Master P steals show at Hornets' scrimmage
The presence of rapper/basketball player Percy "Master P" Miller turned and ordinary intrasquad scrimmage into one of the wildest afternoons in Charlotte Hornets history Saturday.
If you were at the Charlotte Coliseum, you won't soon forget it.
There were 15,371 fans in attendance at the free scrimmage. Some of them showed up at 7 a.m. for the 12:30 p.m. contest.
The Hornets had to open the gates 20 minutes earlier than they planned, at 11:25 a.m., for fear that some of the folks near the front would get crushed.
Most of the fans came to see Master P, a star in the rap world and a bench warmer at best in the NBA.
Master P brought the noise, the funk and a bunch of music industry buddies who went by the names like Fish Daddy and Cat-X. Master P got three times more applause than anyone else when introduced. When the 28-year-old, former Continental Basketball Association guard hit a three-pointer, the sound was so deafening you would have thought he had won the NBA championship.
Important question No. 1: Can Master P play?
Well, not really, not at the NBA level. But on Saturday he didn't embarrass himself.
Miller scored nine points - only two less than Hornets' free agent Derrick Coleman. Master P hit 3-of-6 shots, passed out four assist and made one turnover. He played along with the crowd some, but mainly stuck to basketball, trying to shush the fans if they called his name to loudly.
"Goodbye MJ, Hello Master P," one sign read.
And as ridiculous as that sounds, it's true that Master P certainly reaches out to an audience the Hornets don't normally attract.
About 90 percent of the crowd at a Hornets game is usually white. About 80 percent of the crowd Saturday were black.
"Master P was our ace in the hole," Anthony Mason said. "He showed he can play a little ball, too."
"What a following that guy has," said Coleman, who was captured by TV cameras giving Master P the middle finger, apparently in jest. while on-court. "I've never seen a crowd quite like that at an NBA game. It was great."
Said Master P: "Michael Jordan always had the fans' attention. Why can't Master P get the fans' attention now?"
He sure had it Saturday. A number of the fans at the Coliseum had never seen any type of Hornets' game before in person, including Dianne Thrower, a 20-year-old junior at UNCC.
She has all of his CDs. She brought half of a T-shirt that she had once caught at a Master P concert - the shirt had been flung up in the air, and someone else had torn apart the other half in the struggle.
"Master P is a great role model in my life," Thrower said.
Charlene Phifer, 36, came with her 15-year-old daughter in search of his autograph after the scrimmage was over.
"This is a good PR move for the Hornets," Phifer said. She gestured at the crowd. "Look at this. It doesn't matter how bad they are this season - keep Master P on the team and they'll sell all the games out."
Important question No. 2: Can the Hornets afford to cut Master P now?
No. Not right away.
The Hornets can keep 14 players, rather than the normal 12, through Feb. 19 as part if the post-strike agreement. They need to sell tickets. They open with four straight home games. They'd be smart to keep him at least through Feb. 10, when that home stand ends.
The Hornets certainly got a lesson in understanding the Master P effect Saturday. They had expected a crowd closer to 8,000. The team had to call additional police officers Saturday to make sure the postgame autograph session didn't turn ugly.
Master P began the game on the bench. After three minutes of that, the crowd was already growing restless.
"We Want P! We Want P!" the fans screamed.
Paul Silas, coach of the Teal team, heard the chant.
"I'm thinking that I better get him in there in a hurry," Silas said later. Master P ended up playing about half the game.
At the autograph session, Master P was again the star.
The first 1,200 fans inside the Coliseum eached received a coupon good for one autograph from a Hornet.
But they didn't know until they reached the front of the line which player they would get.
The coupons were color-coded. The lucky color was pale pink. That was Master P. Fans kept trying to sneak into his line - Charlene Phifer did this successfully - and there was even some scalping going on of pale pink coupons.
If this is all just a poblicity stunt, the Hornets could not have dreamed up a better one.
