Charlotte deserves shot at the NBA playoff spotlight. It’s time the Hornets deliver

This is when it stings a little more, like when someone pours peroxide on a basketball-sized wound that hasn’t healed.

Buzzer beaters. Drama. Fake fisticuffs. Incredible individual performances.

During the last week, all of these things and then some have gripped more than a few onlookers watching from their couch, local watering hole or better yet in the actual venue where it’s unfolding.

And it’s because months of games that can fail to keep one’s attention have finally given way to sport’s main event.

The NBA playoffs.

But while 16 cities bask in the postseason glow and have even the slimmest glimmer of hope to be standing alongside commissioner Adam Silver on a podium in June as champions, Charlotte and the Spectrum Center are devoid of the postseason fun. None of the 15 dates left open on the arena’s schedule from April 14-30 were filled, a byproduct of the NBA’s longest postseason drought.

Save for two shows — monster trucks anyone! — there hasn’t been a reason for patrons to flood uptown since April 9 when Dallas and Luka Dončić pounded the Hornets in the regular-season home finale.

It’s a shame and beyond time for the Hornets to put an end to this malaise that’s reached eight years and counting. The fans have endured more than their share of losses, disappointment and frequent injuries to star players like LaMelo Ball. Charlotte deserves playoff basketball and its crack at the postseason spotlight again.

Scores of avid followers of the franchise weren’t around during the heydays of the 1990s and early 2000s when Charlotte Coliseum was rocking. That atmosphere truly oozed through the standard definition television screens back then, making you wish you were actually there.

The last time the NBA postseason was a thing in Charlotte is probably still etched in the minds of thousands, even if it happened so long ago that anyone born on that particular day zoomed past the teething stage and is now in the second grade. Who can forget the nightmare on Trade Street, after which many blamed “Purple Shirt Guy” for riling up Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade?

A certain author was there that night to witness it, and it led to an anticipation of how high the decibel levels would be in the conference semifinals. We all know what happened two days later in Game 7 in Miami.

The Hornets have barely sniffed the playoffs in the eight years since.

That’s way too long and frankly unacceptable. Only six other teams in the four major American professional sports leagues have lengthier droughts, led by the 13 of the NFL’s New York Jets.

To put in perspective: we’ve had three different presidents in office, went through a global pandemic and also experienced another solar eclipse — the preceding one was on March 9, 2016 — since the Hornets played in the postseason.

They’ve got to end this barren stretch and assemble a consistent product that’s going to be worthy of the skyrocketing ticket prices that have turned some fans off and has several season package holders unwilling to renew due to the combination of the product and price.

Turning it around starts with better health. The Hornets had the second-most amount of missed games due to injury over the last two seasons and that has to be corrected immediately.

Players, doctors, trainers, executives, coaches all need to be on the same parallel because, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation, that hasn’t been the case for the Hornets. Especially this past season. So, they have to determine what the issue is and fix it for the betterment of everyone involved.

The Hornets also must spend their money more wisely and utilize every dollar below the salary cap with the utmost efficiency, which wasn’t what happened with Gordon Hayward’s four-year, $120 million contract. Although it was viewed as a win by the Hornets’ front office when they signed him, others around the league questioned the move, knowing Hayward’s injury history.

Going out and offering cap-choking deals to free agents, particularly those on the downside of their careers, isn’t the formula for success for this franchise. At least not until there’s some sustainable winning going on anyway.

But more than anything, the Hornets must change the mentality of the organization and reshape it into one that breeds winning. When Terry Rozier, who was one of the grittiest players the team had over the past four seasons, basically blasts the Hornets’ culture compared to Miami and suggests losing gets instilled in players in Charlotte, well that has to be remedied.

The last thing the Hornets want to do is make it easier for a prospective player to have another reason to forgo any opportunity to come here. They have to devise a plan to ensure that doesn’t happen or sullen winters and springs will remain the norm.

In a sense, it feels like the Hornets are Rudolph and the NBA playoffs are reindeer games. The city deserves better and the bubbling crescendo of pent up anger is only going to get louder the longer the postseason absence lasts.