Charlotte Hornets / Bobcats Franchise History

Charlotte Hornets / Bobcats Franchise History

Hornets/Bobcats/Pelicans Franchise History and Records
The Charlotte Hornets were an expansion franchise that entered the NBA in 1988. In 2002, the franchise relocated to New Orleans and eventually became the New Orleans Hornets and later, the New Orleans Pelicans. When the team left Charlotte, it took its franchise history with it to New Orleans, which is standard practice for relocated NBA franchises.

Charlotte was without an NBA team for two seasons before receiving a new expansion franchise in 2004, the Charlotte Bobcats. Because the original Hornets' history had traveled to New Orleans with that franchise, the Bobcats started fresh with no prior history. For several years, the original Hornets' records and statistics were therefore associated with the New Orleans franchise on Basketball Reference.

In 2014, the Bobcats announced they would be renaming themselves the Charlotte Hornets, reclaiming the name that had left the city over a decade earlier. As part of that process, the NBA also transferred the original Charlotte Hornets' franchise history back to Charlotte.
This meant the Bobcats era and the original Hornets era were formally unified under the same franchise, and the current Charlotte Hornets are now the official keepers of all records and statistics from both the original Hornets (1988–2002) and the Bobcats (2004–2014).

As a result of the history being returned to Charlotte, the New Orleans Pelicans' franchise history now begins only with their first season in New Orleans. They are treated as a distinct franchise separate from the original Hornets. The years the team spent operating as the New Orleans Hornets are part of the Pelicans' history, but the Charlotte Hornets era that preceded the relocation is not.

In short, here is how the franchise histories are organized on Basketball Reference:
  1. The Charlotte Hornets franchise page includes records and statistics from both the original Charlotte Hornets era (1988–2002) and the Bobcats era (2004–2014), continuing through to the present
  2. The New Orleans Pelicans franchise page reflects only the team's history in New Orleans, beginning with their first season there
  3. All-time franchise leaders, season records, and historical data for Charlotte reflect the full combined history of both Charlotte eras
For more information on the Hornets, Pelicans and other questions of franchise continuity, check out our Youtube video: When Teams Move, Who Gets the History?

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