Jordan said in his news conference that he’s willing to work hard in the community. He’s from that region and people still fondly remember his college career. I think Jordan can boost ticket sales and create a fan base for the team.
I hope he doesn’t try and take over the basketball operations. Jordan tried that with the Wizards. The team he put together had too many guards and some of his draft picks were weak. Jordan as a player/coach didn’t work either. There was a lot of tension in the Wizards locker room.
Hopefully, Jordan will hire the right people. If he focuses on business and creating a strong fan base they may pull this off.
It’s not going to be easy.
The team has improved a good deal this year and they seem to be building toward something. So I think they probably have a decent basketball operation in place and Jordan may have learned his lesson about getting too involved with that. I’m sure he will want to turn the financial performance around but I don’t see him worrying very much about losing a little money.
Jordan’s been with the team, although not as principal owner, for a while now. His reputation is a guy who never shows up and does his job from the golf course. Now that it’s his own money, I suspect he’ll be more involved. Larry Brown has been the driving force in the upturn for the team. They’ve made some good trades. The Charlotte community has not embraced the Bobcats for a number of reasons (forced stadium taxes; absentee owner, etc.) but between the ownership change and the chance of making the playoffs it may turn around.
Larry Brown is Charlotte’s coach and is probably due a good share of credit for the team’s improvement. That being said, Brown has a 37-year track record of not sticking around any one place very long, so Jordan can’t plan on him being there much longer.
I think Jordan still thinks he’s a player (in all senses of the word). If he has a suite at the All-Star game where the NBA’s elite players meet - and I’ll bet he does - should that be considered tampering? I think its been winked at while he was a minority owner of the Wizards and Bobcats, but now that he’s in control of the Bobcats, is that situation going to change?
And if Bob Johnson really lost a lot of money with the Bobcats, isn’t Jordan kind of dumb to buy the team now?
