Sport-Blog.com

By Ed Jennett


Michael Jordan is back. But unlike the first time there will be no jersey number switch. Unlike the second time there will be no grand expectations for him to lead his mediocre teammates into contention. The third return will be quite different from the first two.

Jordan will not be an active player, as he was when he originally came out of retirement with the Chicago Bulls, and as he was after eventually leaving the front office of the Washington Wizards and suiting up for them. This time he will strictly be management. Jordan has become a part-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats in a transaction that made His Airness the largest individual owner of the Bobcats behind majority partner Robert Johnson. Although Johnson insists that he will always remain the majority owner of the club, Jordan will become the new managing member of basketball operations for the team.

Johnson purchased the expansion Charlotte franchise for $300 million in 2002. Jordan has spent the last three years trying to purchase a team so he could have complete control of the club and was declining the overtures of Johnson, who wanted him to get involved with the Bobcats. He obviously reconsidered that stance in part due to the lack of success he was having in finding an owner willing to sell a franchise to him. This was definitely not the sole reason however. Another major factor is that Jordan will be partially getting what he wants, which is control over the basketball operations of a team. The third major factor is that the club is located in North Carolina. Jordan is a native North Carolinian. Although Jordan was born in Brooklyn, he moved to North Carolina with his family as a child. Jordan then attended the University of North Carolina for three years before the shooting guard entered the NBA Draft and was selected by the Bulls with the third overall pick behind fellow Hall-of-Famer center Hakeem (then Akeem) Olajuwon and Hall-of-Fame bust center Sam Bowie.

Jordan and Johnson have been friends for nearly 17 years after meeting at a Bulls game. Johnson initially offered Jordan any position that he wanted with the Bobcats the same day that Jordan was fired by the Wizards. That initial offer was definitely taken under strong consideration as Jordan thought about it for nearly four months before declining. He then began attempting to purchase a majority interest in the Milwaukee Bucks from U.S. Senator Herb Kohl. Eventually Kohl decided not to sell and Jordan remained outside of the league.

His initial ouster was a result of having been fired by the Wizards after his final retirement as a player. Jordan was under the impression that he would return to his previous position as president of basketball operations of the team, but majority owner Abe Pollin obviously had different ideas. Pollin was clearly unhappy with the performance of the team under Jordan. The Wizards wasted the first overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft on high school power forward/center Kwame Brown, who was a bust in Washington before being dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers in a sign-and-trade finally performing like a high quality NBA player. Despite Jordan returning to the court for the final two years of his Wizards tenure, Washington missed the playoffs all three years that he was associated with the club. Instead of the partial ownership of the club that he had to surrender in order to return to the court being returned to him and being shown to the door of his office, Jordan was shown the door out of the franchise. Despite the on the court failings of the Wizards, just being associated with Jordan made the club a financial success. Jordan obviously felt used by the team. He was also disillusioned by the fact that he never had as much control of the franchise as he had wanted. Pollin had to give his final approval for any move that Jordan made.

Jordan was viewed as a savior heading in to his previous two returns, and the third will be similar to the others in that regard. He will definitely have his work cut out for him though. Charlotte ranked 28th out of 30 in attendance after their first season in the old and outdated Charlotte Coliseum. This past season the Bobcats moved into a new $265 million arena. They only sold out seven of their 41 home games, despite the new arena receiving rave reviews. Attendance only increased to 22nd in the league however, with an average of only 16,366 fans. The Bobcats season ticket sales are believed to be approximately 5,000, which is third worst in the league. Because of the Bobcats difficulty in selling season tickets, Johnson has announced that the team would lower season ticket prices for next year. It is believed that the immense popularity of Jordan, especially in North Carolina, will cause a tremendous increase in ticket sales.

The franchise has also had difficulties on the court. In their first season the Bobcats finished with an 18-64 record. This past season the team improved to 26-56. Charlotte also finished the season with a four game winning streak even though the club was dealing with numerous injuries at the time.

Jordan joining the Bobcats comes two weeks after Johnson began making other major moves with the franchise. First Johnson fired team president and chief executive officer Ed Tapscott. Johnson then fired the marketing and operations officers of the club. Although he gave no reason for the dismissals at the time, it was believed that Johnson made the moves because he was not satisfied with the business-side of the club. In addition to the low season-ticket base, Johnson was losing money.

One key person who was not fired is Bernie Bickerstaff, who will remain as the General Manager and Head Coach of the team. While Bickerstaff is clearly still in a very high position of power and authority, Johnson has also made it very clear that the ultimate power and authority within the organization in terms of basketball will reside with the managing member of basketball operations, Jordan. Johnson has already stressed that Jordan is an owner and that General Managers and Head Coaches report to owners. It has also been stressed by Johnson that the 41-year old Jordan would not return to the court and play for the Bobcats.