It has been an awful year for the Charlotte Bobcats. Like really awful. Like had the worst record in league history, the most ping pong balls in the Draft Lottery and ended up with the fourth pick.
There is a reason we #PrayForCardboardGerald.
The future for the Bobcats looked extremely bleak after the 7-59 season the team put up last year. Charlotte has hardly remade the roster either this offseason. Corey Maggette is out for Ben Gordon and the team signed Ramon Sessions. In the draft, the Bobcats drafted Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
That should create a starting lineup of Sessions, second-year guard Kemba Walker, Kidd-Gilchrist, veteran forward Tyrus Thomas and shot-blocker Bismack Biyombo. Excuse me if I do not feel confident there will be much of an improvement next year.
The one place Charlotte's player probably need to be is in the gym working with coaches, training staff and each other to the extent that they can. But, of course, the Bobcats cannot even do that right now. And there might be some rushed and cramped quarters at the Time Warner Cable Arena as the season draws near.
The Democratic National Convention is on its way to Charlotte in late August and the party is getting ready to move in to the Bobcats' home stadium. And with the President in town and the wild production that are the major political party conventions, the Bobcats have to move out.
That is right, the Bobcats have to give up their own arena for the President and they will not be allowed back in until the convention is over, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer writes.
Five 18-wheel moving vans drove off from Time Warner Cable Arena last week, hauling most everything a fan would associate with the Charlotte Bobcats:
Basket supports…shot clocks…uniforms and practice gear…The costumes and props for team mascot Rufus.
All of it – more than 72 tons, filling 20,000 cubic feet – was placed in storage to make way for the Democratic National Convention. It won’t be back until late September, 11 days before the Bobcats play their first home preseason game.
Until September 26, the Bobcats have to stay away from their downtown arena and the practice facility inside of it. That means no pick-up games there or any type of games or working out under the watchful eyes of the Bobcats' training staff. Heck, the coaches cannot even use their offices for scouting or anything like that.
Charlotte for the next few weeks is homeless.
They will find new places to play and workout, but the comforts of the home arena will not be there. And by the time they move back into the Time Warner Cable Arena, training camp will be set to start and the preseason will be two weeks away. That is not a lot of time to both move back in and get to work.
Not that anyone is expecting the Bobcats to be any good. But the last thing they need is a distraction or hurdle like this.
But the Democrats have to have their party, and they booked the arena.
#PrayForCardboardGerald.
