What an eventful 24 hours for Bobcats fans. First, Captain Jack and crew won an exciting, hard fought game over a young Memphis Grizzlies squad 93-89. Then, in the early morning hours we found out that UNC and NBA legend and current co-owner Michael Jordan will become the next controlling owner of the Bobcats, succeeding Robert Johnson.

Let’s start with the big news. According to many sources, MJ worked up until minutes before his deadline of midnight Friday, finally putting together a group of investors satisfactory to Bob Johnson and what meets NBA requirements. NBA commisioner David Stern said he expects the sale to go through by the end of next month, and even though the sale needs the approval of the other 29 owners, Mr. Stern doesn’t see that as a problem. For those who follow the team closely, this is an excellent move. Not only does it mean Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown will most likely stay on, but that team stars Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson are safe, and that the continuing development of Raymond Felton and Tyrus Thomas won’t be hindered. General Manager Rod Higgins, who was instrumental in bringing in Stephen Jackson, Jason Richardson (now in Phoenix), Boris Diaw, and Raja Bell (now in Golden State), will be able to continue building a veteran team and asserting himself as a solid front office man, and assistant coach Dave Hanners can be groomed to take over when Coach Brown decides to retire. But more than the current state of affairs, having one of the greatest players ever in any sport as your owner creates many opportunities. For a team lacking both corporate sponsors and star power, the pitchman Jordan is fills a much needed gap. As long as he continues to increase his prescence at games and in the community, the community will continue to warm to the Bobcats. For someone with a competitive spirit like Mike, putting a winning product on the court shouldn’t be a problem, and making sure the team wins over his home will likely be equally easy. Just remember, if you tell MJ he can’t, he’ll do it and then some. Just ask Bryon Russell.

Now back to the on-court action. Last night, Stephen Jackson was channeling his inner MJ in Memphis against the Grizzlies, putting up 32 points on 13-26 shooting and 3-7 from three. But the numbers don’t nearly tell the story. He put up 19 of the 32 in the second half, 10 in the fourth quarter. Also, he hit a 3 at the buzzer to put the ‘Cats up 84-82, then another 3 after faking out Sam Young to give Charlotte the lead for good. Captain Jack also had a game-high 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Boris Diaw had an impressive game, going 7-12 (3-6 from distance) for 18 points and grabbed 5 boards. Tyrus Thomas continued to impress in his sixth man role since coming over from Chicago, playing 22 minutes and shooting 6-7 for 13 points with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks. Unfortunately, DJ Augustin can’t seem to get it together, once again going 1-5 for 2 points with 2 turnovers and no assists, marking the 33rd time this season he has made 1 or 0 field goals in a game. Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph led Memphis with lines of 20/5/3 and 24/10/1, respectively.

I owe Rick Bonnell and apology. The Bobcats have been sold, or rather a controlling interest in the team has shifted from Bob Johnson to Michael Jordan. Details are slow in coming but it appears that Bob’s Cats have become Jordan’s Bobcats.

I am not sure what this means right now. I believe it will grow the sponsorships, I think that it will draw a bit of attention at first and that it’s going to be very interesting for all of us. Michael Jordan is a huge, huge personality and a looming presence for any area, let alone the NBA. He has been somewhat “absentee” as manager of basketball operations. Then again so has Mr. Johnson.

MJ has always been able to pull in sponsorships and I hope that can carry over to the Bobcats. I’m interested to see the level of activity he’ll have here in Charlotte. While he is a North Carolina “native” (Born in New York but grew up and went to college and his parents lived here throughout) Jordan has been known for his time in Chicago, making a home there. As a very wealthy person he can live and basically be wherever he wants whenever he wants. Rumors have him spending most of his time in South Florida and who could blame him, with an apparent girlfriend from the area and a huge new home.

Charlotte will be the home of his most visible and largest stake of any of his many and varied interests. All eyes will be on him, whether it’s due or not. Charlotte as a sports town started with George Shinn and continued with Jerry Richardson, two semi-retired men whose only interest were their respective teams. Bob Johnson’s short comings were possibly the product of his misunderstanding of the Charlotte market. He tried things others wouldn’t and people saw them as mistakes. They were gambles.

I doubt things will change that much as it’s a minority owner coming to be the controlling partner. You certainly won’t see immediate changes and likely nothing sweeping.

One thing I do know for sure: I was wrong and didn’t expect this to happen. I certainly didn’t think Bob Johnson to take a loss.

I’m not blogging as much as I’d like and for that I appologize to you, loyal reader.  I started one last weekend but I was interrupted about 30-40 times by my Mother, Father and Niece asking “What are you doing?”  Or rather, when it’s my niece:  ”UN-kle! AN-DRAW!  You come play with my dooooollll-houssssseee?”  She’s 18 and we’re so proud she learned to talk finally (jokes, she’s 3 and the cutest stinkin kid you’ve ever seen).

I have been keeping up with all the goings-on with the Bobcats.  I’m very confused and excited by what’s been going on.  The Tyrus Thomas trade was excellent.  I am not sure if a first in addition to Flip Murray and Acie “I get more frequent flyer miles from trades than vacation” Law IV, was worth Thomas’s services for the rest of this year and next as a restricted free agent but hey, he filled a need.

Twitter was blowing up on Thursday last week, trade-deadline day.  It was absolutely nuts and I almost got fired because of it I think.  I was in these all day 2 days meetings and they can get boring, depending on the presenter.  The guy after lunch from 1-3 (3pm being the actual deadline I think) was absolutely killing me.  So, there I sat with phone in hand, sometimes under the table sometimes 6″ from my face.  Gleeful glow from my Blackberry as I scanned Twitter.  It was nuts!  By the way, I’m up to a whopping 15 followers, and I need to feel wanted to add me:  BigCatBobcat

So we got Tyrus Thomas, got Theo Ratliff (for a song mind you) but there are still games to be played.  I saw someone say they should make a “Bash Brothers” series of cards or action figures for the most athletic front line in basketball:  Gerald “Crash” Wallace, Tyrus “Pick Something” Thomas and Tyson Chandler.  You might be asking “Hey, BigCat!  Who the heck is Tyson Chandler.”  Tyson is a rare sight on an NBA floor this year, as well as last year but basically he’s like Emeka Okafor only we don’t have him down for a huge 25 year contract, just 23 years of which he’ll play about 35% of the games.   (That link under “Pick Something” is hillarious.  Henry Abbot is killing me on that one, first pic: Tyson Dunking over a flat-footed Solvenian Butterfly)

Sorry, sound bitter?  It’s because I am.  I told a guy at the game who had brought his High School basketball team in to watch the Bobcats that the guy needs to nut up or have surgery.  I also told him that Boris Diaw has put on too much weight and has a wide lady ass.  He quit talking to me after that, possibly because he didn’t want to smell like booze driving the activity bus back up to Hickory or wherever.

Tyson Chander is great, when healthy.  When he’s not….he’s a tall guy with a beard in the second row.  Mike Cranston tweeted during the New Orleans game: While Tyson Chandler in his familiar street clothes and missing 22nd straight game, Okafor playing in 226th straight game.  YIKES! But the emergence of my 2nd favorite Tweep Nazr Mohammed has really made me want to trade Okafor for something else.  (Favorite is Andy Gray from SI, hilarious old Pics from the SI Vault)

The next big topic of interest: Ownership.  Now, I’ve written my piece and basically said all I want to say.  It’s wearing me out and I really don’t like the discussion but here’s the latest: NOTHING!  No transactions have transpired, no papers filed with the league, certainly no name changes, no announcements planned no press releases drafted, NOTHING!  I am not saying it won’t happen but here it is, February 26th and there is no new owner for the Charlotte Bobcats.  I say you ask the man who said “There will be a new owner by the end of February” what happened…but that’s just me.  Wouldn’t want to flood someones inbox.

So that brings us to on the court, actual game action.  I’m a little weak there, honestly.  I hate, hate west coast or actually anything west of Charlotte’s games.  I fell asleep in the recliner at 8:15 before the Jazz game.  I don’t know what my deal is.  I get home from work, eat a whole turkey, box of wine and somehow I can’t keep my eyes open long enough to watch my precious Bobcats on the road.  Blame me, you know, maybe if I could stay up and watch they wouldn’t be 0-3 on this road trip, limping into Memphis tonight.

Watch for the Grizzlies to go heavy to “The Other” Gasol (Marc) as he is 7’1″ and Theo Ratliff when he can push back from his walker and stand up straight is 6’10″ and did I mention he’s old?  They also have Hamed Haddadi coming off the bench and actually producing after being inactive for a while.  The Bobcats are thin (sorry Tyrus) and light on the players at the large positions.  A high point is that Mike Conelly is having a difficult time here lately and I’d put Raymond Felton among the best PG defenders in the league.  A big night needs to come from Ray, Jax and Crash in order for the Bobcats to have success tonight as they travel.  Road wins are hard to come by.

2 Games under .500 with 26  games left.  Gotta gel and get healthy soon.

The Bobcats vs. the Jazz 2/24/10

It is pure frustration when the highlight of a game, (for your team), is two technical fouls called on the head coach resulting in his ejection! I wish that there was one problem I could point to as the cause of the teams’ frustrating play since the All-Star break. I think there will be those folk that complain about calls by the refs. I see that as a weak (non-excuse) when the Bobcats when to the foul-line 34-23 against the Jazz. There is not just one problem I fear. It is starting to look (to me) as if we’re seeing an organizational meltdown. In the next 5-6 days we’ll know (supposedly) who the new team owner(s) will be, I can only hope this settles the team, as they remain in the play-off chase. But, if the “wheels” continue to come off, game-after-game, there is little hope of this team making the play-offs. I’ve rarely watched the Bobcats play a better first half. They made few mistakes, drove to the basket, out-muscled a physical Jazz team, and looked every-bit the play-off team we’ve thought they’d be this year. Timely substitutions were made, the bench looked good, and the game was managed very effectively by coach Brown. The second half was a completely different story.

The team stopped driving, stopped fighting for rebounds, and frustration (from the coaches and players) seemed to grip the team. When Raymond Felton had to sit, (with four fouls), the match-up between D. Williams and DJ Augustin was akin to watching a grown man push a child down a hill, not much of a match-up. Boris Diaw, (mercifully), was on the court for only 7 minutes in the first half. Unfortunately, for the team, he played 23 minutes in the second half. Why was that a problem? When he was on the floor we usually had one Bobcat player trying to rebound against 2-3 Jazz players. When he was off the floor as many as three ‘Cats players were under the boards trying to rebound. I can’t tell you why this happens because I don’t know why it happens! But, after controlling the boards in the first half, the Bobcats finished the game being out-rebounded by the Jazz, 42-34. The timely substitutions were not duplicated in the second half. The dunk of the game (for me) was a vicious-left-handed-throw-down by rookie D. Brown. He brought energy and intensity for the time he played in the first half. Where was he in the second half…on the bench! With very tough teams coming to Time-Warner Arena things do not get any easier. The ‘Cats had a chance to pull back into the eighth seed with a victory, that did not happen.

The loss keeps the Bobcats in the ninth position in the Eastern Conference and out of the play-offs for the moment. We can only hope that a resolution of ownership will help the team correct itself. The Bobcats are now two games under the .500 mark at (27-29).

The Good:

Gerald Wallace with 27 points and 8 rebounds.

Theo Ratliff with 4 blocked shots.

Tyrus Thomas with a season high 20 points.

First-half bench play.

The Bad:

Team shooting (41.2%).

The Ugly:

DJ trying to guard D. Williams.

The second half.

Out-rebounded 42-34.

Next game for the Bobcats: Wednesday 2/26/10 8:00pm at Memphis Grizzlies

The strong showing (1-3 after the All-Star break) continued for the Bobcats as they drop their second game in a row, this one to LAC, (98-94). The team seems to be going in reverse after the All-Star break. Gerald Wallace had another strong double-double with 32 points and 12 rebounds. You might ask “what happened?” Well, what happened was this: 18 turn-overs that led to 21 points for the Bobcats but they were outplayed and out-defended down the stretch. The ‘Cats were also out-rebounded 55-44. The trades, before the dead-line for (T. Thomas and T. Ratliff) were suppose to help take pressure off G. Wallace and help in the rebounding department. Ratliff had 2 (in 30:52 minutes) and Thomas had 4 (25:12 minutes), not much help. Wallace also played 48 minutes. This is not turning into the strong second-half stretch run many of us had envisioned. I suppose one could argue that getting two new players, (Thomas and Ratliff), “up-to-speed” with the rest of the team could be made. The problem with the argument is that the Clippers brought in three new players that played last night, (D. Gooden, S. Blake, and T. Outlaw), so I think that argument would have to work for both teams. Not only do the Clippers have the new players, but also a rookie head-coach (Kim Hughes) that took over after M. Dunleavy stepped down.

Close games (losses) do not seal a teams play-off seed. It does just the opposite! The loss dropped the Bobcats into ninth (behind the Bucks) position in the Eastern Conference and out of the play-offs for the moment. The Bobcats have 27 games left in the season to “play the right way” and get themselves in the play-offs. But if they continue this strong-surge in reverse, the elusive play-offs will elude them again!
The Bobcats are now one game under the .500 mark at (27-28).

The ‘Cats and Bucks are tied with the same record, (27-28), but the Bucks hold the tie breaker and the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Good:

Gerald Wallace with another double-double.

Boris Diaw with 20 points.

Team turnovers (13).

The Bad:

Team shooting (43.6%).

Out-hustled by a team going no-where.

The Ugly:

Stephen Jackson shot (1-16, 0-5 3 pts.) for the game.

Out-rebounded 55-44.

Next game for the Bobcats: Wednesday 2/24/10 9:00pm at Utah Jazz