SI on Jordan as an owner

[May4prez]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/michael_rosenberg/04/23/charlotte.bobcats.michael.jordan/index.html

Not holding any punches is he?

[Mustachio]

Shit article. I'm not sure that guy even used google to research this article. He just happened to see that the Bobcats were 7-whatthefuckever and said... "hey wait a minute, doesn't Jordan own that team"

Just horrible. In fact... I am gonna paste the whole article here so no one else gives this twat author a link click.


Like many sports teams, the Charlotte Bobcats are caught in an argument between haters and homers. One group thinks the Bobcats are one of the worst teams in NBA history. Those are the homers. The haters think the Bobcats have been losing on purpose so they can get the No. 1 pick in the draft. The homers say "No, that's not fair. They really do suck this bad. They're not trying to suck; they just suck at trying."
The Bobcats are 7-56 now, losers of 20 straight and on track to earn to the league's worst winning percentage in history (.106). And since the Bobcats clinched the worst record in the league a while back, I think it's fair to say that if they WERE tanking, they aren't tanking anymore, unless this is some perverse version of running up the score.
This is the year of a packed 66-game schedule, of three games in three nights, of five games in seven nights, of coaches coaching to avoid overtime because their players are exhausted, of players seeing "DALLAS" on opposing jerseys and being confused because they thought they were in San Antonio. Everybody has flat nights, even more than normal. The entire schedule has been built so nobody loses 20 games in a row. Yet the Bobcats have done it, and the 20th loss may have been their most impressive: a 26-point home defeat to the 21-43 Kings.
GALLERY: NBA's longest losing streaks (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1101/nba-longest-losing-streaks/content.1.html)
If you didn't know, you would never believe it: The man in charge of this operation is the greatest competitor in basketball history. I want to grab Michael Jordan by the shoulders, shake him and ask: "What the heck happened to you?"
When Jordan was a player, he would cut your lungs out, just so he could catch some fresh air. This is what separated him from the rest of the basketball world, both in his playing days and in our minds. Sure, he was a breathtaking athlete. But there have been a lot of great athletes in the NBA. He was incredibly skilled, but that wasn't what defined him. Jordan was better because he was built from different material. He had the will of Kobe Bryant without the selfish streak, the talent of LeBron James with 10 times as much self-assurance.
Jordan scored 63 points on the Celtics when doctors wanted him to rest as he recovered from a broken foot. He beat the Jazz in the NBA Finals when he had a stomach flu. He scored 55 points at Madison Square Garden after coming out of retirement, when he was still not in basketball shape, because it was Madison Square Garden and he was Michael Jordan and that is just what he did.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2012/writers/michael_rosenberg/04/23/charlotte.bobcats.michael.jordan/mj-bobcats.jpg
Once the game's greatest competitors, Michael Jordan has let his Bobcats become one of the worst teams in history.
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

And look at him now. Jordan has been the worst kind of owner. He pays attention when he feels like it. He hires his cronies. (Rod Higgins, who works in the Bobcats' front office, was one of Jordan's first Bulls teammates. Even Larry Brown was a fellow member of the Tar Heel mafia, though at least Brown was a great coach.) He complains about the cost of doing business, like he thought he was buying a convenience store instead of an NBA team.
Owners are fans with money. Some days, Jordan has been the guy who buys season tickets and leaves in the third quarter. On other days, he has literally been the guy who practices with the team because he feels like it.
The Bobcats are worse than bad. They are cheap. They are boring. They have a retread coach (68-year-old Paul Silas), and very little hope on the roster. Their leading scorer, Corey Maggette, is 32. The rest of the team is young, which is the hope that teams sell when they don't have hope. Hey, we're young! So what? There are millions of young people in this country, and I wouldn't ask most of them to guard Kevin Durant.
They are supposed to be building around two rookies, but you need a whole lot of faith to see Bismack Biyombo or Kemba Walker as a superstar. The Bobcats traded up for the seventh pick in the 2011 draft so they could pick Biyombo, who is shooting 49 percent. No, not from the field. From the free-throw line. Biyombo is supposed to be the next Ben Wallace. Well, we'll see.
GALLERY: Good players turned bad execs (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0906/good.players.bad.personnel/content.1.html)
The Bobcats used the ninth pick to take Walker. He was a wonderful college player at Connecticut, and he will have a nice NBA career, but you can't build a contending NBA team around Kemba Walker. They should have used the No. 7 pick on Brandon Knight, who went No. 8 to Detroit. Knight may or may not turn out to be a star. But he is taller, younger and is shooting better from three-point range (37.6 percent) than Walker is shooting from everywhere (37.1 percent).
Jordan has been Charlotte's majority owner for only two years, but he was part-owner and "Managing Member of Basketball Operations" for four before that. This debacle is his. The Bobcats are Jordan's Folly, proof that no matter who you are or how high you rise, at some point life will step on your head.
The NBA is invested in Jordan in so many ways. He is the game's most famous player, a minority owner, an expansion-team baron, a global icon and an enormous cultural influence. Jordan represents so many conflicts of interest, but the NBA doesn't really care about that. If Jordan wins, the NBA wins.
If you had told me Jordan would be a bad owner, I would have understood. I could have seen him as Daniel Snyder or young George Steinbrenner, showing no patience, demanding too much of the wrong people, spending money recklessly, changing direction three times a day.
But this ... this I can't believe.
I don't know what Jordan thinks when he watches this mess. Maybe he dreams about getting Anthony Davis with the top pick. Maybe he tells himself he hasn't been an owner for very long, and this will get better. Maybe he wishes he had been nicer to his old general manager with the Bulls, Jerry Krause, who gave him Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and enough other surrounding pieces to win six championships, and got mocked by Jordan every step of the way
Maybe Jordan is just happy to be Michael Jordan. Maybe he feels detached from the whole thing. But I have to believe that in some moments, as the greatest player ever watches one of the worst teams ever, he thinks to himself: "You used to be Michael Jordan. What happened?"


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/michael_rosenberg/04/23/charlotte.bobcats.michael.jordan/index.html#ixzz1stMRxlhI

[MadBOBCATfanUK]

I think we need a new term "bandwagon haters" maybe or something along the lines of that to describe this article. Plus didn't that Bismack trade go down after all the teams had picked, how did he expect us to get Knight?

[ND22]

The Bobcats used the ninth pick to take Walker. He was a wonderful college player at Connecticut, and he will have a nice NBA career, but you can't build a contending NBA team around Kemba Walker. They should have used the No. 7 pick on Brandon Knight, who went No. 8 to Detroit. Knight may or may not turn out to be a star. But he is taller, younger and is shooting better from three-point range (37.6 percent) than Walker is shooting from everywhere (37.1 percent).

Soooo many lolz here. We should have taken Brandon Knight, but wait! Brandon Knight may not work out either. Still, we should have taken him.

-______-

If we had taken Knight he would have argued we should have taken Kemba, who averages the same amount of points, more assists, and slightly more rebounds.

What an absolute joke.

[Mustachio]

Its just such a base look at the subject. Its horrible writing that belongs in the national enquirer not Sports Illustrated. Its the equivalent of doing a book report on the Bible by looking at the front cover from a telescope on the Goodyear blimp.

[fallen xxi]

Just another example of a reporter with minimal information writing a column to people with even less information, and giving people a skewed view from which to formulate an opinion.

This guy knows nothing about the NBA, its players (he actually compares "young" NBA players to every other young person in the world), its coaches (how the fuck can you insult Paul Silas yet praise Larry Brown), mentions nothing about the hiring of Rich Cho.

This guy is a moron, and he has no place reporting on the NBA because its clearly a business he knows nothing about.

[cltblkhscoach]

Damn what a piece of garbarge this is....you guys are right this guy didn't even give a damn and wrote this shit in 5 minutes

[bes628]

Guys chill...we're 7 - infinity, it comes with the territory.

[Mustachio]

Guys chill...we're 7 - infinity, it comes with the territory.

Its not about that. We all know we are bad, we all know that theres not a lot of good to talk about. But look at the piece Kevin Pelton from Basketball Prospectus wrote (there is a thread on it already). Same conclusion, the Bobcats suck. But Pelton used one iota of journalism and wrote an even handed honest piece that showed every angle of this shit season/tank job. Pelton didn't suck up to Bobcat fans with praise, but showed an objective take on what actually happened this year. Instead of pointing and laughing like the other guy.

This toolbag, just threw together some half ass stats with our win record and came to the conclusion that if I put Jordan's name in this article 15 fucking times... someone will read it. My disdain isnt for finding fault with the Bobcats record or method, its for the full fledged attack this guy just mounted against decent journalism.

Corey Maggette, leading scorer....? Umm in average per minute maybe. But why not mention that he only played in half the games this season, or that he is actually the 6th leading point scorer for the Bobcats this year. Why? because telling the truth wouldnt back up his bogus claim that we have no hope on the roster. its just trash and unfortunately a lot more people read SI than BP.

[bes628]

Its not about that. We all know we are bad, we all know that theres not a lot of good to talk about. But look at the piece Kevin Pelton from Basketball Prospectus wrote (there is a thread on it already). Same conclusion, the Bobcats suck. But Pelton used one iota of journalism and wrote an even handed honest piece that showed every angle of this shit season/tank job. Pelton didn't suck up to Bobcat fans with praise, but showed an objective take on what actually happened this year. Instead of pointing and laughing like the other guy.

This toolbag, just threw together some half ass stats with our win record and came to the conclusion that if I put Jordan's name in this article 15 fucking times... someone will read it. My disdain isnt for finding fault with the Bobcats record or method, its for the full fledged attack this guy just mounted against decent journalism.

Corey Maggette, leading scorer....? Umm in average per minute maybe. But why not mention that he only played in half the games this season, or that he is actually the 6th leading point scorer for the Bobcats this year. Why? because telling the truth wouldnt back up his bogus claim that we have no hope on the roster. its just trash and unfortunately a lot more people read SI than BP.


I agree...the journalism coverage of our team blows. But when you're at the bottom, it tends to happen, nobody gives a shit about us to do actual research, they're just feeding the already existing public opinion of our team.

Everybody will not be as positive on our tanking situation as some of the folks on this board.

[BismackBobcat7]

I dont care how good jordan was....lets be honest he blows as a owner

[spectre]

I think we need a new term "bandwagon haters" maybe or something along the lines of that to describe this article. Plus didn't that Bismack trade go down after all the teams had picked, how did he expect us to get Knight?

Nah, we traded for the pick before the draft...so we could have taken Knight.

Jordan has sucked as an owner, but he hired Cho. If he can let Cho work then IMO he has a great chance of turning that perception 180.

[skratch]

I agree on one part that we should of picked Knight with that biyombo pick if u were going PG in the first place, still a kemba fan tho

[dnbman]

I agree on one part that we should of picked Knight with that biyombo pick if u were going PG in the first place, still a kemba fan tho

I think you make the BB pick, but the other pick is a coin-flip: the spitfire guard who just destroyed NCAA teams or the more classic point guard who might be the better floor general. We went for higher potential with the risk of a lower ceiling. I would have been very happy with Knight, but I'm happy with Kemba in that spot.

No comment on the article. I think every basketball journalist has to write some version of that piece this month.

[bes628]

Knight was my first choice, and I was pretty upset with us not taking him.

[dnbman]

Knight was my first choice, and I was pretty upset with us not taking him.

http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/first-world-problems-12.jpg?w=500&h=334

[SWedd523]

We moved up to 7 with the specific intent to leapfrog Detroit so that we could pick Bismack because they were rumored to be extremely high on him. At the time it was either Bismack and one of the two PGs because one was going to be available regardless, or Kemba/Knight and whoever was available at 9... probably Marcus Morris.

Bismack/Kemba
Knight/Morris


I think they made the right call

[tondi]

SI and MJ have had a feud going for years. Also, only a moron would get their sports info from SI these days, although this article does aim for the moron sweet spot pretty well. You have to give SI credit for knowing their audience. Maybe we can find out the latest on a random irrelevant womens sport next time.

MJ has been the controlling owner for only a couple of years and he inherited a shitstorm so to act like he is some kind of horrible owner for making the correct LONG TERM decision to rebuild is the height of idiocy. Now if we still stuck in five years it will be a more valid argument but for the time being it reeks of revenge journalism.

[ohara831]

Charlotte beat writer was on Colin Cowherd this morning. Said MJ has been a no show at the arena for a while now. Said he is hiding from sheer embarrassment. He said MJ always plays the Pro-Am when the PGA comes to Charlotte as he likes to play with Tiger. This is next week. MJ is not playing. He is running low and hiding right now which is a sad thing. He made a smart move in hiring Cho. He needs to get rid of his friends and get some smart BB people in there. Fire Higgins. Let Cho help you select his replacement. And MJ, just let the smart BB people fix this mess for you. Please.

[teej]

Beat writer is an idiot, then, because MJ was at the Bulls game.

[WAM9]

Agreed. I have seen multiple sightings and quotes from MJ lately. He may not be courtside for the Bobcats but he certainly isn't in hiding.

If you owned the team would you sit courtside every game at this point?

[teej]

If you owned the team would you sit courtside every game at this point?

He'd probably murder Cory Higgins.

[Scottley Crue]

Jordan's at games, he just sits in his suite as opposed to courtside. Most likely because, as a general rule, it's frowned upon to choke your employees in public.

[ND22]

Plus, its probably not in his best interest to be on the floor right now. The playoff season, he was a plus for the team, talking trash to the refs as he got smashed off of drinks. Now he'd just get smashed and likely fight a fan after they called him a horrible owner.

[SWedd523]

I stopped reading when he said 10-day contracts.


We literally have ZERO players on the roster on a 10 day and haven't had one all year long. In other words, he's talking out of his ass

[May4prez]

I know we didnt have a game last night, but he was in Chicago for the Cubs game.
BUT HE SHOULD BE AT EVERY GAME NO MATTER WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD.

JPlay, I wouldve stopped watching too.