The Knicks (yes, the Knicks) helped make the Charlotte Hornets successful | Opinion
I am one of the many former New York Knicks’ fans who became Hornets’ fans after moving here from NYC. I was surprised that when the Knicks won their first NBA championship in 53 years I realized that I was still a Knicks’ fan too. We should remember the important role the Knicks’ fans had in making the Hornets a successful franchise.
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In 1988 when the Hornets played their first game in the beautiful Charlotte Coliseum and for almost the next decade, every game was sold out. Many fans wore their favorite team’s apparel. What you saw was orange and blue. There were a few fans wearing Celtics and Lakers colors but the Knicks’ fans far outnumbered any other. We are looking forward to rooting for our young, exciting Hornets in the playoffs in the coming season.
David A. Nachamie, Lincolnton
As a member of the Charlotte community, I am concerned about the sale of the Morrison Family YMCA to Moments of Hope Church. The broader civic impact of this decision deserves public reflection.
This is more than a simple real estate transaction. The Morrison YMCA has long served as a shared community space for families across Ballantyne. YMCAs function as civic infrastructure, providing youth programs, childcare, fitness access, and gathering spaces intentionally open to the broader public.
The loss of such a facility raises questions about how we define the common good when well-funded private organizations acquire spaces that function as public commons.
The community deserves transparency and a broader conversation about decisions like this.
Brian Carreira, Pineville
The author is Senior Vice President of Community Health and Well-Being at Alliance Health:
Across North Carolina, more than one-third of high school students report feeling persistently sad or hopeless. At the same time, 94 of the state’s 100 counties face shortages of mental health professionals, and 43 counties have no child psychiatrist at all. The need is clear. The question is how we respond.
For years, much of the public conversation around youth mental health has focused on access to treatment. Treatment is critically important, but experience has taught us that another challenge often comes first: ensuring young people are identified, supported and connected to care before a situation becomes a crisis.
Across North Carolina, communities are pursuing that goal in different ways, but the strongest efforts share a common characteristic: they create clearer pathways between schools, families and behavioral health providers.
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In Wake County, Alliance Health’s innovative school-based partnership model served more than 600 students in a single school year. Among students experiencing a behavioral health crisis, 93% were successfully connected to needed treatment.
The lesson is not that one program can solve every challenge facing young people. It is that better outcomes occur when the right partners are aligned around a student’s needs and support is available before a crisis deepens.
Ann Oshel, Charlotte
The recent I-77 controversy revealed a startling new fact: NCDOT actually governs Mecklenburg County. In view of this fact, the governor should move out of the governor’s mansion and let the head of NCDOT move in. That way the citizens of North Carolina will finally know who really governs this state.
Chuck Newton, Charlotte
When are President Trump’s supporters going to wake up and see that he could care less about the citizens of this country? There was a time that I can admit a lot of my complaints about Trump were purely political, but no more. The man cannot answer one question pertaining to the American people without quickly changing the subject to one of his vanity projects. The reflecting pool, the ballroom, UFC fights on the lawn, and the Arch have nothing to do with the betterment of American lives.
In fact, all these projects do for us is add to our deficit. His ego is so enormous that he will not even uncover that his name was taken off the Kennedy center. It is time for all citizens to wake up and demand an end to this supreme ego trip.
Benjamin J. Harris, Charlotte
It’s not officially summer yet, but we are already experiencing near record high temperatures coupled with extreme drought.
It seems fruitless to think that we can affect any of the repercussions of climate change individually. We must elect representatives that believe the science that is warning us about the dire consequences of unchecked climate change.
Anyone who travels to Europe can see how the EU is leading the way towards minimizing personal consumptive behavior. They drive tiny cars, they make an effort to recycle as much as possible, and train travel is the most common form of transportation. We need to legislate initiatives that invest in mass transit, alternative energy and education, so that we can reclaim our place as leading the free world with innovation and science.
Tommy George, Charlotte
This community needs a mayor like former NYC Mayor Ed Koch. We need a guy that is going to get out of his desk chair at least once a week and walk the streets on all corners of the city that put him in office. We need a guy that is going to respond to all the trash in the streets and all the obvious problems that are currently getting ignored. We need a guy that is going to get involved in making the city clean and safe!
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C Ryder, Charlotte
This story was originally published June 28, 2026 at 5:04 AM.
