How do we keep getting better than we were? How do we stay there? I spend a lot of time trying to analyze what Boston did wrong, what the Lakers did wrong, what the Pistons did wrong. How do you stop that major fall after a long-term championship team? That’s what I’m trying to figure out, and I don’t have the answer yet.

“The answer is you probably have to trade someone who’s still very productive to get you a chance to get somebody young. Boston probably could have traded Kevin McHale or Robert Parish four or five years ago and gotten talent to keep themselves going. And instead of trying to dump James Worthy in the last two years of his contract, if the Lakers had moved four years ago, they maybe could have gotten (some help)--but I don’t know. It’s not easy to do. If it ever came that I had to move Larry, it’d be a tough decision.�

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before the Hornets worry about the second dynasty, they will have to realize the first. It’s fun to dream, and in Charlotte, it’s still what they do best.