Hornets Extra: A history of Charlotte's NBA draft picks in the NBA Draft

In 2 days from now, the NBA Draft will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and the draft will have a special significance for the Charlotte Hornets: It will be their first draft appearance in 13 years, as the team continues its transition from the Bobcats back to the Hornets moniker, which became official last month.

Since 1988, Charlotte's NBA teams have participated in the NBA Draft(except the 1997 and 2010 Drafts), and some of the players turned out to be strong players for the original Hornets franchise, and during the then-Bobcats era from 2004-2014, while others, well, let's just not get into this discussion, okay.  The Hornets come into the draft with the 9th and 24th picks in the first round, and the 45th pick in the second round, and we got the 9th pick from the Detroit Pistons back during the Draft Lottery on May 20th, the same day the "Hornets" name officially returned home to Charlotte, and by looking at some of the different mock drafts I've been checking out, the consensus of them have Charlotte taking Doug McDermott out of Creighton at number 9, and P.J. Hairston from the NBA Development League by way of the University of North Carolina at 24, while others have Charlotte taking Nik Stauskas from the University of Michigan, and many believe that some of the mock drafts could possibly hold up come draft night, but it's up to the general managers to decide which player could best fit the franchise.

And for us fans here in Charlotte, it's up to Michael Jordan, General Manager Rich Cho, and head coach Steve Clifford to look for a player that can take the Hornets into the next chapter in their history, after the then-Bobcats coming off a successful 2013-14 season that saw them finish the campaign with a 44-38 record, before being swept in 4 straight games by the Miami Heat in the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs.

Back to the story about the history of the Hornets/Bobcats picks in the NBA Draft.  The draft has produced a lot of top talent for the original Hornets franchise(1988-2002), and the Bobcats era from 2004-2014, and with the draft coming up in 2 days, this give us time to do a refresher on all of the draft picks that Charlotte's NBA teams have had in the NBA Draft dating back to the original Hornets first year in 1988.

CHARLOTTE HORNETS DRAFT HISTORY(1988-2002)

1988 NBA Draft

First Round: Rex Chapman(8th overall pick, University of Kentucky)
Second Round: Tom Tolbert(34th overall pick, Arizona)
Third Round: Jeff Moore(58th overall, Auburn; Never played in NBA)

1989 NBA Draft

First Round: J.R. Reid(5th overall pick, University of North Carolina)
Second Round: Dyron Nix(29th overall pick, University of Tennessee)

1990 NBA Draft

First Round: Kendall Gill(5th overall pick, University of Illinois)
Second Round: Steve Scheffler(39th overall pick, Purdue University)

1991 NBA Draft

First Round: Larry Johnson(1st overall pick, UNLV; Rookie of the Year in 1991-92)
Second Round: Kevin Lynch(28th overall pick, Minnesota; Hornets acquired the selection from Denver)

1992 NBA Draft

First Round: Alonzo Mourning(2nd overall pick, Georgetown University)
Second Round: Tony Bennett(35th overall pick, Wisconsin-Green Bay; now head coach at the University of Virginia)

1993 NBA Draft

First Round: Greg Graham(17th overall pick, Indiana University); Scott Burrell(20th overall pick, UCONN)

1994 NBA Draft

Second Round: Darrin Hancock(38th overall pick, Kansas)

1995 NBA Draft

First Round: George Zidek(22nd overall pick, UCLA)

1996 NBA Draft

First Round: Kobe Bryant(13th overall pick, Lower Merion HS; traded to L.A. Lakers for Vlade Divac); Tony Delk(16th overall pick, University of Kentucky)
Second Round: Malik Rose(44th overall pick, Drexel University)

1997 NBA Draft: No picks

1998 NBA Draft

First Round: Ricky Davis(21st overall pick, Iowa)
Second Round: Andrew Betts, Long Beach State; Never played a game in the NBA)

1999 NBA Draft

First Round: Baron Davis(3rd overall pick, UCLA)
Second Round: Lee Nailon(43rd overall pick, TCU)

2000 NBA Draft

First Round: Jamaal Magloire(19th overall pick, University of Kentucky)

2001 NBA Draft

First Round: Kirk Haston(16th overall pick, Indiana University)

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS DRAFT HISTORY(2004-2014; BOLD denotes player is still with franchise)

2004 NBA Draft

First Round: Emeka Okafor(2nd overall pick, UCONN, 2004-05 Rookie of the Year)

Second Round: Bernard Robinson(46th overall pick, Michigan)

2005 NBA Draft

First Round: Raymond Felton(5th overall selection, University of North Carolina); Sean May(13th overall selection, University of North Carolina)

2006 NBA Draft

First Round: Adam Morrison(3rd overall selection, Gonzaga University)

Second Round: Ryan Hollins(50th overall selection, UCLA)

2007 NBA Draft

First Round: Brandan Wright(8th overall selection, University of North Carolina; Traded to Golden State in exchange for Jason Richardson); Jared Dudley(22nd overall selection, Boston College)

2008 NBA Draft

First Round: D.J. Augustin(8th overall selection, Texas); Alexis Ajinca(20th overall selection, France)
Second Round: Kyle Weaver(38th overall selection, Washington State)

2009 NBA Draft

First Round: GERALD HENDERSON(12th overall selection, Duke University)
Second Round: Derrick Brown(40th overall selection, Xavier University); Robert Vaden(54th overall selection, UAB; Never played in the regular season and playoffs)

2010 NBA Draft: No picks

2011 NBA Draft

First Round:BISMACK BIYOMBO(acquired from Sacramento with 7th overall pick, Congo); KEMBA WALKER(9th overall selection, UCONN); Tobias Harris(19th overall selection, Tennessee; traded to Milwaukee
Second Round: Jeremy Tyler(39th overall selection, Tokyo Apache; rights traded to Golden State)

2012 NBA Draft

First Round: MICHAEL KIDD-GILCHRIST(2nd overall selection, University of Kentucky)
Second Round: JEFFERY TAYLOR(31st overall selection, Vanderbilt)

2013 NBA Draft

First Round: CODY ZELLER(4th overall selection, University of North Carolina; made the NBA All-Rookie third team in 2013-14 season)

Hornets Extra: Yesterday was a great day to be a Charlotte Hornets fan

Hello everyone! Welcome to this, the first installment of "Hornets Extra", a fan blog talking about the Charlotte Hornets!  In this blog, I will post my thoughts and opinions on the Hornets from a fan's point of view, and along the way, I'll discuss some of the stories and issues around the NBA.  For the first post, let's talk about what was indeed a huge day for everyone here in Charlotte yesterday.

It all began with the official announcement that we've been all waiting for, as the Charlotte Bobcats officially changed it's name back to the Charlotte Hornets, and we was all excited to finally see the name return home to where it originally began, because if you were a basketball fan growing up here in Charlotte, North Carolina during the late 1980's and into the mid-1990's, then you know that the Hornets were a household name during their glory days which saw a run of 364 consecutive sellouts at the old Charlotte Coliseum off of Tyvola Road, leading the league in attendance for eight out of 10 seasons, and players we grew up to admire so much, such as Muggsy Bogues, Dell Curry, Rex Chapman, Kelly Tripucka J.R. Reid, Kurt Rambis, Baron Davis, David Wesley, P.J. Brown, and Jamal Mashburn, and yes, we absolutely admire a little purple and teal bee named "Hugo".

In the end, the love affair between Charlotte and the Hornets turned for the worse, and in 2002, the franchise moved to New Orleans, taking the name with them, and that left us a bad taste in our mouths when that happened.

Yesterday, Charlotte Hornets President and COO Fred Whitfield was absolutely thrilled to finally see our city get what it rightfully deserved, bringing back the Hornets name to Charlotte and the Carolinas.  "As a former original Hornets season ticket holder myself, I'm especially excited to usher the Hornets name to Charlotte. Our fans were the driving force behind the name returning, and it couldn't have happened without the commitment and the open-mindedness of our owner." Whitfield said.

The name dates back to the Revolutionary War, and the Battle of the Hornet's Nest that happened in October of 1780, and when General Cornwallis left Charlotte, he called the area a "Veritable hornet's nest of rebellion.", and the name was also used for Charlotte's minor-league baseball franchises in some shape or form from 1901-73, and a short-lived World Football League franchise from 1974-75.

Also, another exciting announcement took place during yesterday's press conference, as the Hornets, in partnership with the NBA and the New Orleans Pelicans, would regain all the records and history of Charlotte NBA basketball.  This means that the Hornets will have exclusive access to not only the records from the Bobcats era(2004-2014), but records from the original Charlotte Hornets era(1988-2002). The New Orleans franchise, now known as the Pelicans, will retain all records from the team's first season, which began in 2002. 

In addition, the team announced several different events over the next several months to get the fans excited about the return of the Hornets to Charlotte, which includes the following:

• June 5th: The return of one of the most popular mascots in NBA history, Hugo the Hornet
• June 9th: The entire Hornets organization will take part in a "Swarm to Serve" Community Day of Service at Hornets Nest Elementary School with Fox Sports Carolinas/SportSouth.
• June 19th: The Hornets new uniforms will be officially revealed for the first time.
• June 26th: On the night of the NBA Draft, the new court design will be revealed at "The Hive".
• July 11-21: For the first time in 12 years, the Charlotte Hornets will return to action in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• October 2014: "BuzzFest", a multi-day festival, will take place to coincide with the start of the 2014-15 NBA season and to celebrate the Hornets return to Charlotte.

Then last night, the Hornets landed the number 9 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, which was won by the Cleveland Cavaliers again, and what happened was that Charlotte acquired the pick from Detroit in the Ben Gordon trade a few years back.  The full list of the selections from last night's Draft Lottery are as follows:

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

2. Milwaukee Bucks

3. Philadelphia 76ers

4. Orlando Magic

5. Utah Jazz

6. Boston Celtics

7. L.A. Lakers

8. Sacramento Kings

9. CHARLOTTE HORNETS(from Detroit)

10. Philadelphia 76ers(from New Orleans)

11. Denver Nuggets

12. Orlando Magic(from New York via Denver)

13. Minnesota Timberwolves

14. Phoenix Suns

Long story short, yesterday was a great day to be a Charlotte Hornets fan, you finally got the name back, got all the records back, and the number 9 overall pick in June's NBA Draft, and as Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran said in the song, "Everything Has Changed", and it has indeed changed right here in Charlotte as we are now officially the Hornets, again.

And there you have it, our first of many posts about the Charlotte Hornets here on "Hornets Extra", and I hope that you can check it out for yourself and we begin this new chapter in our franchise's history as the Hornets.