Kemba Walker's Journey in Charlotte is Coming Full Circle

Franchise all-time leading scorer Kemba Walker joining head coach Charles Lee’s staff was an early sign.

A sign that Lee understood from day one what his self-proclaimed “Hornets DNA” was supposed to resemble.

Lee didn’t start by just spouting what he wanted for the Charlotte Hornets. His tenure started with something actionable: honoring and hiring someone who already embodied the struggle this organization had seen before him.

Fast forward to 2025-2026– if there is anyone who deserves to experience this Hornets nine-game win streak Lee has forged at practice and behind the scenes?

It is one Kemba Walker. Lee clearly knew that long before he was announced as the Hornets’ head coach.

For years, Kemba’s legacy in Charlotte was defined by the cruelest kind of respect. The kind you earn while never doing much more than losing.

The nod that you get when you are the face of a franchise that never fully resets but never went all-in on winning, either; yet you kept showing up anyway.

He left each game, win or lose, not just with dignity about himself— Walker left every game with pride in the team that drafted and believed in him, too. Regardless of their never-ending cycle of misfortune.

This is a grown man who never won a playoff series in Charlotte, yet cried on camera with sideline reporter Stephanie Ready after surpassing the Hornets’ all-time scoring mark.

Not a tear shed for his accomplishment alone, but more for the fans and team who gave him the overwhelming support that allowed him to achieve number one on the list, to begin with.

"Congratulations, that's the first message," Former Hornets' Sideline Reporter Ready told Kemba after his all-time achievement. "These fans, your family, your friends, your teammates, your coaches, everyone excited for you... What are you thinking?"

Kemba put his towel over his head after shaking it a few times in disbelief, and paused for a second.

"Man... I'm not supposed to be here," Walker said with a crack in his voice, and a bit of a laugh. "A lot of people where I'm from, they don't make it. Through my Lord and Savior, my family, and a lot of hard work— it's been a long ride. This is a huge accomplishment. I'm excited. I wish it was a better game, I wish I would've played a little better, but great accomplishment."

Walker didn’t just put up numbers in Charlotte. His mentality, strong enough to still criticize his game performance despite his best career achievement in hand, was the mindset that held the Charlotte Hornets together long enough for the post-Michael Jordan era to have something worth standing on.

Now, in his post-playing career, he’s taking the same long-term professional approach to coaching that Dell Curry took to broadcasting. Staying close enough to still care, while gently helping guide what comes next.

The same familiar tracks that led Curry to a jersey retirement on March 19th versus Orlando.

The difference?

Besides the difference between their two professions, Curry was integral to multiple 50-win Hornets teams. Won a famous first-ever playoff series versus Boston, and so much more.

Walker scratched, clawed, and bled for 43-46 wins… sometimes less, while alone more often than not, through the process. He gave the franchise its first true modern identity.

The closest Walker ever came to having a consistent running mate, the way Curry had Muggsy Bogues for so many years?

Cody Zeller and the six years spent together.

With all due respect to Zeller, of course, that sentence alone tells you everything about what Kemba endured.

So seeing Walker on the bench now, celebrating next to LaMelo Ball during this active nine-game streak so emphatically, doesn’t just feel like a fun side story. It feels like a loose end being tied up with a beautiful bow worthy of a Hallmark movie.

Lee is finally giving Walker a front-row seat to building the winning team he never got to experience while wearing the uniform himself. It is poetic, all the more so because of its rarity in sports.

Former stars don’t often get to see their story completed by the same organization that once asked them to carry them and their fanbase for 82 games; most franchises move on too fast.

They thank you with a smirk, sell a few throwback jerseys, and act like the past is a separate universe only worth tapping into for nostalgia's sake.

Charlotte, and more importantly, Lee, didn’t do that with Kemba.

When the breakthrough happens, and the momentum turns into a playoff berth that is real? Walker will be on the short list of people the city of Charlotte embraces the most at that moment.

Not as an assistant coach, but because he’s one of the reasons the city still cared long enough for the winning moment(s) to ever arrive.

It is only fitting that Walker gets to be part of it now. Not as a guest or as a figurehead sitting courtside, but as someone inside the building: contributing, teaching, and helping shape the habits of a team that can turn things around.

Lee has been part of championship organizations in two different cities before Charlotte. He knows what a winning culture looks like when it is for real.

Walker’s hiring was validation from Lee to Hornets fans everywhere of what this city has believed for years, even when the team refused to help him:

No. 15 was the most selfless kind of high-caliber player— capable of helping those around him reach a different level. It just wasn't in the cards for him as a pro.

Now, first-hand and for the first time, Walker gets to be a part of the Charlotte Hornets team, which becomes high-caliber in their own right, too. All thanks to Coach Charles Lee.

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