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January 16, 2009
Sometimes I’m intrigued when I stumble upon a coincidence. Like the other day I was at my barber in New Orleans getting a haircut when his next customer arrived claiming that he traveled all the way across the Causeway Bridge just to have his hair done right. After introducing myself I learned that this man I had never met was not only from Mandeville like me, but we lived in the same neighborhood and on the same street!
So, when I learned that point guards Chris Paul and Antonio Daniels were both drafted fourth overall in their respective drafts I naturally became curious. Be honest, the odds are pretty small that two point guards on the same NBA team would be high lottery picks not to mention selected in THE SAME SPOT in the lottery and end up playing for the same team.
As most people know I love statistics that tell a story and I figured I might have stumbled upon an anomaly regarding the Hornets and the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft. Believe it or not there actually is an interesting history to that pick and this team. The following chart contains a list of all players picked fourth overall in NBA history who have ties to the Hornets:
| PLAYER | YEAR | HORNETS CONNECTION |
| CHRIS PAUL | 2005 | CURRENT, RECORD-SETTING, ALL-STAR POINT GUARD |
| MARCUS FIZER | 2000 | PLAYED BRIEFLY (’06) FOR TIM FLOYD, HIS FORMER COLLEGE COACH |
| ANTONIO DANIELS | 1997 | ACQUIRED THIS SEASON AS CHRIS PAUL’S BACKUP |
| JAMAL MASHBURN | 1993 | FORMER ALL-STAR; TEAM RECORD MOST POINTS IN A GAME (50), 2003 |
| JIM JACKSON | 1992 | REFUSED TO REPORT TO HORNETS FOLLOWING ‘05 TRADE FROM HOU |
| GLEN RICE | 1989 | ONLY ALL STAR MVP; MOST PTS IN SEASON (2,115) + PER GM 26.5 PPG |
| CHUCK PERSON | 1986 | PLAYED 50 GAMES IN LOCKOUT-SHORTENED 1998-99 SEASON |
| BYRON SCOTT | 1983 | CURRENT HEAD COACH; FRANCHISE-BEST 56-WINS IN ’07-‘08 |
| DAVE COWENS | 1970 | ONLY HORNETS HEAD COACH WITH BACK-TO-BACK 50 WIN SEASONS |
It’s an impressive list of players and coaches with a variety of interesting stories associated with the franchise.
Don’t you find it strange that both the current head coach (Scott) and his star player (Paul) was fourth overall selections…22 years apart?!
Isn’t it a bit bizarre that both the player who holds the team record for most points scored in game (Mashburn) and season (Rice) were selected with the fourth pick?
How about two head coaches for the franchise, both of whom won multiple NBA titles as players, both guided the Hornets to 50+ win seasons (Cowens and Scott), especially when considering it’s only been done four times in team history?
Or the most bizarre association of them all, Jim Jackson, who was acquired from Houston in 2004 along with Bostjan Nachbar for David Wesley, the team’s second all-time leading scorer. Jackson refused to report and was traded three weeks later without ever playing for the Hornets.
This isn’t exactly X-Files stuff for the FBI, but you may want to keep your eyes on some talented players still in the Association who have been chosen fourth in the first round…you never know when it might be their turn to join growing number on this “strange-but-true” Hornets list:
| PLAYER | YEAR | CURRENT TEAM |
| TYRUS THOMAS | 2006 | CHICAGO BULLS |
| CHRIS BOSH | 2003 | TORONTO RAPTORS |
| LAMAR ODOM | 1999 | LA LAKERS |
| ANTAWN JAMISON | 1998 | WASHINGTON WIZARDS |
| RASHEED WALLACE | 1995 | DETROIT PISTONS |
I’m still not sure what all of this means. Perhaps a statistics professor reading this can dig deeper into the numbers (30 teams, maximum 15 players per team, 21 seasons) and formulate a probability table that shows just how rare this occurrence really is.
Or maybe the Hornets can just put Mulder and Scully on retainer to find out why so many fourth overall NBA picks keep becoming part of franchise history.
No matter what comes of this insignificant if not interesting oddity I know one thing for certain: Jeff Bower and the Hornets never again want to be in a position to DRAFT the fourth overall player due to their record.
