Sports Legends of the Carolinas

George Shinn, who conceived the Charlotte Hornets and brought the NBA to Charlotte, remains a busy man at age 81. Shinn was the Hornets’ original owner and — because of Charlotte’s great attendance and merchandising success, also indirectly had a hand in the NFL deciding the Queen City was worthy of a pro football franchise. The young boy from Kannapolis who finished dead last in his high school graduating class found his pro sports opportunity in the late 1980s and capitalized on it, although he now is out of the ownership business.

In Charlotte, Shinn was complicated. Controversial. Charismatic. While the Hornets are here largely because of him, they also left the city for a time, largely because people lost confidence in him. That happened when Shinn was sued for sexual assault. His trial was nationally televised in 1999. A jury acquitted Shinn, but on the witness stand the devout Christian had to admit to questionable behavior — including two sexual relationships with women other than his then-wife. 

The trial was part of the reason Shinn’s relationship with the city and Hornets fans soured. In 2001, voters in Charlotte rejected a referendum that would have built the Hornets a new arena. Soon thereafter, Shinn moved the original Hornets franchise to New Orleans. 

But the NBA was enamored with the Charlotte market by then and put a new team in Charlotte in 2004, which was first called the Bobcats but later re-adopted the “Hornets” nickname. 

None of that would have happened without Shinn’s original dream, which is why he’s our latest guest on “Sports Legends of the Carolinas.”

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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Tyler Hansbrough needs no introduction to UNC fans. Hansbrough finished his UNC basketball career in 2009 with a national championship and as both the Tar Heels' and the ACC's all-time leading scorer, with 2872 points. Hansbrough then played seven years in the NBA and for three years after that in China.

Now, at age 37, Hansbrough is figuring out what comes next in a life that was so devoted to basketball for so long. Renowned for his relentless determination as a player, Hansbrough is also famous among UNC fans for going 4-0 as a player at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. His No.50 jersey hangs in the rafters at the Smith Center.

In our "Sports Legends" interview, talks about his favorite win at UNC (which wasn't the national title game) and his new sports passion, which gets him more nervous than basketball ever did. He also discusses the "cheap shot" Gerald Henderson directed at him in an unforgettable UNC-Duke game, being in China when the COVID pandemic began, why his NBA career didn’t go as well as he had hoped and whether this past season’s Tar Heels should have taken that NIT bid after being excluded from the NCAA Tournament field.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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Cedric Maxwell, the second interview subject for the 2023 season of “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” was an All-American big man who led the 49ers to the 1977 Final Four. That remains the school’s only Final Four appearance, and Charlotte might have won it all that year but for a controversial non-call at the buzzer against Marquette. In Maxwell’s four years at Charlotte, the 49ers had a remarkable 58-0 home record.

After his star turn in March Madness, Maxwell became a first-round NBA draft pick with the Boston Celtics. Teaming with players like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, Maxwell was an essential player on Boston teams that won NBA championships in both 1981 and 1984. He was the NBA Finals MVP in 1981, and the Celtics retired his jersey number in 2003. 

Now 67, Maxwell serves as the radio analyst for the Celtics, but maintains deep ties to the Charlotte area and lives in the Queen City during the summer.

In our “Sports Legends” interview, Maxwell discusses how he got the nickname “Cornbread,” the 49ers’ run to the Final Four, playing with Bird, the fight he got into with Charles Barkley and how he found out who his biological father was only a few years ago.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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Kicking off Season 2 of Sports Legends of the Carolinas, this week's guest is Greg Olsen, who lit up opposing defenses for nine years as a Pro Bowl tight end for the Carolina Panthers, and has had an extraordinary start to his second career: calling color for the NFL on FOX.

Olsen lives in Charlotte with his wife Kara and their three children — Tate, Talbot and T.J. He is almost as well known in the Queen City for his charity work as he is for his football and broadcasting prowess. We did this interview at a Charlotte steakhouse called “Steak 48,” which on Feb. 27 will host an Olsen charity event to benefit his “The HEARTest Yard” initiative.

In this conversation, Olsen discussed Tom Brady (before Brady retired from the NFL on February 2); the upcoming Super Bowl; T.J.'s continued improvement after his heart transplant in 2021; and why Carolina’s loss to Denver in Super Bowl 50 still gnaws at Olsen.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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To tie a bow on the first season of Sports Legends of the Carolinas, Scott Fowler sits down with visual journalist Jeff Siner, Charlotte Observer executive editor Rana Cash, and lead podcast producer Kata Stevens to revisit their favorite moments from this season of legends.

This special bonus episode of Sports Legends of the Carolinas is free for all listeners in its entirety.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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Steph Curry, the all-everything point guard for the Golden State Warriors, is still in the prime of his career and already a “Sports Legend of the Carolinas.” In this deeply personal retrospective, the eight-time All-Star, four-time NBA champ and two-time league MVP offers Scott Fowler never-before-heard details about Curry's high school career for the Charlotte Christian Knights; leading Davidson College to the Elite Eight in 2008 — and in the process, giving Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski a glimpse of the talent UNC and Duke never bothered to recruit; the challenges for Curry of following in the NBA footsteps of his famous father, Dell; the biggest wins of his own sterling career; and the one thing that could get Curry to leave Golden State.

This special bonus episode of Sports Legends of the Carolinas is free for all listeners in its entirety. The episode is sponsored by Parker Poe, a law firm representing many of the Southeast’s largest companies and local governments in business and real estate transactions, regulatory issues, and complex litigation.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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This week on “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” we welcome legendary former University of North Carolina men’s head basketball coach Roy Williams. Over nearly 50 years of coaching at various levels, Williams won three national titles; then retired in 2021 as the only head coach in college basketball history to win more than 400 games at two different schools. On Part 2 of our conversation, Williams talks about the fellow Tar Heel namesake for his son, Scott; his current role as a doting grandfather; and why it seemed like he never used those dadgum time outs. 

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends .

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This week on “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” a guest who earned that descriptor throughout a basketball coaching career that spanned half a century at various levels of the game: former University of North Carolina men’s head coach Roy Williams.

Williams won three national titles as the head coach of the Tar Heels, and retired in 2021 as the only head coach in college basketball history to win more than 400 games at two different schools — 418 at Kansas, and 485 at North Carolina, his alma mater. Williams was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame back in 2007 — before two of his three championships — and the court at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill is named for him. On Part 1 of this wide-ranging interview, Williams reflects on his sudden retirement, his rivalry with former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, and consoling Marcus Paige after the heartbreaking 2016 title game loss to Villanova.

On Part 2 of our conversation, Williams talks about the fellow Tar Heel namesake for his son, Scott; his current role as a doting grandfather; and why it seemed like he never used those dadgum time outs. For that, subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends .

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Charlotte Smith, this week’s guest on “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” is about to enter her 12th year as Elon’s women’s basketball coach. On Part 2 of our conversation, the all-time winningest coach at the school looks back at the road to her “blessed place,” Elon; getting posterized in the movie Juwanna Mann; and the immense strength she has found in asking for help. 

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends .

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Charlotte Smith, this week’s guest on “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” is about to enter her 12th year as Elon University’s women’s basketball coach. But the all-time winningest coach at the school is arguably better known for her own college playing career, thanks to making one of the most remarkable shots in NCAA tournament basketball history — a buzzer-beating three-pointer that won the 1994 NCAA title for the University of North Carolina.

After college, the Shelby, N.C., native's pro career led her to Italy, where Smith was MVP of the Italian All-Star Game in the 1995-96 season, and then to the WNBA's Charlotte Sting in 1999. In Part 1 of our conversation, I talked to Smith about overcoming fear to meet the moment on the court; the life-changing role of coaches off the court; and her being a pioneering slam dunker in the women's game.

On Part 2 of our conversation, Smith looks back at the road to her “blessed place,” Elon; getting posterized in the movie Juwanna Mann; and the immense strength she has found in asking for help. For that, subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends .

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