CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Roster additions came fast and furious for James Borrego this offseason.
The Charlotte Hornets coach watched general manager Mitch Kupchak swing a trade to get Mason Plumlee. Then he happily witnessed James Bouknight get plucked off the team’s draft board at No. 11, followed by a heady trade by Kupchak to acquire another first-round selection to pick up potential sleeper Kai Jones.
Free agent Kelly Oubre chose Charlotte as his destination, giving the Hornets much-needed bench depth. And on top of all that, Borrego received a multi-year contract extension, keeping him around for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, there was one major subtraction many likely aren’t even aware of. Mike Brown, a legendary high school coach in Borrego’s native city of Albuquerque, N.M., died in June at age 75. Brown coached Borrego at Albuquerque Academy and Borrego remained close to him and his entire family, including Brown’s son Danny.
Brown attended a few Hornets’ games to get an in-person glimpse of Borrego roaming the sidelines during his tenure here, something that was a blast for both of them.
“Well, Coach Brown played such an instrumental role in my development and my growth as a young man, even more so than basketball,” Borrego told The Charlotte Observer. “Just how to grow up and make good decisions on and off the floor. And he really taught me the game by (showing me) how to be a man. And he was a great role model for me. He showed me how to be a great husband, father, where your priorities should lie. I always saw that and I always valued those same traits that he carried with him as a coach, but also as a man and as a father.
“I was thankful that I had this much time with him, and that he got to see me reach this point today. I know he was extremely proud of where we are at today, and I wouldn’t be here today without him. Obviously, we miss him and he’s meant so much to me. But I got to spend a little bit of time with him before his passing. He will always be with me and I shared that with him in one of our last conversations. I’ll always carry those values and those traits with me as I carry forward.”
With just days remaining until the start of training camp next week, Borrego spoke exclusively with The Observer about a variety of topics, including increased expectations, organizational stability, the fans’ eagerness for the season to begin and more.
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— Roderick Boone: Did you ever stop for a moment to take in the journey you’ve been on over the last few years, particularly after receiving your contract extension early last month?
— James Borrego: I think it’s important to always look back and pause for a minute, and look at where you are at. And I did that a few times this offseason because I’m extremely thankful. Because looking back at the opportunity that the Hornets provided me with three years ago, I look back and I’m very thankful for that opportunity and I feel a responsibility to move this organization forward. I do feel we’ve made steps in the right direction, but we’ve got a long way to go. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have my moments, especially after signing the extension, with my family sitting back for a day — no more than a day. But maybe for a day to just be thankful for this opportunity to be where I’m at today. I would have never imagined being here today, but I’m humbled by this opportunity and I feel a responsibility to carry out this job. So I had my moments and now I move forward. Now, there’s a job to do. We’ve been extremely hard at work this offseason trying to push this group forward, both in our personnel that we’ve brought in and obviously the development piece of the players that we already had here in house. So a lot of work to do, and more than anything I feel more motivated than ever. Even more so than the first day I stepped into this arena, I feel more motivated than ever to push our organization forward. That’s where I’m at.
— RB: You’ve often spoken about the alignment between Kupchak, owner Michael Jordan, yourself and others in the organization’s hierarchy. How important is that in the grand scheme of things?
— JB: It’s easy to talk about being aligned. It’s another thing to live it and to own it. And we’ve done that the last three years. It’s not been easy. We have our challenges along the way, but one of the first things that Mitch and I talked about as we started this partnership is staying aligned along the way. And Mitch, (assistant GM) Buzz (Peterson), Michael, myself, we are fully aligned in this organization. We are fully in this together. And I think that them stepping forward and giving me that extension I think just speaks to the commitment and the belief in this partnership. At the end of the day, that’s what this is. There’s no guarantee that we are going to get this all right. We need some things to break our way. But what we can control is that we stay together, and that we stay aligned and we communicate and we talk. And if there is uncertainty or confusion, we talk it out. And that’s what we’ve done. I’m truly blessed to have this group of men with me at my side, behind me, pushing me forward. It’s a true partnership. I think we went into it thinking this is what we wanted, but you’ve got to put the work in. It’s just like any marriage, any relationship. It’s easy to talk a big game, but you are going to have to put the work in and we’ve done that so far.
— RB: How important has organizational stability been in your time here?
— JB: If you look at any successful organization — both in professional sports and outside of professional sports — the organizations that have sustainable success are the ones that can stay consistent, continue with continuity and I think it’s a major part of growing sustainable success. And for us to allow our group to continue to grow, we needed to have consistency and continuity. I was fortunate to be around one of the best organizations in all of sports (in San Antonio) and the one thing that you could look at from top to bottom in the organization is continuity and consistency. And everybody was aligned in that. Obviously, things can change along the way, but having the same decision-makers, the same voices leading the charge I think is extremely important. And that’s where we’ve been so far. That’s a major part of building sustainable success, is continuing to keep building on what you’ve done the previous year. Obviously, along the way you learn things and we are going to have to tweak along the way, but it’s about building year after year. If you are always breaking down that foundation and restarting it, it’s hard to build sustainable success. And for us, we’ve done that so far. Every year, we’ve gotten better and I expect us to take that next step again this season.
— RB: What is it like to have players now slowly wanting to be a part of what’s happening in Charlotte?
— JB: At the end of the day, it validates what we are doing here. Again, we have a lot of work here to do. But I do believe that there is some momentum throughout the league on our program and what we are trying to do here. Free agency is a tough game to play, but we’ve been able to chip away at it. And getting our hands on Gordon Hayward, a top-tier, NBA All-Star caliber player was enormous for us last season. And we built on that momentum again this season and the free agency signing of Kelly and Ish (Smith), obviously Mason came to us in a different way. But I think it just speaks to where we are at as an organization. There is an excitement here that I feel throughout our league. I do feel players look at our destination now in a different light and that’s a positive. We’ve got to build on that. And we’ve got to give them something they look at as a positive and a place that they’d like to be. So Kelly’s thrilled to be here. I think he was sold on our vision, on our organization, on our development program and our style of play. And our city. I think we have a very underrated city. I didn’t know much about Charlotte until I got here, and now being here, and I think when players get here they realize this is a beautiful city. Great city, great people, great part of the country and now it’s just about continuing that momentum of making this the most attractive place possible.
— RB: How much different is the level of excitement in the city surrounding the team leading into this season than it was in your first three seasons at the helm?
— JB: I missed being around the city a whole lot last year as we were playing, but I know there’s a lot of excitement out there in the city. Not only for Hornets fans (here), but just in this general area of our state that’s extremely excited about the Hornets. And I love it. I love it for our city. This was the vision when we got here. We wanted to build something that our fans could be proud of, and be excited about. And again, we have a lot of work to do, but we are sitting in a place where we have an opportunity to do something special as an organization, in a great city, for a great fan base. And I want this to be one of the best, exciting teams that this city has ever seen. And I feel a responsibility to that. I know our players do as well. And it feels great that we’ve put ourselves in a position for this. Now we’ve got to take advantage of it. It’s one thing to see that excitement now, but we want to capitalize on that and really have a really strong season. So I love being in this place. We’ve taken a step forward. I don’t mind the expectations whatever they are, from the inside, from the outside. I take on that challenge and I relish in that responsibility. And I know our players share that as well.
