Ownership is Rare Air for Blacks in Sports
Entertainment, Politics and Sports
Billionaire Boys Club
It also represents an opportunity for the Jordan detractors to criticize him every chance they can get. Throughout his playing career and up until now, Michael Jordan has been known as the greatest basketball player ever; but as an executive, he has been labeled as the worst ever.
His Charlotte Bobcats finish the 2011-2012 NBA season with a 7-59 record; the worst in NBA history. In addition to losing on the court, the Bobcats are also losing money and fans; they lost about 20 million last season and ranked 22 out of 30 teams in terms of attendance. Because Jordan is the majority owner, it should be noted that he is not necessarily always involved with the day to day activities of the ball club. Like most owners, Jordan delegates responsibilities to different individuals within the organization and trust that they will make the right decisions. His organization has already been through three coaches in two years and will be looking for a fourth throughout the off season. He hired Richard Cho as his general manager in 2011, Cho who is a Harvard law graduate, was the first Asian to become a general manager in the NBA. He was originally the GM for the Portland Trailblazers in the early part of 2011. The hiring of Richard Cho represents a departure from the alleged practice of Jordan hiring only his friends and colleagues to help run the team. This alleged practice, some have said, is one of the reasons the Bobcats have suffered.
One of those critics has been hall of famer, basketball analyst and longtime Jordan friend Charles Barkley. “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 on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “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.” Barkley continued to say “I love Michael, but he just has not done a good job.” Another person who seems to agree with Barkley is hall of fame coach Larry Brown, who also was hired by Jordan as the Bobcats coach in 2008. The journeymen coach, who coached for seven different teams over a 14 year span, has been quoted saying that Jordan is “around people who don’t have a clue” and that the people he worked with “made me sick.”