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MIchael Jordan (r.) lives through the on-court struggles of the Charlotte Bobcats.
Michael Jordan apparently has an exit strategy to leave the Bobcats, which will undoubtedly make Charlotte fans take to the streets for a mass celebration, provided His Airness keeps his word.
Nearing the end of another lost season as Bobcats owner, Jordan recently told his GM, Rich Cho, to start planning for a rebuilding campaign. He also dropped a bombshell, telling Cho and other deputies that if this one doesnt produce a winner and he continues to lose millio ns over the next three to four years, then he intends to sell the team.
I told Rich to make us better, Jordan told one associate recently. If that doesnt work and I cant make a profit in the next three to four years, then Im selling.
This is a change of plans for Jordan, who over almost the past year has been seeking a buyer to purchase half the team. The Bobcats lost $ 20 million last season and theyre headed for more big losses this season.
Jordans decision to give the assignment of rebuilding to Cho means that Rod Higgins, his long-time president of basketball operations who goes back to when he ran the Wizards, is on the outs. Jordan told Cho, the Thunders former assistant GM who arrived in Charlotte last June, to follow the Oklahoma City model.
Good luck with that, because there was some major luck involved in Oklahoma Citys ascension to the top of the Western Conference. The Thunder was most fortunate that Portland p assed on Kevin Durant in the 2007 draft, instead opting to take Greg Oden with the top pick. The Blazers once passed on Jordan, and they might end up never living down their Oden pick.
Jordan had falsely advertised his team before the season as playoff-worthy. But at least he has come to the conclusion that he needs to blow it up and start over. His roster is comprised of backup-quality players.
Entering the weekend, the Bobcats had only seven wins, fewest in the NBA. They are on pace to finish with the second-worst point-differential per game since the NBA and ABA merged in 1976. Theyve been losing games by 13.1 ppg, with only the 1992-93 Mavs getting crushed by bigger margins (15.2 ppg). Theyve lost 15 games by 20 or more points.
Because Jordan has been such a failure as an owner even drawing rare criticism recently from his best pal, Charles Barkley there will be plenty of fans in Charlotte who hope this next rebuilding campaign is a flop. Just so that he sells and gets out of town.
LINSANE TREATMENT
The Knicks need to stop treating Jeremy Lin like a star and start making him talk to the media. In Atlanta on Friday, Lin breezed into the morning shootaround wearing earphones, retreated to the privacy of the trainers room and refused to speak to reporters about his knee injury that KOd him from his third straight game. He hasnt done enough in his 10 minutes in the NBA to get away with not talking. When he was talking, he told reporters that his first piece of advice to Tim Tebow would be dont read the papers. He couldnt have been more clueless. Where does he think Linsanity started, anyway?
- Mikhail Prokhorov might be unhappy to learn that when the Nets set off on their current four-game West Coast trip, no reporters from the area went to cover the trip. Then again, Prokhorov is never around the Nets himself, so why should he care? But the NBA should care very much. . . . In his State of the NBA address at the All-Star Game back on Feb. 25, David Stern said that the league expected to have its new owner of the New Orleans franchise in the next week or 10 days. Thats the period of time we would like to hopefully have this deal for the sale of the club come into much sharper focus. Were still waiting. In the meantime, the league still runs the Hornets
- Former Cavs GM Danny Ferry is being touted as a candidate to run the Wizards when owner Ted Leonsis cleans out his front office, starting with team prez Ernie Grunfeld, after the season. Since leaving Cleveland, Ferry has been assisting Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.
SLAM DUNKS
- The Wizards fast-tracked their decision to get rid of JaVale McGee at the trading deadline when they learned that he was going to ask for $ 14 million per as a free agent. . . . The Grizzlies called the Wizards when they were doing their due diligence on Gilbert Arenas. Memphis was told he was fine, which isnt at all how one Wizard official remembers him. Lazy, manipulative and out-of-shape, was his scouting report. . . . When the Heat lost by 16 to the Thunder and by 15 their next time out to Indiana, it was the was the first time they had lost consecutive games by double digits since signing LeBron James and Chris Bosh in 2010.
- Doc Rivers son, Austin, could be a late lottery pick. Some GMs think hes a classic AAU product. Hes competitive enough to play in the NBA, but his inability to get others involved is seen as a drawback.
Too much AAU influence and not enough Duke influence, was how one Eastern Conference executive put it
- Kentuckys Anthony Davis is seen as the only game-changer in Junes draft. But he needs to get much stronger and isnt expected to start dominating for a good two-three years until he can battle the NBAs big men on equal terms
- The sleeper everyo ne is talking about for the draft: Damian Lillard of Weber State, a guard out of Oakland who was No. 2 in the nation in scoring at 24.5 ppg. Hes a lottery pick.
- You know its a lockout year when the NBA plays on Final Four championship night. Normally, the NBA is dark when the NCAA crowns its basketball champion. But when its trying to cram as many games as possible into the schedule because its in a lockout-shortened season, the NBA treats championship Monday like any other day. The league last played on Final Four Monday on March 29, 1999, the night UConn won its first title, over Duke. The NBA put on four games that night, as part of a 50-game, lockout-shortened season, with Seattle and Vancouver among the teams that played. Whatever happened to those great NBA towns, anyway?
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