The Charlotte Hornets are a soap opera

Throughout the history of NBA teams that have called Charlotte, North Carolina home, a second-round trip to the playoffs has been the furthest point any franchise has made it. And while this iteration of the Hornets has nothing to do with the ones from yesteryear, they do feature something that probably impacts their inability to be nothing more than a lower-tier NBA team — drama.

When the Hornets signed Miles Bridges to a $7.9 million qualifying offer for this season, it set him up to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. It also cleared the way for a man who missed all of last season — and who is still facing a 10-game NBA suspension — due to a felony domestic violence arrest, to return to the team.

But, outside of dealing with what will come along with Bridges if he does suit up for Charlotte, as expected, this franchise should have, or needs to acquire, a crisis management expert on staff to deal with the shenanigans that a lot of their players are connected to.

Here’s a link to the Hornets’ roster on their team website. And while it’s not set in stone due to free agency and the offseason, it features players who have made a name for themselves outside of the basketball court. Let’s take a look at who’s on there and who did what, or had what done to them.

· Miles Bridges — we already covered that

· LaMelo Ball — LaVar has finally taken a backseat, but LaVar’s mouth is why the father still may have a bigger name than the 2022 All-Star point guard

· James Bouknight — The former UConn star once got ejected from seeing his school play while sitting courtside

· Kelly Oubre Jr. — The dude lives in his own world. He has on pearls in his team photo. You gotta love ‘em. But, according to some reports, he might not be in a Hornets uniform this season.

· Gordon Hayward — The league’s great white hope at one time, whose career was messed up by injuries. He also should have stayed in Utah

· P. J. Washington — Google his name with Brittany Renner’s, there’s an entire rabbit hole for you to go down

· Steve Clifford (Head coach) — From 2013-2018 Clifford coached the NBA team in Charlotte until he was fired. And when the franchise needed a new coach after James Borrego was let go in 2022, Charlotte wound up going back to Clifford because nobody else wanted the job…”allegedly.”

Mind you, I haven’t even mentioned Brandon Miller, whose name was in the middle of a murder investigation earlier this year after members of the Alabama basketball program were identified at the scene of the deadly shooting that killed  Jamea Jonae Harris. Tonight, (Friday), he’s scheduled to play in the biggest draw of the NBA Summer League when Charlotte takes on the San Antonio Spurs on ESPN in a matchup of the No. 1 and No. 2 overall picks from last month’s draft, as Victor Wembanyama makes his debut.

Some of the things listed above are trivial. Others are very serious. All of them could be compounded in the same locker room this season for 82 games. Pro athletes have a way of compartmentalizing their personal lives and what they do on the field/court. But, the teams that win usually don’t have players who lived the lives of soap opera characters.