2000–01 Charlotte Hornets season

The 2000–01 NBA season was the 13th season for the Charlotte Hornets in the National Basketball Association. During the off-season, the Hornets acquired Jamal Mashburn, P.J. Brown and Otis Thorpe from the Miami Heat, and re-signed free agent and former Hornets guard Hersey Hawkins, who played for the team from 1993 to 1995.

The team won four of their first five games of the regular season, then lost five straight games, but then went on a six-game winning streak. The team posted two 7-game winning streaks in December, and between February and March, and held a 26–25 record at the All-Star break. The Hornets finished in third place in the Central Division with a 46–36 record, earned the #6 seed in the Eastern Conference, and qualified for their sixth NBA playoff appearance.

Mashburn averaged 20.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, while David Wesley, who moved into the shooting guard position, averaged 17.2 points, 4.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game, and second-year guard Baron Davis showed improvement becoming the team's starting point guard, averaging 13.8 points, 7.3 assists and 2.1 steals per game, and finishing in fifth place in Most Improved Player voting. In addition, Elden Campbell provided the team with 13.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, while Brown provided with 8.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team, and second-year forward Eddie Robinson contributed 7.4 points per game. Derrick Coleman was replaced with Brown as the team's starting power forward, averaging 8.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game off the bench, but only played just 34 games due to an irregular heartbeat and weight problems.

In the 2001 NBA playoffs, the Hornets all wore headbands to show team unity, as they swept the 3rd-seeded Miami Heat in three straight games in the Eastern Conference First Round. In the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, they took a 3–2 series lead over the 2nd-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, but were eliminated in seven games. Following the season, Coleman was traded back to his former team, the Philadelphia 76ers, while Robinson signed as a free agent with the Chicago Bulls, and Hawkins and Thorpe both retired.

In March, the Hornets applied with the NBA to move the team to Memphis, Tennessee for the following season, due to their decline in home-game attendance. However, they withdrew their application due to the rise of their attendance during the NBA playoffs, after sweeping the Heat in the first round, and with a capacity crowd of 22,283 in a 94–79 Game 3 home win over the Heat at the Charlotte Coliseum. The Hornets home-game attendance continued to decrease, as they finished 21st in the NBA with an attendance of 615,424 at the Charlotte Coliseum during the regular season.