CHARLOTTE, N.C. — George Shinn, who conceived the Charlotte Hornets and brought the NBA to Charlotte, remains a busy man at age 81. He has married for the third time, become an avid cyclist and set a goal of living to 100.
“If I get close, I’ll be tickled,” Shinn said.
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 has now retired and is out of the sports 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 South Carolina 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.” A fuller version of this interview is also available as a free podcast by searching “Sports Legends” wherever you get your podcasts. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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— Scott Fowler: What was life like for you, growing up in Kannapolis?
— George Shinn: I grew up in a mill town. My daddy had been married. His wife died when she was 28 years old, of cancer. They had three children. My mom had one child from a previous marriage, and she was divorced. They got married and had little George — I’m George Shinn Jr.
My dad died of a stroke when he was 50 years old. And he had a lot of bills that had to be paid. He was a businessman. And with him gone, they had to sell our property, our home, to pay off his debts.
And it was quite a struggle for my mom. It was just me and my Mom. And my dad owned a Gulf service station. Mom kept it working. After he died, she continued to keep it going. She would actually pump gas.
We survived because of welfare. The state sent us a monthly check to get by. I had hand-me-down clothes, and I got kidded about it a lot when I was in school with clothes too big. And I got free lunches when I was in school too. We struggled. My mom was a person of faith. And she kept encouraging me: ‘Don’t let other people pull you down with your words. ... You can do anything on this planet if you put God first and work your butt off.’
— SF: What was your interest in sports back then?
— GS: I loved sports. I was a baseball nut and got hooked on that early. Obviously you can look at me and tell I wasn’t a basketball player.
— SF: How tall are you?
— GS: I’ve shrunk a little bit, because I’m 81 years old (laughs). I’ve still got the same weight as I did in high school — 145 pounds. I was 5-foot-7 back then. Now I’m 5-6, and have to stretch it to be there.
— SF: Is it apocryphal or is it true that you were dead last in your graduating class at A.L. Brown High in Kannapolis?
— GS: I literally had to take two subjects in summer school to graduate (after his senior year). They would not allow me to walk across the stage. My mom tried to get them to let me carry a fake diploma or give me a fake diploma, and they wouldn’t do it.
So I ended up going to the beach. But my buddy told everybody that I was last, that I was the worst student in our class, and it kind of stuck. Actually, the first graduation I ever attended in my life, I was the speaker.
I do have eight honorary degrees. The most recent one was Lipscomb University (a private Christian college in Nashville). Of course, it cost me (Shinn has made large donations to the college).
— SF: You paid tuition one way or the other?
— GS: I assure you, I did (laughs).
— SF: Where do you live now?
— GS: I have three homes. My primary home is in Franklin, Tennessee, where we do a lot of fundraising (for charity). I have a little over 50 acres. I have a beautiful car barn and it’s got horsepower in it, not horses. I use it to raise money for charity (by donating rare vintage cars), and we’ve raised literally millions of dollars. So I spend the majority of my time there. We also have a home in Stuart, Florida, and I also have a place in the North Carolina mountains.
— SF: Tell me about your third wife, Megan. You two were married in 2020.
— GS: Megan came into my life through a friend that (introduced the pair). She had been married twice before. And her primary goal was she wanted to find a partner but she wanted that partner to be a Christian. ... When my friend sent me pictures and said she’s beautiful, I said: ‘I can see that. ...But my last wife was not as young as this girl, and she was too young (Megan Shinn is 30 years younger than George).”
Megan asked my friend, “How old is he?”
And fortunately for me, my friend lied (laughs). She said, “I really don’t know. I think he’s about 60. But he looks like he’s around 50. And he acts like he’s about 25.” And we just really hit it off so well. We have not been apart since we’ve been together. We ride bikes together. We regularly work out. She takes care of all my doctor’s appointments.
— SF: You want to make it to age 100, right?
— GS: Yes, that’s a goal. If I get close, I’ll be tickled. ... My doctor tells me she’ll guarantee me in the 90s unless a truck hits me. I believe in moving. If you become a couch potato, you’re gonna die pretty soon.
‘What state is Charlotte in?’
— SF: How did you come to have the idea to have an NBA team in Charlotte?
— GS: My original dream was to own a major league baseball team. That was my goal. ... But (then-MLB commissioner Peter) Ueberroth said, ‘George, Charlotte is too small for Major League Baseball.’ He said, ‘They play 162 games a year and you don’t have the population to support that.’ And he said, ‘Why don’t you consider the NBA? You’re in basketball country, and they’re expanding. You ought to go over and talk to David Stern (the NBA commissioner at the time).’
(Note: Shinn was already in New York at the time of this conversation, unsuccessfully lobbying for an MLB team).
Ueberroth told me where the NBA offices were, and so I walked there.
— SF: No appointment?
— GS: No appointment. Nothing. I told the receptionist: ‘Ma’am, I’d like to see David Stern. I don’t have an appointment, but it’s really important. I understand the NBA is expanding and I want to apply for one of those teams.’
… The next thing I knew Russ Granik, who was the deputy commissioner at the time, walked out. And he said, ‘Mr. Shinn, you’re interested in an expansion team in Charlotte?’ And I said, ‘Yes sir, I am.’ And he said, ‘What state is Charlotte in?’
I felt like walking out on him, but I didn’t. ... And they gave me an application. ... And so I believed in it so much, I just kept pursuing it. We had a lot of help from Charlotte’s mayor at the time, Harvey Gantt.
The NBA expansion committee met on April Fool’s Day, in 1987. ... Finally, David called me and said, ‘George, look, today is April Fool’s Day. But what I’m about to tell you is not an April Fool’s joke. I’m calling you first, because you have been selected first.’
I lost it. I just started crying.
What went wrong?
— SF: You had a lot of glory years here, selling out Charlotte Coliseum every game, year after year. It eventually went wrong, though. What do you attribute that to?
— GS: I believe that God puts us through struggles to make us stronger. And it certainly drew me closer to him as a result of some stupid decisions I made. Bad judgment decisions. But I think things happen sometimes for a reason. And when the referendum happened the way it did, I really had no choice (but to move the team). We led the league in attendance for so many years because we had so many seats, but none of the ‘big cash’ seats. No club seating. and I think we had like six suites or something.
— SF: Charlotte voters rejected a referendum to build a new uptown arena in 2001. That arena was eventually built anyway, but not until after you moved the Hornets to New Orleans. Did you lose that referendum partly because people in Charlotte had lost confidence in you after the trial?
— GS: If people didn’t like me anymore — I don’t know. I brought in a partner (Ray Wooldridge) at the time, and that was probably a mistake. There were some other cities that would have been a lot better than New Orleans (to move the Hornets to), but my partner wanted to go to New Orleans. He’d worked out a side deal.
— SF: Why did you disappear publicly at that time? If you had just told the people of Charlotte, ‘I’m so sorry. I messed up,’ I think you may have never had to leave Charlotte.
— GS: I totally agree with you. I was embarrassed. I made a mistake. I was worried about my children. And it ended up my (then) wife filed for divorce. So my life, at that point, was somewhat destroyed. And I was embarrassed. … So we went to New Orleans. And I started doing the same things in New Orleans. I’m talking about the good stuff, right? I didn’t start screwing around, I can assure you of that. They embraced me and we were really making it work until (Hurricane Katrina) hit. That was devastating.
‘The good outweighs the bad’
— SF: You continue to visit Charlotte regularly. Your son Chris, a successful musician, lives here, and you gave a $7.5 million donation to a stroke center in 2020 (Atrium Health would name its stroke center in honor of Shinn) — one that you had a very personal experience with.
— GS: Yes. What happened is Felix Sabates was on the board at the hospital, and he called me and said, ‘Will you do $10 million for this stroke center?’ I said, ‘I’ll give you $5 million.’ He said, ‘George, this stroke center saved your life (Shinn had a stroke in the Hornets’ first season, at age 47 in 1988, but recovered after being treated at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center.) I said, ‘Felix, you’re playing a hard game there.’ And we split the difference, to $7.5 million.
— SF: What do you want to do with however many years you have left?
— GS: I still enjoy going to speak because I like to motivate and lift people up. Who hasn’t been through troubles and problems? I try to encourage people, ‘Don’t give up. Just keep moving forward.’
I have been blessed by Charlotte and its people, and I think I owe them something. I’m going to do all I can to help out. There will be other things I’m going to reach out to do.
I still love Charlotte, and I love its people. ... I’ve made some mistakes that I’m not proud of. I’ve done a lot of good things that I’m very, very proud of. And the good outweighs the bad. I promise you that.
