Charlotte's Web

The Charlotte Bobcats are once again the worst team in the NBA after a hot start

By Kyle Basedow

In the book “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B White, the loveable main character is a pig named Wilbur that lives on a farm with his friend Charlotte, a spider with an uncanny ability to spell words in her web. As the story progresses, Wilbur’s life becomes threatened so in order to save him, Charlotte spell’s out words in her web above Wilbur’s pen saying “Terrific” and “Radiant”.

Unfortunately, unlike the Charlotte in the book, “Terrific” and “Radiant” are two words that cannot be attributed to the Charlotte Bobcats.

Since their 7-5 start, the Bobcats have gone on to lose 28 of their next 32 games including an 18-game losing streak as well as a 16-game home losing streak that fell two short of the NBA record.

AP Photo/ Eric Gay

The Bobcats have been unable to slow the fall of their season, even allowing the lowly Wizards to pass them for fourth place in the Southeast Conference.

It’s hard to imagine a spider swooping in and saving the Bobcats bacon if the only words that can be attributed to them are “Underperforming” and “God-awful”.

The one thing that the Charlotte Bobcats have in common with Charlotte from the book is that they both can spin extremely complex webs.

For the Bobcats, it looks like the webs that they spin are too advanced even for themselves as they look like a team lost in its own mind.

The only thing that has saved them from utter humiliation so far is the continuingly improving play of Kemba Walker, who is averaging career bests across the board. When one player leads you in three out ofch the five major stat categories, your team might have a problem.

One stat that’s indicative of where they are right now in the season is the fact that most players can’t seem to find their own teammates, culminating in a league-worst of 18.9 assists per game.

Worse still maybe is that they rank 20^th in the league in causing turnovers, which in turn leads them to surrender 102.9 points per game on defense, bad enough for 28^th in the league.

Charlotte’s grip on reality is slipping, as they see another future high first round lottery pick coming at the end of the season and Michael Jordan is running away with his tail between his legs as another disappointing season arrives at the half-way point.

Since officially joining the league as an expansion team in 2004, the Bobcats have had only one winning season, which was also the franchise’s only playoff appearance.

In E.B White’s book, the character of Charlotte eventually dies, leaving Wilbur alone. The question is now, given Charlotte’s performance over the last nine years, will the

Charlotte Bobcats have one more thing in common with the spider in the book? Will they too die out, this time leaving a city alone?