North Carolina sports have not been great for a while now. The Charlotte Hornets have been one of the worst teams in the NBA for more than half a decade. The Carolina Panthers have the third-fewest wins in the NFL since 2018, and that includes this season. NC collegiate sports, at least from the state university, have not been as successful, either. But for one day, it was finally good to be a fan of those teams.
North Carolina Sports Put on a Show on Saturday
It was the rare occurrence where multiple sports teams from the same area were playing all around the same time. The Carolina Panthers kicked off their home playoff game at 4:30. UNC basketball tipped off at 6:00, and the Charlotte Hornets played at 9:30 right after those games ended.
All in all, it was a really good day. The Charlotte Hornets put up an unfathomable 150 points against the Utah Jazz. They had the third-most points scored by an NBA team this season. It was the season’s widest margin of victory for any team, too. They did it without a huge scoring effort, as Tre Mann led the way with just 20 points.
The Hornets did this by having an impressive nine players in double figures. Only three players played and scored fewer than 10 points. This win came after two late, heartbreaking losses, but the Hornets have been playing well for over a month now. They don’t look like the Hornets of old.
The Tar Heels also won, although they survived a scare from Wake Forest (ironically, another North Carolina squad). Fresh off their second loss of the season, the Heels responded with an 87-point effort. Their vaunted, impressive frontcourt led the way.
Future top-five pick Caleb Wilson had yet another 20-point double-double, posting 22 and 12 on 8/9 shooting. He also recorded three assists and two steals. Henri Veesaar led the team in scoring with 25 points (on 9/10 shooting) with nine rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block.
If you’re keeping count, those two combined for 47 of 87 points, shot 89.5% from the field, had 21 rebounds, seven assists, three steals, and one block. It just doesn’t get much better than that, and they were able to get the Heels back into the win column.
Perhaps the most shocking and inspiring result, though, was not an NC win. The Carolina Panthers lost in the NFL playoffs in heartbreaking fashion, 34-31. They had a real shot to win the game, taking the lead with just over two minutes to go and having a shot to at least go down and tie it on a field goal.
They fell short, but that’s not the point. They proved they belonged in the playoffs after so much talk about whether or not an 8-9 team should’ve been there or hosted the game. The fans were as loud as anyone, and the Panthers nearly pulled off a historic upset.
They were 10.5-point underdogs in this one, the biggest spread for a home team in the playoffs ever. Yet, they overcame that and tons of mistakes to nearly pull it off. Bryce Young and Jalen Coker had tremendous days, as did Mike Jackson. The future already looked quite bright, but now there’s real hope for what this organization is doing.
Speaking of the organization, they handled the first playoff game in eight years perfectly. They had Steve Smith come out to hype the crowd, only for them to absolutely erupt when Cam Newton came out to bang the Keep Pounding drum. It had been years since Newton and the Panthers had anything to do with one another.
Then, ahead of the fourth quarter and moments before taking the lead, the Panthers brought out Jake Delhomme and other legends to hype the crowd up. It was a terrific atmosphere and a terrific showing, and they deserve a ton of credit.
Conclusion
The Panthers may have lost, but they showed up in a big way and proved the entire world wrong. That, combined with a monster win by the Hornets and a clutch victory by the Tar Heels, meant that fans of North Carolina sports could finally, really, truly be proud of their teams.
