In case you didn’t get a chance to see last night’s pre-season game,  here are a few highlights for you to enjoy.

Even though the Cats lost, there were a couple of positives to take away from this game.

• Gerald Wallace was solid with 18 points and 5 boards in only 18 minutes.
• Alexis Ajinca had a one man coming out party ( no, not this kind of coming out) with 15 points, 7 rebounds. 2 blocks in 18 minutes off the bench.  He also did most of his work in the paint which had to make Larry Brown very happy.

It’s baaaack. The NBA has finally tipped off, if only for preseason action. That means LeBron and Shaq are playing together, AI and the Grizzlies aren’t, and Charles Barkley is back to being paid to murder the English language. On Tuesday, Bobcats fans from across the Carolinas, across the country, and around the world (just go on the forums and take a look at our international flavor!) were thrilled as our beloved Charlotte Bobcats were back in action against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Ohio. Thursday brought the ‘Cats back to North Carolina, but this time in Greensboro where they played the Hornets, and then tonight, Saturday, again against the Cavs but this time in Charleston, South Carolina, the second and final of the “Taste of the Carolinas” tour.

While preseason means starters are given bench minutes, this still gives us a look at the team before the season and a good look at the bench. With Tyson Chandler and Boris Diaw out, Vladimir Radmonivic and Nazr Mohammed joined regulars Raymond Felton, Raja Bell, and Gerald “Crash” Wallace in the starting lineup. Crash wasn’t his usual self in this one, playing ten minutes and going 0-5 from the field, although he did have two free throws. The real story in this one, though, was center Nazr Mohammed. Going up against Shaq, Nazzy had 10 points on 5 of 7 feild goals, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, and no fouls in 18 minutes. In 16 minutes, Shaq had 6 points, 3 boards, and 1 block with 3 fouls. Which one of those looks like the one worthy of the SportsCenter highlights? Well, tell that to ESPN. Not a single Bobcat highlight was shown on ESPN. Not even Alexis Ajinca’s alley-oop. Speaking of the Frenchman, he was also impressive. In 19 minutes, he went 3-6, scored 9 points, had 7 rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block. And this wasn’t even his best game. Other notable stories were Flip Murray, Raja Bell, and Gerald Henderson making the shooting guard trio’s total from the field a miserable 6-24, Derrick Brown scoring 10 points in just under 23 minutes, and Stevie Graham looking like a real energy guy off the bench for Larry Brown. After the game, Larry Brown spoke about the replacement referees. “They’re learning,” Brown said. “It’s not an easy game to officiate and I understand that. I’m on them because all you do as a coach is want consistency. They don’t need to be hearing it from me, but I want my young kids to have a chance to win. We’ve got a lot of good people who are going to try and train these guys. They’re doing the best they can. Hopefully it gets settled and everybody benefits.” Brown received a technical foul from the crew, and may well be a regular offender this season.

Thursday brought Emeka Okafor back to the team that traded him this offseason, although he was sidelined with an injury, as was Tyson Chandler, who he was swapped for. Before the game, Mek said he was “shocked” to be traded from the team where he was the foundation, even though Larry Brown said at the end of last season he wanted Okafor to focus more on basketball and was repeatedly on Mek’s case during the year. But enough of that, on to what matters. The game redeemed Crash from his poor showing two days before, having him put up 14 points, 2 boards and a steal in 24 minutes. While Nazr Mohammed wasn’t as impressive at first, putting up only 4 points, his defensive presence was impressive, with four rebounds, two blocks, a steal, and +/- of +17, compared to backup center Gana Diop’s -8. The next highest on the team were Ray Felton and Derrick Brown at +9. Whatever Nazr did in the offseason, it seems to have paid off in gold. After playing just under 14 minutes, Felton left with a minor injury and did not return, but was back in the linuep against the Cavs. DJ Augustin manned the point from then on, scoring 22 points on just 2 field goals, shooting 18 free throws and making 16. Augustin said, “Coach told us to drive and not settle for jump shots, and that’s what I tried to do.” It didn’t hurt that the replacement officials were whistle happy, calling 77 fouls in all. Swingman Stevie Graham scored 15 points and 6 boards along with an assist, and Derrick Brown once again had 10 points.

Tonight it was back to playing Lebron, Shaq, and the rest of the Cavs, this time in Charleston. However, thanks to a bunch of greedy tv executives, most of South Carolina and a good deal of North Carolina couldn’t even see the game, per usual. Crash set the tone for the Bobcats in the first half and part of the second, dropping 18 points and grabbing 5 boards and a steal. But this was The Alexis Ajinca show. Lexy came into his own in the second half, putting down 15 points, 7 rebounds, a steal and two blocks. But it wasn’t just the stats, it was how he did it. Ajinca scored via mid-range jump shot, hook shot, alley-oop, dunk, lay-up, and putback. He was all over the Cavs bench, and if the Bobcats get half of this from him in the season, the worries about power forward depth are totally unnecessary. This kid has some real talent, and he’s finally starting to show it. Maybe he won’t be the tallest person in Maine this winter after all! In other notes from the game, Raja Bell and Flip Murray are still looking for their stroke, if you find it, please call 704-BOBCATS right away, they are offering a reward. Just Kidding. I think. Also, Stevie Graham came back down to earth a little tonight, with just 2 points, 4 rebounds, a block, and 5 fouls and turnovers. Shannon Brown, anyone? Anyways, I’m very encouraged by the first three games, and I’m looking forward to the next bunch.

- For those of you trying to listen to WFNZ’s broadcast of Bobcats games online, according to someone at WFNZ, that’s because the NBA and the Bobcats own the rights to all games broadcast online, and no othe entity can legally put the games online, whether in audio or video format. Why the game is being broadcast locally but not on NBA.com, who knows.

- Before the Cavs game, the Bobcats exercised their option for 2010-2011 on DJ Augustin’s contract. Larry Brown said “I think it’s a no-brainer.” The Bobcats have until after the third regular season game to decide whether to exercise Alexis Ajinca’s option.

- The Bobcats are hosting a free Open Practice on Thursday the 15th. You can sit anywhere you want outside the first five rows, and all who show up get a free soda and popcorn.

- Monday the Bobcats head to Atlanta to face the Hawks, then are off until the weekend when they head to Los Angeles to play part in the Lakers preseason tournament. They come back to Charlotte to play host to the Bucks on the 20th, then the Grizzlies on the 23rd, then the preseason is over and it’s time to get going.

Welcome to Michael’s Minute, where BCP checks in with Bobcats Director of Corporate Communications Michael Thompson. We’ll be doing this regularly throughout the season. Today we get into Larry Brown, the TV Situation, the possible sale of the team, and more.

BCP: Bill Ingram from Hoopsworld says Larry Brown is quote “livid” the team hasn’t signed a Power Forward. With his candid past, is there any concern about the Front Office being badmouthed by the coach?

MT: One interesting thing I’ve noticed over the last 18 months about the way the national media covers Coach Brown is that a lot of what they write or say is presumptive. I think they sometimes feel like Coach has been around for so long that they already “know” what he’s thinking on a given topic, and they can write or say that without ever actually hearing him say it. They figure that if he felt a certain way on a given topic back in San Antonio 20 years ago, then he must feel the same way today. If he “badmouthed” the front office at one of his previous teams, then the perception is that he must be “livid” about the situation here.

Yes, Coach is a straight shooter, but to the best of my knowledge he has never “badmouthed” the Bobcats’ front office. In fact at Media Day he remarked at how different the roster is now in comparison to a year ago, and when answering a question about additional roster moves he said that it’s great to have players that other teams want. He asked for guys that play his style of basketball and he’s getting them. At camp last week he looked focused and energetic as we would expect, but he seemed to be enjoying things as well, and the whole camp had a really good vibe about it. I expect that to continue into the season, and I expect us to continue to look at the roster and find ways to get better, because that’s what Coach Brown is all about.

BCP: Do you know what TV companies are carrying the Bobcats this year besides TWC, Dish Network, and DirecTv, and what if anything can the Bobcats do to resolve this issue?

MT: To date, the following cable providers have opted to carry the broadcasts of our games on Fox Sports Carolinas and SportSouth; Time Warner Cable in Charlotte, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Raleigh and Winston-Salem; Mi-Connection in Mooresville; SkyLine Communications in West Jefferson, NC; Southern Coastal Cable in Georgetown, SC; AT&T in Charlotte, Raleigh and Columbia; and Comcast in Charleston. Satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network have also opted to carry our games in the NBA-designated inner market, a roughly 75-mile radius around the city of Charlotte.

Here’s the thing that everyone has to remember about our games appearing on television: we don’t get to decide where they air. When we sold our broadcast rights to Fox Sports Net we gave up that right. But a big factor in our decision to sell our rights to FSN was the promise they made to make our games available to every cable and satellite provider in North and South Carolina, and they have done that. Unfortunately, not every provider wants to give our games to their subscribers and that’s where the problem lies. As an organization there is not much we can do – what kind of leverage does an NBA team have with a cable provider in Greenville or Myrtle Beach? The people with the most power in this equation are the subscribers of the providers that have made a decision to not carry our games. In the television industry, change is usually a product of consumer demand. When enough subscribers call and email and threaten to leave, providers tend to listen and make changes. We saw it happen with a couple of providers last season who finally got on board after enough subscribers said they wanted to see our games. Subscribers have more power than anyone, and the best we can do as an organization is to give them the information they need to have an informed and intelligent conversation with their provider.

BCP: Is Managing Member of Basketball Operations Michael Jordan going to have a more active presence at games this year?

MT: I don’t think I’m supposed to take this question literally because there’s really not much Mr. Jordan can do to “have a more active presence at games” other than what he’s already doing: sitting in his courtside seats and sharing his opinions with referees or trying to rattle opposing players with his legendary ability to, shall we say, engage in dialogue with them.

I’m guessing that the real question is more about his public presence at team functions. On Draft Day he handled media availability after the selection of Gerald Henderson. A few weeks later Rod Higgins and team president Fred Whitfield hosted a fantasy camp for premium Season Ticket Holders who renewed by a certain date, and he attended both the morning and afternoon sessions of that event. When it makes sense for him to do something in public he has always been eager and available to help out. But appearance just for the sake of appearance isn’t the best use of his time. He’s an owner, not an employee, and his area of interest is the basketball operations side of our company so that’s where his focus is every day. He and Rod are on a roll right now with the drafting of D.J. Augustin and Gerald Henderson and the trades that brought Raja, Boris, Vlade and Gana to us. I think the best thing he can do for the Bobcats is to continue to make decisions like those and put a great product on the court.

BCP: Will the Bobcats introduce any extra social media guidelines outside of those handed down by the NBA?

MT: I’m not aware of any restrictions on our players using social media outside of the guidelines established last week by the league. We have a couple of tweeters in Nazr and Gerald Henderson, and bloggers in Tyson and Gerald Wallace, but other than that we don’t have a lot of guys who operate in the social media world right now.

BCP: Is the team still for sale, or has Mr. Johnson taken it off the market as indicated by The Charlotte Observer?

MT: The lesson here is tried and true, but worth repeating: don’t believe everything you read or hear. Newspapers, radio talk shows and television news programs are all in the same business: sales. Their product is information, and they profit when they “scoop” the competition on a story. The problem, of course, is that in an environment like that the emphasis is far greater on being first with news than being right with news. In this particular story there’s one really important piece of information that seems to be missing: at no point did Mr. Johnson ever come out and say he was selling the team. The local newspaper’s stories (and subsequently everyone else’s because they all stemmed from what they read there first) were all based on the word of an unnamed source. Mr. Jordan remains the only person who has gone on record in this whole saga, and he confirmed an interest in increasing his share of the team. Everything else you’ve read and heard on this topic is simply rumor or speculation. But when the goal is to post the story first, even if it’s based entirely on the word of someone who refuses to be named (and therefore refuses to be held accountable when the information turns out to be less-than-accurate), then we get “he’s selling” and “he’s not selling” stories sitting, literally, side-by-side in the same news outlet. So as long as it’s more important to be first than to be right, Bobcats Sports & Entertainment will continue to refrain from commenting on rumors.

An actual game against another team!  Holy crap!  It doesn’t mean a whole lot but it’s a competition and it’s leading to something…like a run at the Playoffs.  That’s the expectation this year.  We’re done with this basement dwelling, yeah they have some nice players, doesn’t Jordan have something to do with them?

NO!  We are the Charlotte BOBCATS!  Speaking of Jordan, the two most dominant figures since his retirement (and a lot of time during his playing days) will be on the court tonight in the person of Mr. Lebron James and Mr. Shaquille “I’ve got too many BIG Nicknames” O’Neil.  The Big Aristotle and the Big Worldwide Icon…together.  When you have a 2 time All-Star backing up a 17 time All-Star and you have the only team with 2 league MVPs…Cleveland looks pretty nasty.  They added Shaq and Candice Parker’s Big Brother (who is not bad and yes I will still say he got dunked on by his sister).

Charlotte, meanwhile, traded the team’s first ever pick, face of the franchise, Mr. Charlotte himself, Emeka Okafor to New Orleans for Tyson Chandler.  Hurt for a bit, I guess but you can’t get different results by doing the same things.  Chandler won’t play tonight.  Then again neither will Okafor.  Chandler is out, Boris Diaw is out as well.  He hurt his ankle in Eurobasket ’09.  Not the discotequing after but during an actual game.

His replacement at the 4 will most likely be his French teammate (if he’d made the team) Alexis Ajinca.  Lex has been the focus of a lot in this off season.  Larry Brown rides the kid in practice like Secretariat, he called him out for not making the French National team and basically flaking out saying “He showed no interest in making their team or playing hard,” Brown said. “I was going (to France) to drink the wine and eat the food and enjoy myself. After watching him, nothing tastes good.”

So, questions, yes.  Difficult team?  Yes.  Am I excited?  Of course, it’s preseason!  It’s time to play some ball!