2001–02 Charlotte Hornets season

The 2001–02 Charlotte Hornets season was the 14th, and final season for the original Charlotte Hornets in the National Basketball Association.^[1] During the off-season, the Hornets acquired George Lynch and Robert Traylor from the Philadelphia 76ers in a three-team trade,^[2][3][4] and signed free agents Stacey Augmon,^[5] Bryce Drew and three-point specialist Matt Bullard.^[6][7]

The Hornets struggled playing around .500 in winning percentage in the first half of the regular season, holding a 23–25 record at the All-Star break.^[8] Jamal Mashburn only played just 40 games due to a lower abdominal strain,^[9][10][11] and was replaced with second-year forward Lee Nailon as the team's starting small forward. Despite losing Mashburn, the Hornets posted a seven-game winning streak in March, and finished in second place in the Central Division with a 44–38 record, earning the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, and qualifying for their seventh NBA playoff appearance.^[12]

Mashburn averaged 21.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, while Baron Davis continued to show improvement, averaging 18.1 points, 8.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game, and leading the Hornets with 170 three-point field goals, and David Wesley provided the team with 14.2 points and 3.5 assists per game. In addition, Elden Campbell contributed 13.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, while Nailon provided with 10.8 points per game, and P.J. Brown averaged 8.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. Off the bench, second-year center Jamaal Magloire averaged 8.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, while Augmon contributed 4.6 points per game, and Lynch provided with 3.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.^[13]

During the NBA All-Star weekend at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Davis was selected for the 2002 NBA All-Star Game, as a member of the Eastern Conference All-Star team; it was his first ever All-Star appearance.^[14][15][16] Meanwhile, Nailon was selected for the NBA Rookie Challenge Game, as a member of the Sophomores team.^[17][18]

In the Eastern Conference First Round of the 2002 NBA playoffs, the Hornets faced off against the 5th–seeded Orlando Magic, who were led by All-Star guard Tracy McGrady, second-year star Mike Miller, and Darrell Armstrong. Despite both teams finishing with the same regular-season record, the Hornets had home-court advantage in the series. The Hornets won Game 1 over the Magic at home, 80–79 at the Charlotte Coliseum, despite losing Mashburn to injury for the remainder of the playoffs, but then lost Game 2 at home in overtime, 111–103 as the Magic evened the series. The Hornets managed to win the next two games on the road, which included a Game 4 win over the Magic at the TD Waterhouse Centre, 102–85 to win the series in four games.^[19][20][21]

In the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, the team faced off against the top–seeded, and Atlantic Division champion New Jersey Nets, who were led by the trio of All-Star guard Jason Kidd, second-year star Kenyon Martin, and Keith Van Horn. The Nets took a 2–0 series lead, but the Hornets managed to win Game 3 at the Charlotte Coliseum, 115–97. However, the Hornets lost the next two games, including a Game 5 road loss to the Nets at the Continental Airlines Arena, 103–95, thus losing the series in five games.^[22][23][24] The Nets would advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, but would lose to the 2-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in a four-game sweep in the 2002 NBA Finals.^[25][26][27] Following the season, Nailon and Bullard were both released to free agency.

This was also the Hornets' final season in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the team relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana, and became the New Orleans Hornets the following season;^[28][29][30] other city candidates for the team's relocation included Louisville, Kentucky, Norfolk, Virginia, St. Louis, Missouri and Anaheim, California.^[31][32][33] In addition, it was also their final season in which the team played their home games at the Charlotte Coliseum. The Hornets' home-game attendance continued to decrease as the team finished last in the NBA, with an attendance of 462,738 at the Charlotte Coliseum during the regular season, which was 29th in the league;^[13][34] the team also posted a better 23–18 road record than their 21–20 record at home.^[35][29] The Hornets' low attendance was a stark contrast to their earlier years in Charlotte, in which they led the league in home-game attendance eight times in the franchise's first nine seasons in the NBA (their 1988–89 inaugural season, and the 1990–91 to 1996–97 seasons).

The city of Charlotte would return to the NBA two seasons later with the expansion Charlotte Bobcats, who began play in the 2004–05 season; that franchise changed its name to the "Hornets" in 2014 after the original franchise renamed itself the "Pelicans", and also reclaimed the original Hornets' history from 1988 to 2002. As a result, the Hornets are now reckoned as having suspended operations after this season before returning as the Bobcats in 2004, while the relocated franchise is retroactively deemed as a 2002 expansion team.

As of 2026, this was the last season in which the Charlotte Hornets have won an NBA playoff series.