Ricky Hester

May 22nd, 2026 Spotlight Player OTD: Byron Mullens Mullens had been traded to the Bobcats from OKC on Dec. 19th of 2011 right before the lockout-shortened 7-59 ‘11-‘12 season began… In the buildup to playing his first (of two total) seasons for the Bobcats? Mullens spent his extra free time once a week — while the NBA’s lockout was happening — at an Ohio correctional facility playing weekly games on the prison’s concrete slab with inmates. Rick Bonnell gets a quote from Mullens in one of the articles below that Mullens did this once a week in his spare lockout time because, “The idea was to take the fear out of playing,” Mullens would say to Bonnell. “You play against those guys and this (an NBA practice) feels like nothing… They helped me out a lot. They’re strong guys.” Mullens had actually already played for Coach Paul Silas when he was in high school. Silas worked for Adidas a few years before coming back (for one season) to coach the Bobcats: RB mentioned in his Bobcats notebook — not long after Mullens’ signing — that while Silas was with Adidas and overseeing their program for elite high school players, Mullens was one of Silas’ “pupils” as a high schooler in Ohio. “He can really shoot the ball,” Silas told RB of Mullens a few days after the trade. Shoot he could. Mullens is legitimately one of the best 3-point shooting big men that has… ever come through Charlotte? Is that crazy of me to say? Especially if you exclude the PF’s in the conversation like Marvin Williams, you start to see the vision. Anyway. Mullens would go on to have the best two years of his whole career in Charlotte, after spending both of his first two years with OKC in the D-League. The Thunder had drafted Mullens No. 24 Overall in 2009. Charlotte only had to give a second-round pick to give him a chance. Highlights of a monster Mullens dunk on top of Lamarcus Aldridge and a few newspaper clips are below: