When this season started I professed to the world that I would not be another one of those guys that just harped on every little bad thing that the team did. As it turns out, it’s good that I held onto that idea as long as I did; there are just too many things. However, now that my optimism has turned into skepticism I find it hard not to complain about something.

Michael Jordan needs to fire Paul Silas.

Yes, you’ve heard me complain about the man before, but his abject refusal to even try to win a game has me shocked that he’s still got a job. I can’t stand that he’s having his son coach the team. It’s not his job. Paul needs to be doing whatever he can to lead the team to victory. That doesn’t include getting his son experience as a head coach.

This alone is enough for me to fire him if I ran the team. The fact that he didn’t even try to have the team do something when they were only down by five with 14 seconds left Wednesday night against the T-wolves was just absurd. At the least he should have had the guys foul Minnesota and make sure they earned the win.

I could care less that the man came out of retirement to coach the team or that he’s 68; no one made him take the job. Being tired is no excuse to do a shoddy job down the stretch. It’s no wonder that the team packs it in on occasion. I guess the players think it’s okay to pack it in since the head coach does.

That may seem hard to say (or believe) when you take a look at the body of work that thee guys have put in on the hard-court leading up to the All-Star break, but in this case I’m not talking about the game of basketball at all.

I love sports. I love watching the games while hanging out with the guys drinking a few beers. I love telling stories that paint me as a college/pro prospect when my talents were nowhere close to either.

What I especially love about professional sports is when players and teams show that they realize that they are special, but not in an egocentric way. I love it when they show appreciation for the unique opportunity that they have. Playing a game for a living is something that most people would like to do, and they get to do it.

The Bobcats might be failing miserably on the court, but this week they proved that they have their hearts and minds in the right place off the court.

In Monday, as part of their “Cats Care” program the team donated a massive refrigerated mobile pantry to the Second Harvest Food Bank in Charlotte (valued at $125,000). Of course a mobile pantry is worthless without food so they donated $125,000 in food as well.

“When I first took over the team one of the things I wanted to emphasize was for the Bobcats to connect back to the community,” team owner Michael Jordan said. “It’s a very beautiful truck and hopefully it’s going to serve a lot of people. We feel deep in our hearts that we owe back to the community for what the community has done for us.”

Chances are pretty good that His Airness, Michael Jordan, the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, was smiling some Friday night.

It could be because it was his 49^th birthday. It’s usually because he has an ultra-hot future wife. There is a possibility that it could be because his team finally won, breaking a 16-game losing streak by defeating the Toronto Raptors 98-91.

It could very well be none of those (except for the ultra-hot future Mrs. Jordan), and be something else entirely. It could be because even though he is turning out one of the worst products to see the light of day on a professional basketball court the club is financially doing better.

Huh?

If there is one thing that the sporting world knows it is that Michael Jordan is one ultra-competitive individual. He proved that time and time again during his days with the Bulls, in college with the Tar Heels, and heck, even with the Chicago White Sox minor league team he played for.

We know this man wants to win, so why isn’t he doing anything to improve the worst team in the NBA—his team, the Charlotte Bobcats?

Yes, he has gone into the locker room and given the guys a piece of his mind, something that had to hold weight with this young team since most of these guys probably grew up idolizing Michael Jordan. Other than that, has he even showed any emotion in regards to all the losing? Not that I’ve seen.

Being a competitive guy with his own money on the line, one would think that he would be making an effort to improve the team now rather than wait and see who he gets in the next draft. Other than the rumored possible trade with the Washington Wizards, Tyrus Thomas for Andre Blatche, there is no help for the Bobcats on the way.

So free agency is open and the whole world is falling to hell. What we thought was the NBA is no more. All sorts of weird things are going on. Dwight is actually wanting to go to New Jersey, CP3 to LA (or not according to Stern), Caron Butler (32 years old) going for 3 years of 8 million coming off knee surgery to the Clippers. That last one really confuses me, way to screw up a promising young team.

However, I have heard very few rumours about the bobcats, we never usually are a team to be floating information round and our front office tends to keep pretty quiet. Remember the TT trade? I had never heard that rumour until the day it happened, I was like wtf!? I thought he was on his way to San Antonio for sure. There are reports we have enquired about certain players, all seem to be of the sg/sf mix: Al Thornton and Reggie Williams. We also apparently made an offer for Mike Dunleavy at 3million a year, but he went for 3.5 a year over 3 years in Milwaukee instead, fair enough I am glad we did not go over that for an injury prone veteran who isn’t getting any better.

But I can see some of you… yes you there. Getting twitchy thinking, are we going to miss out on this free agent frenzy!? The answer… YES! Or at least I hope it is a yes to some extent. Remember the Eric Dampier trade? “In Dust We Trust” yer… how did that turn out? That’s what I mean, we forced ourselves into a deal then and we got nowhere. I want to see a new player in Bobcats uniform as much as anyone; it’s always exciting watching a new player come in. However I am going to argue that perhaps we should just simply wait. You can see teams getting carried away all around the league, signing people for too much money, or simply overloading their roster with players they don’t really need. Sorry to pick on you again clippers, but seriously what are you thinking? Clippers again now have Caron Butler, Ryan Gomes and Al-Farouq Aminu. 16 million all tied up in one position, with no hint of a star, I expect they will regret that decision. Also, look at the Nets using the Amnesty clause on Travis “7 million a year” Outlaw just one year after signing him.

All around the country (and likely some parts of the world) basketball fans are enjoying an early Christmas present—their favorite NBA stars are returning to work.

A handful of Bobcats—including rookies Bismark Biyombo and Kemba Walker—along with Anthony Morrow of the New Jersey Nets and Derrick Brown of the New York Knicks took to the court at Time Warner Cable Arena Friday (facilities were opened up on Thursday). Coaches can’t join workouts yet, but it’s good to see guys eager to return to the home floor.

The deal isn’t set in stone just yet, but every indication says it is going to happen. Plans have been put in motion for the season to start with a flurry of games on Christmas Day featuring some of the NBA’s marquee teams (ho ho ho, right?).

Charlotte isn’t on that list, but that’s okay; Bobcats fans will see their team all in due time. Fans will also finally get a chance to see if all the wheeling and dealing last season along with the two first round picks in the last draft can change the team’s playoff fortunes.