For once, the basketball world was actually focused on the events happening in uptown Charlotte and yet in typical Hornets fashion, it didn’t involve them at all.
With LaMelo Ball out for the season after undergoing successful surgery to repair a fracture in his right ankle earlier in the day, the eyeballs affixed to the action centered on the new version of the Phoenix Suns and their prized trade deadline pickup — Kevin Durant — making his debut. This is the new reality for the Hornets over the season’s final six weeks, a situation that leaves them fighting for any sort of relevancy.