What has Hornets’ Tre Mann finally smiling broadly after going through ‘dark time’
During a semi-quiet moment, after the commotion of the all the day’s activities slowly began creeping to a close, Tre Mann could barely plop down in a bleacher seat before a familiar voice bellowed across the gym.
“Tre!” shouted LaMelo Ball, the Charlotte Hornets’ star point guard, evoking a smirk.
That smile is entrenched on Mann’s face these days and knocking it off is virtually impossible. Go ahead, try to do it. It’s not happening.
After going through an emotional roller coaster with more twists, turns and dips than Carowinds’ Fury 325, Mann is now in a comfort zone that surely felt unimaginable not all that long ago. He’s fully healthy, recovered from a lower back injury that sidelined him for the better part of last season, and bursting with appreciation for the small things that come along with playing pro basketball.
“It’s different,” Mann told The Observer. “Once it’s taken away from you, you’re grateful for more of it. I was grateful for the good it did. My family is good, I’m good. I’m happy doing what I love. But it being taken away from me, now I’m just grateful to be in the NBA.
“My whole career has always been goals, setting goals, reaching goals. But now it’s just … Just being in the NBA, being healthy and putting on the NBA jersey. A lot of stuff that you don’t really think about, but you really think about it once it’s taken away from you. For real.”
Imagine starting off the 2024-25 season in unbelievable fashion, putting up some of the best numbers of your career by averaging 14.1 points, three assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. Early whispers of possibly being in the mix as a potential sixth man of the year candidate are tossed around.
It’s the final season of your rookie contract and a lucrative payday is more than likely on the horizon. Suddenly, a twinge in the lower back sidelines you for what you believe is a temporary stretch. Instead, it turns out to be disc herniation causing the discomfort, leaving you on the injured list and leading to missing all but 13 games.
Mann doesn’t have to imagine any of that. He lived every bit of it. The weird spiral and sequence of events was no fun, zapping Mann in ways he never dreamed.
“Dark time for me, for sure,” Mann said. “But I feel like my support system really got me through it. Just leaning on God, just knowing that it’s His timing. Everybody has their time that they want it to happen. But at the end of the day, it’s God’s timing.
“It didn’t happen for a reason. Now, I feel like I’m not going to look at it like that no more because I was sixth man of the year … I saw all of that stuff, feeding into it. I didn’t really care about it, but like when you see it, it’s like it’s there, you know about it. But yeah, my just having my family, my son for sure, he really got me through those dark days. It was definitely hard. Big year, contract year.”
Stomaching everything was quite a chore.
“We had a chance to be good,” Mann said. “We started off 6-7. It was definitely tough to watch your team go out there and you really can’t do nothing to help. It’s hard, too. But you know, we back.”
Which excites the Hornets. Especially the guy who was yelling at him on media day.
Ball seems as eager as anyone for Mann’s return to game action.
“I’ve loved Tre’s game ever since I’ve known him as a kid,” Ball said. “Tre is a great player. We missed him when he got hurt. So, he’s healthy this year and I think (he) can be a real problem.”
‘This injury made me better’
There was a point, though, when uncertainty clouded Mann’s future.
Something seemed amiss following the Hornets’ Nov. 10 loss to Philadelphia in overtime, when Mann didn’t suit up in Orlando against the Magic two days later. As a native Floridian who grew up in Gainesville, which is less than two hours from Amway Center, missing that was the initial indicator.
“I remember it was like I was in a spot where I felt like I could play, but I didn’t feel good,” Mann said. “And then it was more of, ‘Let’s just take it easy right now so we can have each other this game. Try to get as best as you could because then we have two days after this to be better for this game.
“And that’s kind of what it was like. I did feel bad, but I didn’t feel like I was bad enough to where I couldn’t play. It was more just like trying to be smart and manage it the right way.”
Mann played Nov. 16 against Milwaukee in Charlotte before sitting out the next night in Cleveland. He gave it a go in Brooklyn on Nov. 19 and logged action at home against Detroit two nights later.
Mann didn’t play again in 2024-25, and just getting to his current situation — which included seeing a specialist for deeper diagnosis — has been an exhaustive process. But he’s not complaining one bit.
Instead, he used the time to tap into the area of preventative care.
“It was really just getting back to the small things,” Mann said. “My diet was super heavy. I had a whole bunch of inflammation in spots. So just fixing my diet, drinking a lot of water, stretching, moving every day, doing the right movements. And then just learning about my body while I’m lifting or while I’m playing.
“Learning techniques to use when I’m in the weight room. Just making sure I’m protecting myself at all times. Stuff that I really didn’t think of before. That’s why I feel like this injury made me better, because now I’m more aware of my body. I’m more aware of what I put in my body, and I think it’s going to pay off in the long run.”
That’s why, in a sense, Mann views this whole ordeal as a blessing in disguise. It’s opened his eyes in a variety of ways, leaving him more knowledgeable about nutrition and the benefits that come along with being in optimal shape.
“You don’t really think about it at first,” Mann said. “You don’t really know about it, so there’s some people who do have that information, and they already know. But I feel like for me, I wasn’t going to understand until I had an injury like that. So, I feel like that’s why it happened to me, because I always try to turn negatives into a positive.
“I look at it as, ‘OK, what can I learn? Why did it happen?’ And not in a negative way. Just, ‘Why did it happen for me to be better?’ And I feel like that’s what it was. Just now being able to lock in on my body and protecting myself.”
Which, in turn, should be a boost for Mann as he plays through the three-year, $24 million deal he inked in July. At least he won’t have to worry about the kind of pressure he was under a year ago to perform at an extraordinary level so it would be reflected in his paycheck.
That added burden made it feel as if Mann had a grand piano on top of him.
“It was tough,” Mann said. “But like I said, it’s a different perspective when you’re not playing, when it’s taken away from you. For me, it was like, ‘All right. I’m playing good. How much money?’ Being real, how much money I could be … I could set my family up for life. And then by the end of the season, I’m thinking, ‘Will I be in the NBA next year?’
“So, it’s all about perspective. And that’s what it was, just turning it from how much could I make to will I even be here. I’m thankful that Charlotte believed in me the way they did, and they were able to get me back here. So, I’m super grateful for it.”
‘He’s a joy to have in the building’
Jeff Peterson, the Hornets’ president of basketball operations, insisted Mann was among the team’s chief offseason priorities, and that didn’t change when Charlotte elected not to extend a qualifying offer to Mann before the June deadline, making him an unrestricted free agent.
The Hornets were simply maximizing their cap space and never wavered on Mann.
“I give credit to both ways,” Mann said. “I give credit to Jeff and them for seeing. … They only had, what, 13 games to really see that, and they believe in me that much. And then also credit to myself for just being able to show a little bit of what I’m capable of, enough for them to be able to get this contract done with only 13 games played.
“So, I feel like it worked out for the best of both of us. But credit to Jeff and credit to myself.”
With Mann in the mix again, the Hornets’ bench production and guard depth should be greatly improved. Mann’s return, along with newcomer Collin Sexton and rookie Kon Knueppel, gives coach Charles Lee more options.
His shooting skills, defensive improvement and clutch play late in games provide Lee with another true weapon to utilize.
“I’m so glad that we were able to re-sign him,” Lee said. “He’s a joy to have in the building. I think that he’s just another guy that understands his value to our team on and off the court. He’s got the best personality and he’s able to connect with a lot of different players. And then all of a sudden that connection translates to the court because it seems like every pickup game he’s in or whatever, whatever he does, he’s winning it and the guys really rally around him.
“So, it’ll be good to have him back out there. He lifts our spirits. … Offensively, he’s so dynamic. He’s one of the best catch-and-shoot guys that we have on a team. But then he’s also in a pick and roll situation, able to create for himself and for his teammates. So, to be able to have that dynamic where he can play off the ball and play with Melo or he can play on the ball and not have Melo on the floor just gives you a lot of versatility.”
Translation: Mann and the Hornets are a perfect match.
“The mindset and the foundation that we’re trying to build, it started last year,” Mann said. “But we had the team that we had last year. This year, I feel like we went in with building the team around the foundation that we wanted to set, and I feel like we have the pieces for that this year.
“I feel like we can really go toward the foundation and the mentality we want to have, just stepping out every day, showing this is what Hornets basketball is. This is Hornets DNA. I think we have the players for that now as well.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "What has Hornets’ Tre Mann finally smiling broadly after going through ‘dark time’."
