22 years ago today: The Bobcats bring the NBA back to Charlotte, Emeka Okafor’s 19 and 10, and a 103-96 loss to the Wizards

Twenty-two years ago today, on November 4, 2004, the Charlotte Bobcats played their first NBA game. They lost 103-96 to the Washington Wizards at Charlotte Coliseum in front of a sellout crowd of 23,319. Rookie Emeka Okafor had 19 points and 10 rebounds, but Charlotte native Antawn Jamison scored 24 for Washington and spoiled the night.

The date had history behind it. The original Charlotte Hornets had played their first game in the same building on November 4, 1988, and lost 133-93 to Cleveland. Sixteen years later to the day, after two seasons with no NBA team at all, the city started over.

A $300 million team built from scratch

The Hornets left for New Orleans after the 2001-02 season. Seven months later, on December 18, 2002, the NBA awarded Charlotte an expansion team to Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television. He paid a $300 million fee, more than double what Toronto and Vancouver had paid in the 1990s, and became the first Black majority owner of a major American pro sports team. The league’s Board of Governors approved the deal unanimously in January 2003.

The name came that June. On June 11, 2003, at a street festival in Uptown Charlotte, Johnson introduced the Bobcats, an animal native to the Carolinas. Bernie Bickerstaff was hired as both coach and general manager.

The roster came together on June 22, 2004, when Charlotte picked 19 players in the expansion draft. Gerald Wallace came from Sacramento and Primoz Brezec from Indiana. By taking Predrag Drobnjak from the Los Angeles Clippers, the Bobcats also got the No. 2 pick in the regular draft two days later. They used it on Okafor, the UConn center who had just won a national title.

Twenty years ago today, the Charlotte Bobcats clawed their way through a multitude of challenging, complex twists and turns to select 19 players in the 2004 NBA Expansion Draft.

Read 'Starting From Scratch' by @sam_perley 📝

— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) June 22, 2024

Brezec’s layup, then a 9-0 run

The pregame show had lasers, a computer-made bobcat stomping across the video board and mascot Rufus Lynx riding onto the floor on a motorcycle. Johnson took the microphone and told the crowd: “The NBA has come back to Charlotte. And we’ll never leave.”

Charlotte lost the opening tip but got the ball back quickly. Brezec fought through a double team, spun left and made a layup for the first basket in team history. The Bobcats led 23-22 after the first quarter, trailed 49-45 at halftime and won the third quarter 30-25 to take a 75-74 lead into the fourth.

The game was tied 85-85 midway through the fourth. Then the turnovers and rushed shots piled up, and Washington went on a 9-0 run that settled it. The Wizards won the quarter 29-21. Most of the crowd had left by the final buzzer. Commissioner David Stern was one of the people who left early.

• Final: Washington Wizards 103, Charlotte Bobcats 96, Thursday, November 4, 2004, at Charlotte Coliseum. Attendance 23,319. Dick Bavetta, Sean Corbin and Jess Kersey officiated.
• Bobcats: Okafor had 19 points and 10 rebounds and made 9 of 10 free throws in 32 minutes. Brezec added 15 points and 9 rebounds, Steve Smith scored 15 off the bench, Gerald Wallace had 11, and Jason Kapono 10. Brevin Knight had 6 assists.
• Wizards: Jamison scored 24 on 10-of-22 shooting. Gilbert Arenas had 19 points and 8 assists, Jarvis Hayes added 17, Juan Dixon scored 15 off the bench, and Larry Hughes had 14 points and 4 steals.
• The difference: Charlotte had 21 turnovers, seven of them by Wallace, and Washington had 14 steals. The Wizards also made 26 of 31 free throws, while the Bobcats made 21 of 32 and went 1 of 8 from 3-point range. Charlotte won the paint 46-30 but lost on fast breaks 19-6.

The loss also ended a small streak. Toronto and Vancouver had both won their first games in 1995, and Charlotte had a chance to make it three expansion teams in a row.

What they said

“I guess I’d rather lose the way we did than get blown out,” Okafor said. “But I want to win. We showed our stuff. We showed we’re going to fight and play hard and try to win every night.”

Bickerstaff thought his team cared too much, not too little. “We weren’t good enough tonight,” he said. “It wasn’t because we lacked or didn’t want it. Some of them may have wanted it too bad.”

Jamison, who grew up in Charlotte, was generous. “It was kind of hard to call them an expansion team,” he said. “They’ve got some talented guys. They’ll get a lot of upsets.”

The first win came two nights later

Charlotte did not have to wait long. On November 6, the Bobcats beat the Orlando Magic 111-100 at home. Brezec had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Wallace had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Jason Hart came off the bench for 14 points and 11 assists. On November 23, they beat the defending champion Detroit Pistons 91-89.

The rest of the season was what an expansion year usually is. The Bobcats went 18-64 and finished fourth in the Southeast Division. Attendance fell to about 14,400 a night, 28th of 30 teams. Okafor was the bright spot, averaging 15.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks to win Rookie of the Year.

From the Coliseum to the Hornets again

The Coliseum was only a one-year home. On November 5, 2005, the Bobcats opened their new downtown arena, now the Spectrum Center, with a 107-105 overtime win over Boston, and Wallace scored 25.

Michael Jordan bought control of the team in 2010, and that spring the Bobcats made the playoffs for the first time. In 2014, the franchise took back the Hornets name, along with the records from 1988 to 2002. The Bobcats years are now part of the Hornets’ story, and they began on this night with a Brezec layup, an Okafor double-double and a seven-point loss.