Back In The Day NBA

Muggsy Bogues Explains Break-Up Of 1993 Charlotte Hornets Led By Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson

Shandel Richardson

Mar 5, 1993; Portland, OR, USA: FILE PHOTO; Charlotte Hornets forward Larry Johnson against the Portland Trail Blazers at Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY Sports
Mar 5, 1993; Portland, OR, USA: FILE PHOTO; Charlotte Hornets forward Larry Johnson against the Portland Trail Blazers at Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY Sports / USA TODAY Sports
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The Charlotte Hornets became the first of the new expansion teams to win a playoff series in 1993 when they defeated the Boston Celtics.

It appeared their core of Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning and Kendall Gill were the future of the NBA. By that offseason, they were done before it could ever start.

The trio never played again together after losing to the New York Knicks in the second round. Muggsy Bogues, the Hornets' point guard then, said the break-up was just a matter of young players struggling to work together.

"We were right there," Bogues said. "We were right on the cusp of it. The egos get in the way, acutally the ugly head of the NBA gets in the way in terms of the contracts, guys not wanting to play with each other at certain times because they felt like they weren't getting notoriety. They just wanted to change and I think that's what happened early."

Bogues pinpointed the downfall on the departure of Gill to the Seattle SuperSonics that offseason. Gill averaged 20.5 points in 1991-92 but became more of a two-way player with the emergences of Mourning and Johnson.

"Kendall was a piece for us," Bogues said. "Kendall, we had LJ and Zo and Dell [Curry] and Johnny Newman and all of those guys. When Kendall left to Seattle, I think that was a void."

After the Celtics victory, Gill was ready to return to the leading role. So the Hornets traded him to Seattle for veteran role player Eddie Johnson and Dana Barros.

It was the end for the Hornets.

The next year Johnson sustained a major back injury that slowed his career. In 1995, Mourning was traded to the Miami Heat.

"[Gill] got a little impatient and he felt like he needed to be elsewhere," Bogues said. "And here comes Alonzo. Alonzo gets sent to Miami and that was the end of all that. It's hard to keep those teams together. It's special when you're able to do it."

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Back In The Day NBA. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com