How the Hornets are bringing the NBA back to life in Charlotte

They started calling Hector Cortes, "Sombrero Man," because it was Latino Night at a Charlotte Bobcats game more than a decade ago. The Spectrum Center jumbotron showed this local middle school teacher wearing his oversized charro hat "dancing like a maniac," he recalled, and soon enough the sombrero became part of Cortes's identity as a Charlotte resident , as much as his Mexican roots and upbringing rooting for the Lakers in the Los Angeles area. The gimmick was part of the distraction on most nights.

From the heartbreak of losing the original version of the Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans in 2002 and the heartache of watching another expansion team that has yet to win a playoff series in the 21 years since the NBA brought pro basketball back to Charlotte. The current version of the Hornets, which changed its name from Bobcats before the 2014-15 season, hasn't even made the playoffs in a decade. So Cortes can't quite explain exactly what's happening to his favorite NBA team, only that he figured out the vibe was unmistakably different by March 26.

The New York Knicks were in town and however loud "Sombrero Man" gets, he usually can't match the transplant New Yorkers that fill up Spectrum Center. Only this time, "The Hive" was alive with the sounds of Hornets fans. NBA POWER RANKINGS: Who tops list ahead of playoffs?

"It's finally paying off, all the years. But now it almost feels weird, like 'Oh my God, we're winning games,'" Cortes said in a telephone interview. "Forget about winning games, we're winning games by 20, 30 points, which is for us, the Charlotte fans, unbelievable and unreal.