Wall Street to East Trade Street: Charles Lee's journey to the Charlotte Hornets

The sounds of thousands of fans cheering and the creaking of the players' bright shoes hitting the court were replaced by the light discussion of the cleanup crew and the faint music coming from somewhere in the stadium. 

As I sat in the head coach’s seat and looked on, I imagined watching LaMelo Ball taking one legged threes, or Miles Bridges throwing down a windmill dunk that should not even be possible by the laws of physics.

Although for me this was a random late Friday night experience, for Charles Lee this has become his entire life. 

About Charles

Lee graduated from Bucknell University with a major in business in 2006. The DC native played four years for the Bisons, averaging 11.0 points across his time there. The 2006 Patriot League Player of the Year, Lee enrolled at the school before they were offering athletic scholarships, and was referred to as “[one of] college basketball's best non-scholarship players” by the New York Times. 

After graduating, Lee joined the San Antonio Spurs for the Summer League and preseason, but was unable to make the main roster. He went on to spend the next four years overseas, starting with Hapoel Gilboa/Afula in Israel, then going to Belgium to play for Verviers-Pepinster, before finishing his professional basketball career in Germany with MEG Goettingen and Artland Dragons. 

Lee retired from basketball in 2010, and went on to put his business major to use. He joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as a stock equity position trader for two years. After his two years on Wall Street, Lee realized his dream: coaching. The former Bison did not like being away from the game anymore, and found out there was an opening for a coaching position at Bucknell.

So, Lee left Wall Street to be an assistant coach with Bucknell.

“[My wife Lindsay] was the person I told in 2012 when I wanted to get into coaching and leave Wall Street. She looked at me like I was a little crazy, but she very quickly supported me and sacrificed her career to allow me to follow my journey.”

When I mentioned to Lee that it’s been nearly 15 years since his last day at Wall Street, he mumbled into the microphone, “Yeah, I didn't realize it's been 15 years since I was on Wall Street.”

As it turns out, this was the best decision of the then 28-year-old Lee’s life.

During Charles’ time with the Spurs, he made one of the most important connections for the rest of his life: assistant coach Mike Budenholzer. 

In 2014, two years after becoming an assistant coach on Dave Paulsen’s staff at Bucknell, Budenholzer was hired by the Atlanta Hawks. The now first-time head coach offered Lee a spot on his staff in a Player Development role with the team. Lee accepted and had finally made the jump from college to the NBA.

After four years, Budenholzer and the Hawks parted ways. The head coach had a new idea in mind: coaching Greek superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. Budenholzer agreed to become the next head coach of the Bucks, and brought Lee along with him.

After two seasons in Milwaukee, other teams around the league started to notice. The Oklahoma City Thunder were the first, who considered Lee in 2020 before hiring Mark Deigneault.

Shortly after this in 2021, the Milwaukee Bucks were at the top of the NBA. Charles was an NBA Champion.

In the 2021 offseason, Lee’s name started to gain more traction. The New Orleans Pelicans had interest in the young coach, but eventually hired Willie Green. A year later, he was even hotter as a candidate. The Utah Jazz became interested in Lee, as well as the Los Angeles Lakers, who requested permission to speak with Lee. The Jazz hired Boston’s Will Hardy, and the Lakers hired the other Bucks assistant coach, Darvin Ham. 

After Ham’s departure, Budenholzer made sure that Lee would stay on. Shams Charania of The Athletic announced that the Bucks were promoting Lee to associate head coach, and they prioritized a new deal for him.

In April 2023, another team was interested in Lee: the Detroit Pistons. They were granted permission to interview him, however, they were now the fourth team going in another direction, hiring former Suns head coach Monty Williams to a record deal.

Less than one month later, Budenholzer was out as head coach in Milwaukee. 

After waiting out to see if another team would hire him, Lee found himself as an assistant in a new spot: Boston. 

Lee was the top assistant during his year with Boston. He was a part of an extremely good coaching staff, alongside Jeff Van Gundy and Sam Cassell led by second year head coach Joe Mazzulla.

The Celtics went 64-18 in the regular season, followed by a 16-4 playoff run.

One year after being hired by the Celtics, Lee was now a two time NBA Champion. 

The Charlotte Hornets

A few months before the season ended, Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford announced he would be stepping down from the head coach position upon conclusion of the NBA season to be in an advisory role within the franchise. 

So, the Hornets went on a head coaching search. They were set to interview five head coaches: ESPN’s JJ Redick, Sacramento’s Jordi Fernandez, Denver’s David Adelman, Phoenix’s Kevin Young, and Charles Lee.

On May 9th, 2024, Hornets Executive VP of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson had his new head coach: Charles Lee.

As of April 8th, 2025, Fernandez was hired by the Brooklyn Nets, Redick was hired by the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix was hired by Brigham Young University, and on Tuesday, David Adelman took over for Mike Malone, who was fired by the Nuggets. Pretty good coaching search.

“Resilience.” was the word that Lee said came to mind when he thought about his journey to where he is today. 

“Figuring it out is a big thing that I think I've learned on this journey too. I've never worked on Wall Street before, and I had to figure out how to do things. Even as an assistant coach early on, you know, not everybody gives you the answers to the test, and you gotta figure it out. And so just having this hard work and commitment to do that also like having the resilience that I've gone through time and gotten denied for a couple head coaching positions.”

The room was silent as Lee continued to reflect on his time.

“But you know, you're thankful that you end up at the right job at the right time here in Charlotte. So it's been a fun journey with a lot of different learning experiences.”

The Hornets head coach has had a roller coaster of a season, with players in and out of the lineups with injuries constantly. Yet, the rookie has always been extremely positive, bringing a smile into each press conference.

That positivity has reflected on each of his players.

Before Lee became an assistant coach, his primary responsibilities were player development. 

“Starting as a player development, mostly focused coach in Atlanta, to then become an assistant coach and understanding all that goes into preparing scouts, going through player development, and putting together player development plans, and just being process oriented and attention to detail under Coach Bud, a lot of attention to detail, and then, like just seeing what it takes to win overall.”

As a player development coach, you find yourself needing to go beyond the basic coaching. You have to help these players be able to learn skills, habits, and develop a professional mindset to not only make them rotational players on your team, but to help their entire career out. You have them look at film, and work to make sure they are the best they possibly can be.

Though he is not the player development only coach he once was, Lee’s system of development can still be seen today with the Hornets. Players such as Damion Baugh, KJ Simpson, DaQuan Jeffries, and most notably, Moussa Diabate, have all seen tremendous growth under Lee’s leadership.

Diabate was nearly out of the league last season. Diabate was playing on a two-way contract with the LA Clippers last season, who did not bring him back. The Hornets brought the big man in on a two-way deal, but with injuries in the center rotation, Moussa found minutes within the roster. 

“[I have] a lot of confidence in Moussa. I think that he’s kinda just scratching the surface too, which is cool,” Lee said earlier this season. “This is the first time I think he’s had the opportunity to play this much of a role, these types of extended minutes. And he’s making the most of his opportunities.”

After impressing he worked up from a non-guaranteed two-way deal to a guaranteed three-year NBA contract. Lee’s confidence in the 23-year-old was clearly having an impact on Diabate, as well.

“I think I'm forever grateful for what he's done, for giving me the opportunity, especially as a young coach,” the young center said when I asked him about Lee. “I'm coming off a two-way, for him to just give me a chance, it means a lot.”

The Hornets sit 19-59 with only four games left in the 2024-25 season. Despite the roller coaster of a season that has happened in Charlotte, with players constantly being in and out of the lineup, the future does not look bleak, and there is no dark cloud over the team. The Hornets have found the main that will lead them into war for the foreseeable future. They found a winner, a leader of men, and most importantly, a former stockbroker. Good basketball is on the horizon in Queen City, and it's time to get excited.

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