1. The striped grandpa jacket
This is the kind of jacket your grandpa always wore, but his was probably tan. It had elastic around the bottom, a traditional collar, and is stopped right about the belt line (often rising above the belt on account of the elastic). The difference in the Hornets version was that instead of a nice khaki or baby blue, this one was striped with the classic Hornets teal and purple. Had I walked onto the set of any 90s Batman movie or Bel Biv DeVoe video wearing this jacket, no one would ever have questioned me.
2. Converse Grandmama Shoes (Version 2)
Larry Johnson was my favorite Hornet. For two seasons, he was the man. Then he got injured. But those two seasons were enough for me covet a pair of LJ's signature Converse shoes. I believe they made only two editions, and I had both. The best version, however, was clearly the one pictured below. It featured classic 90s contemporary styling, Hornets teal, and that thing your strapped over the top to.... well I guess to keep your shoes tied? I have no idea. But they were awesome. Until they broke. And what did I do when faced with a pair of shoes that broke after a month? I took them back to B&B Athletics, and returned them for a brand new pair of the exact same shoes. Because if they weren't LJ, they weren't Grandmama.
It was LJ due to reasons described previously. It was extra-large because I obviously needed room to operate. My power game at the age of 14 simply couldn't be contained by the medium I actually needed. My favorite part of the LJ jersey buy, however, was that my two best buddies bought Magic Johnson and Larry Bird jerseys respectively, and I earnestly believed my jersey would be the one that we would all look back and determine was the most worth saving. In related news, adolescents don't have a lot of perspective.
4. Purple and Teal Hornets Hat
Hats were very popular with young teen boys in the 90s (maybe they still are). Little did we know that we were burying our hair for a large percentage of the only time in our life when we would have much. Hats were critical for two reasons. One, if you didn't have a hat to go with your jacket, shorts, and shoes, you didn't have an outfit. Two, 14-year-olds are short (unless they play on AAU teams). A purple and teal hat is pretty easy to spot in a crowd. A final note: any hat of the sort should have been worn as demonstrated in the following photo.
5. Charlotte Hornets Looney Tunes T-Shirt
I believe it was the summer between my freshman and sophomore year when I told my parents I wanted more Charlotte Hornets gear for my birthday. My dad told my mom not to worry about it, he knew just what to get me. As you can see from the previous four items on this list, my sense of fashion was not particularly enlightened. But even someone willing to dress up in all the aforementioned nonsense knew immediately upon opening that birthday present, "I will never wear this." That wasn't true, I did wear it. I knew how proud my dad was of figuring out what to get me, so I couldn't tell him to take it back. So I wore it from time to time making precise calculations on the number of strangers or girls I might encounter on a given day.
After an acceptable period of time, Bugs and company went into the box with my Rickey Henderson cartoon shirt, my Winston Garland practice jersey, and the pair of shorts that had Patrick Ewing's face screen printed on them (no kidding). Unfortunately, I found some of those items recently and the Looney Tunes tee was nowhere to be found. I can only assume it is in some other undiscovered box with several other pieces of Hornets gear, and an LJ jersey that still wouldn't fit me.
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