VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — With the 15th pick in the NBA Draft the Charlotte Hornets select Mark Williams.
The trip to training camp won't take long for the former Norfolk Academy Bulldog and Duke Blue Devil. Williams stays close to both his alma mater in Durham and his parents, Alex and Margaret, in Virginia Beach.
The Hornets have long been in search of a center, and were often cited as a likely Williams destination, possessing the 13th and 15th picks in the draft. After the 13th pick, however, the odds of Williams heading to Charlotte appeared to vanish. Michael Jordan's team took Jalen Duren, a center from Memphis, and a similar player to Williams.
Hence the surprise when NBA Commissioner announced Williams to Charlotte just two picks later, and a for a brief moment the league had a new "twin towers". Clarity quickly emerged when ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski announced that Duren had been traded to the Detroit Pistons, clearing the way for Williams as the center of the future.
