What kind of legacy does Kemba Walker want?

Back in November, when the Charlotte Hornets were simply off to another sloppy start, I wrote that the team had failed Kemba Walker, the best player the franchise has ever had. Walker is a free agent in the summer, and after a 60-point game, there was a wave of discourse on whether Charlotte should offer a full max contract to the point guard. I argued that this was obvious, and the bigger question is whether Walker should take it or move on.

The Hornets are now 31-38, two games out of a terribly sad No. 8 seed after losing in a a blowout to the Heat on Sunday. The Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell wrote that this loss was a symbolic defeat for the Hornets given how Miami defended Charlotte (ignore everyone but Kemba) and given the reflection of the Hornets’ brutal playoff loss to the Heat in 2016.

This is where we are: experienced local reporters who were debating whether Walker was worth the max just a few months ago are now coming around to the debate on whether Charlotte deserves Kemba’s prime.

They don’t, but that’s only one side of the coin. The question is what Kemba wants from the prime of his NBA career.

SB Nation’s Kristian Winfield wrote a lovely feature on Kemba’s past, present, and future last month. Winfield wrote that two facets of Walker — his loyalty and his desire to win — are in tension. That will manifest on July 1, when teams are pitching greener grass and playoff runs and greater national and international notoriety. Every other team will tell Kemba how they can make him a legend.

The Hornets will too, but their case will be less convincing because we’ve seen who the Hornets can be with Kemba. The Knicks, the Lakers, the Suns — that’s all unknown, unfamiliar. Alluring, in a way.

The Hornets can’t promise playoff runs and greater national and international notoriety. Not with a straight face, at least. We know what the Hornets can legitimately do for Kemba: give him lots of money and hang on tight to his coattails, praying that one of these draft picks or free agents or trades pans out.

But on this central question of who can make Kemba a legend, the Hornets absolutely can, perhaps with more certainly than can any other NBA franchise.

If Walker re-signs with Charlotte and finishes the peak of his career in Queen City, he will go down as the greatest Hornet ever and an absolute legend in the Carolinas, even if the team never wins anything consequential with him. He’ll be the Mitch Richmond or Patrick Ewing of Charlotte. His name will be spoken with reverence. Future scoring guards who zip through the halls of the Spectrum Center will chase his ghost. Every basketball-loving kid who grows up in Charlotte between 2005 and 2025 will have his jersey. He will imprint his smile on this community, this franchise, this sport in one of the most basketball-crazed states in the Union.

If Kemba Walker re-signs in Charlotte and plays out his contract there, he will be a legend ... in Charlotte.

If he moves on — if the side of Kemba that wants to win beats out the side of Kemba that wants to be loyal to the franchise that believed in him and helped him become an All-Star — there’s no telling what could happen. Most reasonable folks in Charlotte likely won’t begrudge him a change of scenery, but they also won’t speak his name in reverence. Whether he builds himself a legend in Manhattan or LA or Orlando or Phoenix or anywhere else will be an open question remaining to be determined. His chance at legend status in Charlotte will be gone.

Whether this is important to Kemba is unknown. Exactly what is most important to Kemba might be unknown to him as much as it is to us, and may only be revealed on July 1 when Walker’s priorities are truly put to the test.

Whatever the case, the Hornets should be thankful his leaving isn’t a foregone conclusion already. Selling local legend status is all they have left.