Hang on, Charlotte sports fans: 2022 was awful, but 2023 will be the “Year of the W”
The year 2022 is finally behind us now, and I think we can all agree that from a Charlotte sports fan’s perspective it’s time to say goodbye and good riddance.
But get ready, my friends:
2023 is coming, and it’s about to get a lot better.
That won’t be difficult, of course. From a Charlotte pro team sports viewpoint, 2022 was mostly awful and one of the worst years in Charlotte sports history (although not the worst).
In a six-month period between April and October, all three of Charlotte’s major professional sports teams (the Panthers, Hornets and Charlotte FC) fired their head coaches.
The Hornets also lost their leading scorer in Miles Bridges due to a domestic violence charge. The Panthers traded away their best player in Christian McCaffrey. Billionaire David Tepper, who owns both the Panthers and Charlotte FC, made a lot of people mad in various cities for various reasons. And although Charlotte FC also made lots of positive news in its inaugural season and drew some record crowds, it didn’t reach its well-publicized goal of making the Major League Soccer playoffs.
But I believe 2023 will be the “Year of the W” in Charlotte:
Wins.
Wilks.
And, most spectacularly of all, Wembanyama.
Wembanyama and the draft lottery
Let’s start with the last “W” I mentioned first, because what a story this would be.
Victor Wembanyama, a 7-foot-3 French power forward, is the consensus No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA draft. All it takes is about 30 seconds of YouTube highlights to understand why Wembanyama — who turns 19 on Jan. 4 — is an “alien,” to use LeBron James’ word. He has an 8-foot wingspan. He can shoot threes, block shots and score inside. He will solve about four problems at once for any NBA team that gets him.
The Charlotte Hornets, meanwhile, are terrible. As of this writing, they are 10-26 and in a battle with Detroit and Houston for the dubious title of “Worst Record in the NBA.” They haven’t made the playoffs since 2016. For much of owner Michael Jordan’s reign, they have been pathetic.
As long as the Hornets finish in the bottom three, though, they will be one of the three teams with the best lottery odds. By NBA rule, the three bottom teams all have a 14% chance of getting the No. 1 pick, which is far different from the pre-2019 structure in which the top seed had a 25% chance of winning the lottery.
As longtime Hornets fans know, the 7-59 Charlotte team of 2011-12 was extraordinary in its ineptness but still lost the draft lottery. With a 25% chance to get Anthony Davis at No. 1, the Hornets instead ended up No. 2 and got Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (passing up Bradley Beal and Damian Lillard to choose MKG, so it’s not like missing out on Davis was the only mistake in that draft).
This time, though, I think the 14% chance comes through. This time, the Hornets get Wembanyama and will be able to pair him with LaMelo Ball.
It’s time for some good luck for the Hornets.
Mark your calendars: The NBA draft lottery is May 16.
Wilks and the job he should get
My second “W” stands for Steve Wilks. I won’t go into this in great depth because I wrote an entire column about the same subject not long ago. But Wilks, now the Panthers’ interim head coach, should end up becoming Carolina’s next head coach.
Wilks took over a Carolina team that was 1-4 and reeling after Matt Rhule was fired suddenly on Oct. 10.
Since then, the Panthers have righted themselves, going 5-5. They have a realistic shot at winning the NFC South — they must beat Tampa Bay Sunday and then New Orleans Jan. 8 to do so. But just the fact that they are playing meaningful NFL games in January is some serious progress.
Wilks survived the McCaffrey trade — even though no coach trying to win a permanent job would really want their best player to get shipped out for a bunch of future draft picks — and has made the Panthers tougher and smarter over the past three months. He ordered Robbie Anderson to the locker room one Sunday after Anderson threw a petulant sideline fit. By Monday, Anderson had been traded.
You better believe that sent a message in the locker room. Rhule had put up with Anderson’s questionable behavior for years; Wilks wasn’t going to stomach it.
Wilks has done it as if he’s been humming Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” all along, firing several assistants and parting ways with Rhule’s chosen quarterback Baker Mayfield, who showed up in July and was gone by December. And it’s all worked out decently well.
Even if the Panthers don’t make the playoffs, Wilks has established a run-first, it-all-starts-upfront identity for Carolina.
Carolina still will and should interview multiple candidates before this all goes down. The team literally couldn’t remove Wilks’ interim tag right now due to the Rooney Rule. But I believe Wilks should get the job whether the team wins the NFC South or not.
Some more W’s
There will be some more wins for Charlotte-area sports in 2023 — partly because there could hardly be fewer, but partly because some innovation is headed our way. I’m not talking only about wins on a playing field.
For instance, I can’t wait for NASCAR to hold its all-star race at the suddenly revived North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 21. That’s a brilliant move.
As for the Panthers, if they keep Wilks, I think they will have a winning record in 2023 for the first time since the 2017 season. They’ll need to figure out the quarterback position, and the way to do that will be to shoot as many arrows as they can.
Sam Darnold may well have shown enough late this season to be a bridge starter for 2023, and if not him then the Panthers will have to sign another veteran-backup type. Matt Corral could emerge. The QB whom the Panthers will inevitably draft in late April could win the job outright. That will be their biggest offseason question, but in the meantime they have built fairly strong offensive and defensive lines that will keep them in most games.
As for the Hornets, they haven’t made the playoffs since 2016 and won’t in 2022-23, either. But 2023-24 should be a possibility — and a probability if they get Wembanyama. And Charlotte FC, in Year Two in 2023, has already established a significant home-pitch advantage in Bank of America Stadium and will have a realistic playoff shot.
So hang on, Charlotte fans.
You’ve just survived one of the worst sports years in the city’s history. But 2023 is going to be a lot more fun.
This story was originally published December 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
