Kemba Walker has retired. The Charlotte Hornets should retire his jersey — and 2 others

Kemba Walker retired from basketball Tuesday.

Now it’s time for the Charlotte Hornets to retire his jersey.

Walker, 34, is the Hornets’ all-time leading scorer. Over eight seasons playing for Charlotte’s franchise — first the Bobcats, then the Hornets — Walker made three NBA all-star teams and scored 12,009 points. Generously listed at six feet tall — maybe he could reach that on his tiptoes — Walker had an amazing handle. It allowed him to launch a dazzling stepback jumper over players a foot taller than he was or else slither by them for an acrobatic layup.

But he’s not the only former Hornet who should have his jersey retired. While the team is at it, they should also schedule jersey retirement ceremonies for Dell Curry and Muggsy Bogues — two all-time greats whose contributions to the franchise have been immense.

If you’ve ever been to the Spectrum Center and looked up, you might have noticed there is only one lonely jersey hanging in the rafters. It honors Bobby Phills.

And while a lot of people loved Phills, including me, that jersey is there primarily because Phills wrecked his Porsche and died in a car crash in Charlotte in 2000 that devastated the Hornets and their fans. Phills only played three NBA seasons in Charlotte and statistically, he’s a non-factor on most of the Hornets’ all-time lists.

Should Phills have his No. 13 jersey in the rafters? Sure.

But why does Phills have the lone number up there? Walker’s No. 15, Bogues’ No. 1 and Curry’s No. 30 should all join it.

Curry and Bogues are Charlotte legends who helped begin the Hornets’ teal-tinged mania with the very first Charlotte teams. Curry ranks No. 2 all-time in Hornets scoring, behind only Walker. All these years later, Bogues remains Charlotte’s all-time leader in assists and steals (and also, somehow, blocked 39 shots in the NBA despite being 5-foot-3).

I mentioned that Walker should have his jersey retired Tuesday on social media. While some fans agreed, others did not.

The counter-argument went mostly like this: The always-mediocre Hornets don’t deserve to have any numbers retired. In 34 NBA seasons, the Charlotte NBA franchise not only has never made it to the NBA Finals, they’ve never even made it to the Eastern Conference finals. Why reward the best players on mediocre teams?

Walker, for instance, only made it to the playoffs twice in Charlotte, and both times the team made its traditional first-round exit. Since Kemba left in 2019 — and to be fair, he had a lot of miles on his body by then and the Hornets did get Terry Rozier in return — Charlotte has been even worse.

Let’s remember, though, that NBA players don’t get to choose the other players on the court around them (unless you’re LeBron).

Curry and Bogues both badly wanted Alonzo Mourning not to be traded in 1995. Yet Zo was. If Zo had stayed — he told me recently he wanted to stay and would have taken “a lot less money” than Miami gave him to do so — Charlotte had kept its mid-1990s nucleus together, that team may well have made the NBA Finals. Maybe even won one.

And Walker?

He was the best player for the Hornets for years, usually with 1-2 decent teammates on the floor with him and a host of forgettable ones. He had a tremendous heart. And his durability? Oh, man. In those eight seasons in Charlotte, Walker missed a total of 35 games. Think how ridiculously good that is — 35 total games, which is about 4.4 games a year. (LaMelo Ball missed 60 games last season alone due to injury and 46 games the year before that).

I don’t blame those three for not winning more. I blame the people putting together those teams for not surrounding them with better teammates.

Walker, Bogues and Curry also have long been terrific representatives of the Hornets and the greater Charlotte community.

Certainly, the Hornets have employed a few players as or more talented than all of them. Mourning ended up having a hall of fame career (most of it in Miami). Larry Johnson was otherworldly until he got hurt. Gerald Wallace, also known as “Crash,” soared through the air in his prime like Michael Jordan. Glen Rice had one of the sweetest jump shots the NBA has ever seen. Baron Davis was great for a while. And all of them could be considered for jersey retirement down the line.

But to me, Walker, Bogues and Curry stand on a different tier.

They were all here for at least eight seasons, so their roots are deeply embedded. On the Hornets’ all-time statistical list, they are 1-2-3 in total games played for Charlotte (Curry, Bogues, Walker); 1-2-3 in minutes played (Walker, Bogues, Curry); 1-2-9 in assists (Bogues, Walker, Curry); 1-2-4 in steals (Bogues, Walker, Curry) and 1-2-7 in scoring (Walker, Curry, Bogues).

Bobby Phills’ jersey has been lonely up there in the rafters for too long.

It needs company.

Kemba, Muggsy and Dell should provide it.