NY Times article on Bobcats owner Jordan

[King Taharqa]

In 2006, the Bobcats’ owner, Robert L. Johnson, coaxed Jordan into coming aboard as a minority owner and top executive. They first met through the actor Denzel Washington, a mutual friend, while Jordan was playing in Chicago.

“Michael got a little bit frustrated,” Johnson said of Jordan’s failed talks with Kohl to buy the Bucks. “It led to his hiatus of wanting to be separate from the N.B.A. until I kept convincing him to come to Charlotte. Basketball is in his blood. You can only play so much golf.”

Jordan quickly placed longtime associates in significant roles in Charlotte’s front office: Whitfield; Higgins, who was his assistant general manager in Washington; and Buzz Peterson, a college roommate who is director of player personnel.

In conducting his first draft for the Bobcats, Jordan selected Adam Morrison with the third pick. But Morrison never made an impact before the Bobcats traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers last year. Kwame Brown. Adam Morrison. Two bad lottery picks is not the way to build a reputation as an executive. But some of Jordan’s moves are paying dividends. He hired Larry Brown as the coach before the 2008-9 campaign and engineered a slew of trades over the last two seasons involving 21 players. Many of the players he acquired were considered castoffs, and Brown has made good use of them. But how long he will continue to do so is in question. There are murmurs that the well-traveled Brown will head elsewhere after this season.

“I have been successful,” Jordan said of his career as an executive. “People look at it under different microscopes. I’m held to different standards than most. The level of success I have is also more noticeable than most.”

Right now, it is easy to notice in Charlotte. While they rank 22nd in attendance, the Bobcats are averaging nearly 16,000 fans a game, their best ever and more than a 10 percent jump over last season. No N.B.A. team has improved as much in this category. The Bobcats have also sold three times as many season tickets compared to this point last season and have added 30 corporate sponsors since August.

read alot more here....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/sports/basketball/15jordan.html?pagewanted=1

[cdandi1]

great post KT, you have a great way of finding great bobcats reads outside of the local media. Also, sweet sig!

[mj4life]

much of the credit goes to Fred Whitfield and his staff along with Rod Higgins on the basketball ops side. keep the forward progress going guys and gals, also notice all of this without having to change the name or anything like that(amazing)

[dimbee]

Great article. Good find, KT