The Charlotte Hornets haven’t exactly been great this season. The team sits at 15-24 on the year, and while Kemba Walker has been great, the Hornets are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Charlotte really isn’t in a position to blow everything up, even though it might be smart fo them to look towards the future.
But none of those things are nearly as important as the fact that their head coach has been out since early December, as Steve Clifford had to take an absence from the team due to what was an unspecified health issue. This has led to associate head coach Stephen Silas filling in and the team going 7-11 in his absence.
The team did receive some good news regarding Clifford on Thursday night. According to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, Clifford will be able to return to the team next week, when he will join the Hornets for practice on Tuesday before a game the following day.
Clifford is expected to return for practice at Spectrum Center Tuesday in preparation for the Wednesday home game against the Wizards. The Hornets (15-24) have three more games between now and then — at home Friday against the Utah Jazz and Saturday against the Oklahoma City Thunder — and Monday afternoon in Detroit against the Pistons.
Bonnell wrote that Clifford was suffering through severe headaches and went through “a battery of medical tests” before determining that he’d be ready to rejoin the team. Additionally, Clifford and his doctors are working “to establish the best course of preventive treatment going forward.”
A coach having to step away due to their health is the kind of thing that can hang over a franchise, so everyone in Charlotte probably let out a big sigh of relief when they learned that Clifford will be ok. Here’s to hoping Clifford is about to continue without any health issues keeping him from coaching the team.
