Letters to Jordan: How Charlotte Fans Asked for the Hornets Name Back

From the Bring Back the Buzz archive: a look back at the fan letters we collected in 2012.

In 2012, Michael Jordan owned the Charlotte Bobcats, and we asked Charlotte fans to do something old-fashioned: write him a letter. Dozens did. We posted them on the blog and, by the end of the year, packaged them into a portfolio making the case for a rebrand. Here's a taste of what fans told him.

What the fans wrote

• Jon remembered his first game in 1992, age seven: the Hornets against Jordan's own Bulls, from seats his dad scored even though he wasn't much of an NBA fan.
• Rachel, 25 and raised just outside Charlotte, called it a plea, and said that for Charlotte NBA fans, that wasn't an exaggeration.
• Garrett, a 16-year-old, barely remembered the glory days but never forgot one night at the old Coliseum in 1998, Jordan's last season with Chicago, when the Hive was alive.
• Garett put it simply: it's not just a name. It's an identity.
• Perry remembered the first time he saw the Hornets: "Finally we had our team."
• Will, born in Charlotte, described Hornets basketball in three words: electric, cheerful and meaningful.
• Robert moved here in 1987 at age 10, not into sports at all, and was amazed by the buzz flowing through the city about a team that hadn't even played yet.
• Chris, born in Charlotte in 1983, grew up "bleeding teal and purple" all over Hornet's Nest Park.
• Jason pointed out that Jordan himself had said he was "open for anything" on the name.

The common thread: the Hornets weren't just a team. They were memories with parents, the first thing that made Charlotte feel like a big-league city, and a name that belonged here.

What happened next

In May 2013, the team announced it would apply to become the Charlotte Hornets, and on May 20, 2014, the name came home. Charlotte fans did that together, letters and all. Today the team has new owners, but the fans who wrote those letters are still around, and plenty of them are Crown Club members. Read the full campaign in The Story of Bring Back the Buzz.