MJ called about James Harden

[carolina-chuck]

Michael Jordan called the Thunder about trading for James Harden, and other interesting tales

"In a wide-ranging interview with Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, Michael Jordan said a lot of things that may be of interest to fans of both the Bobcats and the NBA alike.

One of the more interesting notes to fans of the league in general was the fact that Jordan said he “made some calls” to inquire about the availability of James Harden, before the Thunder ended up trading him to Houston for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and a bag of basketballs some draft picks. The entire transcript of the interview is worth a read, if only because Jordan doesn’t often make himself available in this way. But there’s also a bullet-point version, which we’ll duplicate below along with some thoughts on each.

- Jordan said the franchise is open to a nickname switch should New Orleans Hornets owner Tom Benson follow through on changing that team’s name (and Hornets becomes available once again).

The team’s nickname, colors, and uniforms are the least of Charlotte’s problems. The Bobcats have been over .500 just once in the team’s eight years since moving to Charlotte, and a history of questionable draft picks and decisions (or non-decisions) in free agency have them poised to repeat the feat in season number nine. The correct answer here from Jordan should have been an angry one taling about how he’s focused on the product on the court, and not the product in the gift shop.

- Jordan told players to stop complaining about new coach Mike Dunlap’s lengthy practices. “You can’t sit here and look yourself in the mirror and say we don’t need this stuff. If that was the case, we shouldn’t have been a 7-59 team. So in essence when you’re a 7-59 team, you go back to the basics, you go back to try and figure out a way, OK, we need to do this thing the right way. Either you buy in or you’re not a part of this whole process.”

In today’s NBA — or realistically, even in today’s society — players aren’t going to be able to focus for practices that last for three-plus hours. They’re just not. It’s easy to talk about your eight- or nine-hour work day and try to relate it to twenty-something athletes trying to focus on improving their fundamentals for a few hours, but it isn’t the same thing. I’m with Jordan that in principle, players should suck it up and get on the page. But reality says that Dunlap should be an effective enough communicator to be able to condense his message so his players are able to digest it over a shorter period of time.

- Jordan said the Bobcats “made a couple of calls’’ about shooting guard James Harden’s availability before the Oklahoma City Thunder traded Harden to the Houston Rockets this week.This sounds exciting if (for some sick, sick reason) you’re actually a Bobcats fan, but in reality, 25 of the 30 NBA teams likely made the obligatory phone call to Sam Presti before Harden was ultimately dealt to the Rockets. This is what NBA GMs do — they make calls to other teams, on a fairly consistent basis, to see who’s available and who isn’t to determine if there are any realistic deals to be made. Again, this sounds exciting, but these conversations take place constantly throughout the course of an NBA season.

- Jordan said he still believes the Bobcats could be an attractive destination for major free agents down the road, but “I also understand we’ve got to get our house in order, to make that attractive to people.’’

I’ve got nothing on this one. Truer words have never been spoken." (PBT)

I dont know if anyone has posted this up or has seen this, but it sure created some noise for me. Looks like MJ is starting to be more aggressive, unlike the past "cheap". Barkley has even called MJ out for him being cheap and that he wouldnt be able to afford Barkley as a front office member or something of that sort. Just from my view of seeing this interesting news of MJ calling for Harden, and I know its too early but could MJ be keeping a very very close eye on Shabazz Muhammad this upcoming college basketball season? lol

[chubs2496]

We will eff up getting the number one pick anyways. We will be around 6-12 and get no superstar.

[Herbert The Love Bug]

If we can land Shabazz, Zeller, or Noel we are going to have a pretty awesome young team here in Charlotte. There will be other really good players in the earlier part of the draft too though. We don't have to get one of those 3.

[yasuhara2241]

I never have understood the "cheap" argument. MJ has always spent money. The problem was it was always spent on crap aka tyrus thomas, okafor, carroll, etc. etc

[carolina-chuck]

If we can land Shabazz, Zeller, or Noel we are going to have a pretty awesome young team here in Charlotte. There will be other really good players in the earlier part of the draft too though. We don't have to get one of those 3.

Add McAdoo to the list too

[carolina-chuck]

I never have understood the "cheap" argument. MJ has always spent money. The problem was it was always spent on crap aka tyrus thomas, okafor, carroll, etc. etc

I think when people like Barkley and the media puts out MJ as being cheap, they're talking about the people who MJ puts with him in the front office.

[carolina-chuck]

We will eff up getting the number one pick anyways. We will be around 6-12 and get no superstar.

I hope we fuggn don't. Cho has preached of being a rebuilding team of building through the draft (i.e. OKC). We better tank it at some point of time and try to land a top4 pick no matter how good we think we look this year. Anything less than that, I'd be disappointed and I think it would only set us back unless we're trying to go for that 2014 Draft (amazing talents) lol.

And last night win didn't help us lol. Detroit, Wash, and Sac looked worst than us in the first week.

[Sapper]

Why tank? We are 1 game into an 82 game season. This will be a fun team to watch and they are really deep - and I love Dunlap's playing style.

[carolina-chuck]

Why tank? We are 1 game into an 82 game season. This will be a fun team to watch and they are really deep - and I love Dunlap's playing style.

They have looked better than i thought they were going to but really, really at some point Cho and MJ has to think about tanking the season. We're not a Playoffs team this year. We're just not. You can't put yourself in a situation where you're not a playoffs team and you're a few spot out of a top 4 where you have the chance to land a real star that in addition with the talents on this team next year, you can be a real playoffs contender. And by winning rather than tanking it, you lose out on one of those star player. Sometimes you just have to wait and look for the future. That's what OKC did in their rebuilding process.

[Sapper]

A) The chances of making the playoffs are better than missing them(literally).

B) Harrison Barnes was the pick of the litter at this point last year.

C) OKC got lucky by getting the #2 pick.

D) Happy the season is back and will continue to root for the Bobcats.

E-Z) Profit.

[SmittyistheGOAT]

I will say I feel better about Cho in charge than anyone else.

[YoungPanthers89]

Add McAdoo to the list too

Im sure mj would love to draft him, for what reason I don't know...

[carolina-chuck]

A) The chances of making the playoffs are better than missing them(literally).

B) Harrison Barnes was the pick of the litter at this point last year.

C) OKC got lucky by getting the #2 pick.

D) Happy the season is back and will continue to root for the Bobcats.

E-Z) Profit.

They came up big with landing Durant at no.2 but they played it smart landing the No.4 pick (Westbrook) and No.3 pick (Harden) the two following years. That wasn't on luck.

[carolina-chuck]

Im sure mj would love to draft him, for what reason I don't know...

I'm sure MJ doesn't just go out drafting all UNC players other than Felton and May. And at the time, both of them were really good picks. MJ passed on player like Hansbrough and Barnes this year. He also took a Duke player in Hendo so this theory of MJ just wanted to take a UNC player bc they're UNC player is ridiculous. But I'd love to have MCAdoo based on how he performs this upcoming season. We do need another PF bc Biyombo is Lookin like he's not going to improve his offensive game anytime soon.