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SPOl^S/tE^e Ciiarlotte $o«t
Thursday, June 29,2006
Sdng ctialleiiged to accouHldr pny
Continued from page 1C
this. We just have to all have
it at all times. We need to
have aU five people on the
same page...we can’t have
three and two or four and
Yet, in spite of agreeing
with Bogues, the Sting is
strugghng to play consistent
basketball. Or, maybe the
problem is bigger than any
one thinks. Maybe the words
are getting through, but this
team just isn’t that good.
Center Tammy Sutton-
Brown believes Charlotte still
has a chance to turn the sea
son around, but each player
must pull her weight.
‘We just have come out and
establish ourselves on
defense,” she said. We all
have to hold our own selves
accountable, not relying on
someone else to get us
pumped up, but go out there
and have pride in ourselves
and focus. So it’s an individ
ual thing, definitely.”
If the Sting has any hope of
improving, it begins today
against expansion Chicago,
where Charlotte is trying to
win a second straight road
game. The Sting returns
Charlotte Bobcats Arena
Saturday to face the
Sacramento Monarchs at 6
p.m.
Jordan, Bobcats face long list of hurdles to win converts
Continued from page 1C
about the team’s direction in
the one area where the
Bobcats have appeared to be
on firm footing - building a
playoff contender.
Johnson has said Jordan’s
new role - his official title is
managing member of basket
ball operations _ means
coach and general manager
Bemie Bickerstaff will take
all major player decisions,
such as trades and signings,
to Jordan for approval.
Previously, it was Johnson
who signed off on such deci
sions.
‘We’ll exchange ideas,”
Bickerstaff said. “I think it
would behoove both of us to
listen.”
On Thursday, Jordan
helped run a workout with
Rudy Gay of Connecticut,
one of several players the
Bobcats are considering tak
ing with the third pick in
Wednesday’s draft, and sev
eral other potential draft
picks.
Jordan helped conduct
drills during most of the
workout, but retreated from
the practice court to a bal
cony by the time reporters
were let in. A Bobcats
spokesman said Jordan
would not speak with
reporters, but the team’s
newest part-owner later
spoke with the hometown
Charlotte Observer and two
other newspapers.
“I think I have enough
(credibOity) to go to Bob and
say, We need X amount of
dollars to make sure we can
build the foundation,’”
Jordan said. "Unless we do
that, the business is never
going to flourish and that’s
been proven in the past.”
The draft has been the cen
terpiece of Bickerstaff and
former team president Ed
Tapscott’s plan to build the
Bobcats around a core group
of young players, including
Emeka Okafor, Raymond
Felton and Sean May.
Tapscott was ousted last
month in a front-office
shake-up, before Jordan
came on board. But the plan
has shown some signs of suc
cess. Despite a roster deci
mated by injuries, the team
improved from 18 to 26 wins
this past season and ended
the year with a franchise-
record four-game winning
streak.
Jordan’s only previous
NBA management experi
ence was in Washington,
where he reigned as the
Wizards’ top decision-maker
from 2000 to 2003. At first, as
part owner and president of
basketball operations, he
tried to run the team from
his home in Chicago - a strat
egy that often left the rud
derless team to falter on its
own.
His selection of high school
player Kwame Brown with
the top pick in the 2001 draft
was a disaster. And when he
decided to return to playing
in 2001-02, he junked a care
ful rebuilding plan in favor of
a veteran-heavy push for the
playoffs that failed miserably
- and was followed by
Jordan’s 2003 ouster by
Wizards owner Abe Pollin.
This-time, there appears no
chance Jordan will take the
floor. He doesn’t plan to move
his family to Charlotte, but
said his brother lives in the
area. "I do come in more
than you guys know,” he said.
“I’m more of a local than you
think.”
Johnson has said he does
not intend to use Jordan’s
star power to market the
franchise - the area in which
the Bobcats need the most
help.
“I’m not a seller,” Jordan
said. “He is fully aware I’m
not a part of a dog-and-pony
show. I want to build this
team so that the team sup
ports itself”
Sportscorp’s Ganis doesn’t
buy it.
“Of course (Johnson is)
going to leverage him to mar
ket the team,” Ganis said.
“That’s what Michael Jordan
does best, now that he’s not
playing basketball anymore.
... It would be the height of
foolishness not to use
Michael Jordan for what he
does best.”
The Bobcats stiU are fitt
ing bad feelings left over from
the 2002 departure of the
Hornets for New Orleans,
and the long and ugly fight in
Charlotte over building a
new arena.
The team added to the
problems with its own mis
takes. Before the first season,
Johnson signed a cable dead
that put most Bobcats games
on a new, team-owned
regional sports network. But
Carolina Sports and
Entertainment Tfelevision
WEIS only available to digital
cable subscribers and flopped
so badly that Johnson folded
it after one season.
But he remains locked into
a long-term cable deal, and
the team’s games are now
shown on a local cable news
channel.
The team also generated ill
will when it boosted ticket
prices after moving into the
new arena. Burned by
mediocre attendance,
Johnson announced in
February that he would drop
2006-07 season ticket prices
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for about 11,500 seats, of 70
percent of the arena. The
push to put fans in the seats
even has the team seUing
$199 season tickets to seats
in the arena’s upper comers.
“Mistakes have been made
and some decisions should
have been second-guessed,”
Jordan said. “What’s been
asked of me is my opinion
about how we should attack
this scenario, and I feel it has
to be done on the basketball
court.”
While Jordan might not
woo those thinking about
buying nosebleed seats,
Ganis envisions the team
using him as a “closer” to sell
luxury suites or to play golf
with a CEO who’s close to
buying a sponsorship or
putting his company’s name
on the arena.
‘If it’s used well and they
are not too afraid of asking
Michael to join 'them at cer
tain events and activities,
then it could be a real boon,”
he said, "If he intimidates
the staff, if Bob Johnson is
afraid to ask him to partici
pate ... then the3^re wasting a
phenomenal aspect of this
opportunity.”
On the Net:
Charlotte Bobcats:
wwwjiba.com/bobcats
LIVINGSTONE HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
PHOTOAVADE NASH
Livingstone inducted nine individuals to its athletic hall of fame earlier this month in
Charlotte. The inductees are from left: Lavilla Watson, Marjorie Kinard (posthumous induc
tion for the Rev. John Kinard), Keiiee Dillard Watkins and Shannon Cherry. Back row: Troy
Veale, Produs Perkins, Clifton Huff, Robert Wiley, and Dorsey Montgomery.
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