Michael Jordan became a minority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats in 2006. Since that time, the team has finished with an above-.500 record once and reached the playoffs in only that season. They were swept in the first round. Jordan became the the Bobcats’ majority owner a little over a year ago, and Charlotte fans are still hoping he can build a contender. As M.J.’s friend Charles Barkley pointed out on Thursday, His Airness has not done a good job thus far.
“I think the biggest problem has been I don’t know if he has hired enough people around him who he will listen to,” Barkley said Thursday on ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy Show. “One thing about being famous is the people around you, you pay all their bills so they very rarely disagree with you because they want you to pick up the check. They want to fly around on your private jet so they never disagree with you. I don’t think Michael has hired enough people around him who will disagree.
“I love Michael, but he just has not done a good job. Even though he is one of my great friends, I can’t get on here and tell you he’s done a great job. He has not done a great job, plain and simple.”
The Bobcats have lost 19 of their last 20 games and have won only four games all season. For obvious reasons, the team leans heavily on Jordan for most decisions regarding basketball. One of his biggest mistakes to this point was the decision to draft Adam Morrison, which is one that Barkley insists he warned M.J. against.
“I said ‘Michael, I think you should take Brandon Roy, and he said ‘We like Adam Morrison,'” Barkley said. “I said ‘Adam Morrison can’t play.’ I said ‘let me ask you a question, did you say Adam Morrison first and (the Bobcats front office staff) agreed with you or did they say Adam Morrison first?’ He said ‘What do you mean?’ I said ‘Michael, nobody wants to disagree with you. You are such a powerful personality nobody, especially your flunkies as I call them, the flunkies are never going to disagree with you.’ Adam Morrison is a nice kid. He can’t play in the NBA.”
Sir Charles says extremely stupid things all the time, but his assessment of Jordan is pretty fair. If anything, the Bobcats have gone backwards since M.J. became majority owner. Drafting more effectively would be a terrific way to start turning things around.
