Charlotte Hornets Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
59 free Charlotte Hornets trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Charlotte Hornets trivia quiz covers both lives of the franchise: the 1988 expansion team that sold out the Coliseum 364 games running in Alexander Julian's teal pinstripes, Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning, Muggsy Bogues, Glen Rice and the Kobe Bryant draft-night trade, then the move to New Orleans, the Bobcats years under Bob Johnson and Michael Jordan, the 7–59 season, Kemba Walker, the 2014 return of the Hornets name and the LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller era. There are gentle questions for newer fans (what is the arena called, who is Hugo, which brand makes the uniforms) and hard ones for lifers, such as which name actually won the 2003 naming contest, who coached the first game, and how old the Coliseum was when it came down. Uniforms, mascots, ownership and the Miami rivalry all feature. Every answer was checked against primary and encyclopaedic sources before it went in, so when you miss one you can trust the explanation. Play it solo or run it as a round at your next Buzz City watch party. For the wider league, try our NBA trivia page next.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What name did the Hornets' uptown Charlotte arena take in 2016?
Spectrum Center
Spectrum Center took its name from Charter Communications' consumer brand after Charter absorbed the arena's previous naming-rights sponsor; the building had opened in 2005 as Charlotte Bobcats Arena.
Q 02Which four-time champion with the Showtime Lakers joined the expansion Hornets in 1988?
Kurt Rambis
Kurt Rambis swapped the champion Lakers for a brand-new team, and after the Hornets' first win, over the Clippers, said he had never before joined a crowd in chanting 'Beat L.A.'
Q 03Who was the founding owner who brought the Hornets to Charlotte?
George Shinn
George Shinn worked as a janitor to pay his way through business college, then bought the school and built a chain of them before landing the franchise he owned until it left Charlotte.
Q 04Which name was originally planned for the expansion team before a contest produced 'Hornets'?
Charlotte Spirit
The club was to be called the Charlotte Spirit until a fan name-the-team contest chose 'Hornets', a nod to the city's Revolutionary War nickname.
Q 05The 'Hornets' name recalls a remark that legend attributes to which British general after the 1780 Battle of Charlotte?
Cornwallis
Cornwallis, whose army briefly occupied Charlotte in 1780, is said to have called it 'a hornet's nest of rebellion', though no record of the remark survives from his own time.
Q 06Which North Carolina-born fashion designer created the original Hornets uniforms?
Alexander Julian
Alexander Julian, a Chapel Hill native behind the Colours menswear label, later gave North Carolina's Tar Heels their argyle basketball uniforms as well.
Q 07What design feature did the original Hornets uniforms bring to the NBA for the first time?
Pinstripes
Pinstripes had never appeared on an NBA uniform until the Hornets' debut set; the Orlando Magic adopted their own pinstripes the following season.
Q 08Which colour did the Hornets choose as their primary colour, sparking a sports fashion craze?
Teal
Teal, worn with purple from the first season, sent the expansion Hornets to the top of the NBA's merchandise sales charts, and new teams in other sports were soon dressing in teal too.
Q 09Who was the Hornets' first head coach?
Dick Harter
Dick Harter, a defence-first coach, clashed with his players and was fired 40 games into the second season with an 8–32 record.
Q 10Which team, built around Brad Daugherty and Mark Price, beat the Hornets 133–93 in their first NBA game?
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers spoiled opening night by 40 points, but only four days later the expansion Hornets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 117–105 for the first win in franchise history.
Q 11In which category did the 20–62 expansion Hornets lead the NBA in their first season?
Attendance
Attendance: the Coliseum was the NBA's biggest arena, with nearly 24,000 seats, and 949,858 fans came that losing first year; the Hornets led the league's gate again every season from 1990–91 to 1996–97.
Q 12What fan nickname for the Charlotte Coliseum was later revived for the Hornets' new arena?
The Hive
The Hive was a fitting name for a building of about 24,000 seats, the biggest in the NBA; it lay unused through the Bobcats years and came back uptown when the Hornets name returned in 2014.
Q 13Which UNLV forward, drafted first overall by the Hornets in 1991, was that season's Rookie of the Year?
Larry Johnson
Q 21To which city did the original Hornets relocate in 2002?
New Orleans
New Orleans took in the Hornets after the owner's fight for a new Charlotte arena failed and the crowds thinned; that franchise became the Pelicans in 2013 and handed the original Hornets' records back to Charlotte.
Q 22Which BET founder became the first Black majority owner in modern US major pro sports with the 2002 Charlotte franchise?
Robert L. Johnson
Robert L. Johnson paid a $300 million expansion fee for the team that became the Bobcats, beating a rival bid fronted by NBA legend Larry Bird, who said he was heartbroken to lose.
Q 23Which hip-hop artist bought a minority stake in the Charlotte Bobcats before their first season?
Nelly
Larry Johnson became a pop-culture figure as well as a star: he played 'Grandmama', a dunking granny, in Converse commercials and then in an episode of the sitcom Family Matters.
Q 14Which Georgetown centre did the Hornets select second overall in 1992?
Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Mourning averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds as a rookie, second only to Shaquille O'Neal in the Rookie of the Year vote, yet Charlotte traded him after three seasons when contract talks broke down.
Q 15The Hornets' first-ever playoff series win in 1993 came against which team?
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics went out 3–1, the clincher a 104–103 thriller that proved to be the final game of Celtics great Kevin McHale's career; the Hornets then lost to the Knicks in five.
Q 16Which sharpshooter did the Hornets receive in the 1995 trade of their star centre?
Glen Rice
Glen Rice averaged 26.8 points in 1996–97, third in the league, and came off the bench at that season's All-Star Game to score 20 in one quarter, then a record, and walk off with the MVP trophy.
Q 17Which 1996 draftee did the Hornets pick 13th overall, then trade for centre Vlade Divac?
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant, a 17-year-old straight from high school, never wore a Hornets jersey: Charlotte had agreed to make the pick for the Lakers, and he went on to win five titles in Los Angeles.
Q 18Which 5-foot-3 guard, the shortest NBA player ever, ran the Hornets' offense in the 1990s?
Muggsy Bogues
Muggsy Bogues was left unprotected by Washington after a single season, so Charlotte claimed him in the expansion draft; he stayed nine years and set the franchise record for career assists.
Q 19The Hornets retired the number of which guard after his death in a car accident in Charlotte in 2000?
Bobby Phills
Bobby Phills, a defensive specialist in his third Hornets season, was 30 when he died in January 2000; his No. 13 was retired within a month and hung in the Coliseum until the team left town.
Q 20Which ex-Celtics big man coached the Hornets to their best original-era season, 54–28 in 1996–97?
Dave Cowens
Dave Cowens, a Hall of Fame centre and 1973 league MVP, took over in 1996 and guided the Hornets to 54 wins before resigning early in the 1999 lockout season.
Nelly, the St. Louis rapper, joined the ownership group in July 2004, a few months before the expansion team's first game; the same company owned the WNBA's Charlotte Sting, making him a part-owner there too.
Q 24Which UConn centre, drafted second overall by the Bobcats in 2004, won Rookie of the Year?
Emeka Okafor
Emeka Okafor went one pick after high-schooler Dwight Howard and one before UConn teammate Ben Gordon, then beat them both in the Rookie of the Year vote with 15.1 points and 10.9 rebounds a game.
Q 25Which Gonzaga star, the leading scorer in college basketball, did the Bobcats draft third overall in 2006?
Adam Morrison
Adam Morrison was the first pick made after Michael Jordan bought into the Bobcats and took over basketball decisions; a knee injury cost him his whole second season and he was traded to the Lakers in 2009.
Q 26Which Hall of Fame coach took over the Bobcats in 2008 and led them to their first playoff berth in 2010?
Larry Brown
Larry Brown, the first coach to win both an NCAA and an NBA title, guided the 2009–10 Bobcats to 44 wins and the franchise's first playoff trip, a sweep by Orlando.
Q 27Who was the only Charlotte Bobcats player ever selected for an NBA All-Star team?
Gerald Wallace
Gerald Wallace, nicknamed 'Crash' for his reckless hustle, made the 2010 All-Star team and was traded to Portland the following season.
Q 28Whose 9–73 season was the NBA's worst by winning percentage before the 2011–12 Bobcats?
Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers of 1972–73 won at a .110 rate; the Bobcats' lockout-shortened 7–59 worked out at .106, and they got there by losing their last 23 games in a row.
Q 29Which 2018 draftee did the Hornets immediately trade for Miles Bridges?
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander never played for Charlotte: the Hornets swapped him on draft day for Bridges, the 12th pick, and two second-rounders, and by 2025 he was the NBA's Most Valuable Player and a champion.
Q 30Which UConn guard, the 2011 NCAA tournament's Most Outstanding Player, did the Bobcats draft ninth overall?
Kemba Walker
Kemba Walker became the franchise's career scoring leader, and in 2018 he poured in a team-record 60 points in one game, only for Charlotte to lose it 122–119; he left for Boston in a 2019 sign-and-trade.