After many years of despair, Charlotte Hornets fans finally have something to be excited about. Sports media, however, has slept on this team tremendously. Early season projections had the Hornets falling out of the playoffs, but Kemba Walker always laughed it off.
Kemba Walker said Charlotte would continue to exceed expectations, as they did last season. Last season, Walker led the Hornets to 48 wins. In addition, a classic playoff series against the Miami Heat. Before the playoffs started, he said he was tired of not making the playoffs.
A winning pedigree has been instilled in the Hornets behind the coaching of Steve Clifford. Coming into his own, Kemba Walker is performing better than John Wall, Jeff Teague, Isaiah Thomas, and, arguably, Kyrie Irving. While sports media is beginning to acknowledge Kemba Walker, they keep saying Charlotte doesn’t have a superstar player.
Some outlets have gone overboard and compared Kemba to Steph Curry. They need to relax on all of that. This man is Kemba Walker, Cardiac Kemba. At the end of every game, he shows up. He dropped 40 on the Raptors, despite Charlotte losing control of that game in the end.
Currently, one of the leading scorers in the NBA and his team fresh off a win against the Atlanta Hawks, the stigma of Charlotte being unable to beat the top teams is off them. In their losses to Boston, Cleveland, and Toronto, their biggest loss was by seven points. Those are their only losses. Kemba Walker had heroic performances in every one of those games.
So, Kemba Walker probably isn’t Steph Curry, but he’s playing great basketball. The man is playing well enough to finally get the looks he deserves. He was snubbed from an All-Star appearance, last season, but if Charlotte can keep playing well, get 50 wins, and lock in the third seed, Kemba Walker needs to be looked at for season MVP.
By the way, Charlotte beat Atlanta 100 to 96, coming back from 10 down.
