Almost a full decade before finding himself in the Charlotte Hornets’ purple-and-teal attire, Jamal Mashburn, in a compliment to the arena’s atmosphere, couldn’t help calling it a “comfortable” place to shoot. Testing his accuracy from around the floor as if he were inspecting it with a checklist, Mashburn found that slam dunks at the rim offered equally-high success rates, as well. A walking bucket-getter from his career’s outset, Mashburn, fittingly, utilizes an explosive first step down the right baseline, gliding past Marty Conlon before hop-stepping into an around-the-rim, one-handed flush. Returning to the same coliseum that chronicled his journey to the Final Four on the collegiate stage just a year before, Mashburn appeared at home, recording 37 points (on 15-of-21 shooting), six rebounds, seven assists, two steals, and two 3-pointers. The can’t-miss effort helped Mashburn inspire a win over the shorthanded Hornets on February 24, 1994. For Mashburn, the Dallas Mavericks’ No. 4 pick in the 1993 NBA Draft, it also encouraged elite averages in scoring (19.2) and a third-place spot in the Rookie of the Year balloting. · Feb 25, 1994