CHARLOTTE

R.J. Cummings went in with a friend to buy season tickets to Charlotte Hornets games for eight straight years in the early days of the franchise.

He enjoyed the electric atmosphere generated at the Charlotte Coliseum.

He loved the NBA game.

He felt a special bond with several long-time Hornets players, almost as if they were part of the family.

He bought into notion that the core of the team - Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson - was talented enough that the Hornets would eventually become a championship contender with time and maturity and a little tweaking to the roster here and there.

He was a devoted Hornets fan in every sense of the word, and he thought he always would be.

But when the Hornets play the Washington Wizards tonight, Cummings will be in the stands for the first time all season.

And he'll be paying to watch Michael Jordan play more than Baron Davis, David Wesley or anyone else wearing the Hornets' Alexander Julian pinstripes.

Cummings is typical of many area fans who have become disillusioned with management in recent years and have quit coming to games on a regular basis. Typical, too, of the fans who will comprise the majority of the 23,000-plus in the stands tonight in the Hornets' first official sellout of the season. "We used to have four season tickets and it was a big time for us," Cummings said earlier this week. "But I only went to one game last year and I probably wouldn't be going (tonight) if they weren't playing Michael Jordan. I might have gone to one game over Christmas, because my son's home from Carolina and he likes to go when he's home, but that would be it."

Cummings, the owner of Southland Transportation Co. in Boonville, jumped on the bandwagon quickly after Charlotte was awarded an expansion franchise in 1987.

He'd been a long-time Boston Celtics fan and NBA fan in general, and he was quick to switch allegiances and adopt the Hornets.

He loved the entire experience of going to the games, even the halftime shows and the clever skits during time outs.

And he found that business clients were similarly caught up in the hoopla and were eager to join him whenever he called.

The Hornets led the NBA in attendance eight times in their first nine seasons, with a streak of 364 straight sellouts, and Cummings was there much of the time.

"There was a feeling inside the coliseum that is hard to describe," he said. "It was just a good time. We were the kind who would go two hours before the game and watch the players come in the back entrance, and whether they remembered us or not, they acted like they did. I think that's why fans got so attached to players like Muggsy (Bogues) and Dell (Curry)."

Cummings said he began losing interest when the Hornets traded Mourning to Miami in 1995. Then as Johnson, Bogues, Curry, Kenny Gattison and other popular players followed Mourning through the exits, the interest dwindled even more.

"That whole feeling just went away," Cummings said. "They went through that stretch where they were having a different team every year and they were raising prices to where our seats were up to something like $37 a ticket, and it got to the point where we said, 'Why do we need to keep doing this?'"

He found that he wasn't the only one, either.

"It got to where my customers would turn down free tickets," he said.

Cummings said he blames the change in atmosphere on owner George Shinn, and he said that Shinn's biggest mistake was taking the fans for granted.

"I feel like George Shinn sold everybody out," Cummings said. "He knew we were going to come no matter what happened there for a while, and I guess we did for a number of years. But he took advantage of the fans. He felt the fans would come no matter what they did and no matter what kind of team they put out there, and after a while the fans took that as a slap in the face.

"From the day they traded Alonzo Mourning for Matt Geiger, it was always about what ownership wanted, not what the fans wanted. Now they're giving ultimatums about a new arena. It's like, they don't care if the fans are there or not, they just want the luxury suites."

If the Hornets move at the end of the season, Cummings said he will be sad to see them go. He still follows the team casually and he has come to like this nucleus with Davis, Wesley, Jamal Mashburn, P.J. Brown and Elden Campbell.

But he's not going to invest much emotionally or financially as long as Shinn owns the team.

"I think if they had different ownership, the fans would come back," Cummings said. "If George Shinn was gone and they made an attempt to keep this team together, I think the interest would pick back up. I think they've got a real good team right now. I could get behind this team again.

"It's just a thing where, I don't know, I'm just discouraged by everything that has happened in the past. I would definitely go back if Shinn wasn't there."