Charles Lee Details Naz Reid’s Response After Hornets Benching
· Yahoo Sports
Naz Reid apologized to Charlotte Hornets coach Charles Lee and spoke to his teammates after Lee benched him for the second half of an Oct. 28 loss to the Detroit Pistons, Lee said this week.
Reid came to Charlotte on June 25 in the trade that sent LaMelo Ball and Josh Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves. During the preseason, Lee called him “a joy to work with.”
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Lee and Reid had spent the offseason building a relationship before the benching.
“As a coach and as human beings, as a man, as a woman, whoever you are, as a person, I think that there are just certain things that you believe in,” Lee said. “And there’s things that I believe in. There’s things that I believe in that are going to help our team be as good as we can possibly be, and they’re going to be able to make our players as good as they possibly can be. And in that moment, I had to make a tough decision.”
“We definitely move on. I do not hold grudges,” Lee continued. “That’s not what this is about. He and I had a really good conversation. I felt his genuineness about wanting to move forward and be better from it and grow from it. I think it actually helped our relationship even more that we were able to have another conversation, as much as we had built during the offseason.”
Charlotte has lost four straight, starting with the game in Detroit. A 124-91 home loss to the Pistons on Monday dropped the Hornets to 3-5.
Lee said a moment like the benching can be a healthy one in the middle of a regular season.
“Now you’re in the trenches of the grind of the regular season,” Lee explained. “And to have a moment like that, I think was actually pretty healthy. In families, you have some things like that. So anyway, we definitely moved forward. He was great with me. We’re on the same page. He apologized, said what he needed to say to his teammates as well, and so that was also important to me. And we were moving forward, and I look forward to everything that he’s going to do for our team.”
Lee Benched Reid at Halftime in Detroit
Charlotte led 51-44 at halftime on Oct. 28. Reid had played 13 minutes in the first half and had 7 points and 6 rebounds on 2-of-6 shooting.
Royce O’Neale opened the third quarter in his place, and Reid did not return. Detroit outscored the Hornets 53-38 over the final two quarters and won 97-89.
The next game was two days away, in Washington, and Lee wanted those standards met by then.
“Unfortunately, Naz didn’t meet our standards in the first half, and at halftime we made the decision that he wouldn’t play in the second half,” Lee said. “But I look forward to him meeting those standards come next game.”
He did not say what Reid had done to fall short of them. Rod Boone of The Boone Docs reported that the two cleared the air with each other after the game.
Reid Returned to the Starting Lineup
Before the Hornets played the Washington Wizards on Oct. 30, Lee said Reid had taken accountability with him and with his teammates.
“For our team, where we are, we’ve all just discussed who we want to be and how we want to operate, and those standards weren’t met,” Lee said. “But the great thing about Naz and our entire group, he and I had a good conversation. He’s able to take accountability to me and to his teammates, and we’re on the same page. I look forward to him being back in the starting lineup today.”
Reid started that night and had 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 1 assist on 5-of-17 shooting. The Wizards won 95-79 in an NBA Cup group-play game.
The Philadelphia 76ers beat Charlotte 109-104 at Spectrum Center the next night. Reid finished with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists and went 4-of-12 from the field.
Against Detroit on Monday, he had 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists. He shot 4-of-11.
Reid Opened His Hornets Tenure Strong
Before the benching, Reid scored 20, 17, 23, and 18 points in his first four games with the Hornets. In his debut on Oct. 21, a 110-103 win at Brooklyn, he had 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists.
He spent his first seven NBA seasons in Minnesota. In 2023-24, he won Sixth Man of the Year.
Last season, Reid averaged 13.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.2 assists for the Timberwolves. He signed a five-year, $125 million contract with Minnesota in July 2025 and is making $23,275,862 this season.
Along with Reid, the Hornets received an unprotected 2033 first-round pick, first-round pick swaps in 2028, 2029, and 2030, and second-round picks in 2029, 2032, and 2033 in the Ball trade.
Charlotte visits the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday at Barclays Center. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.