The MJ-to-the-Bobcats meme we pushed along yesterday as plausible has suddenly sprouted legs — and a swift denial from Bobcat central. Almost too swift.
After our take on the dismissal of Bobcat CEO Ed Tapscott went up, Sports Illustrated NBA expert Ian Thomsen jumped in to add more flesh. Thomsen cited Jordan dining with Bob Johnson recently in DC and more scoop that needs to be heard by everyone in Charlotte:
I’m told that the Bobcats lost money this season in spite of having the league’s smallest player payroll ($33 million) and newest arena. As a result, people around the league who study such things say they would not be surprised if Johnson sold the franchise, especially after the collapse of his original plan to build the regional sports network C-SET around the Bobcats. C-SET died in its first year. …
The key question is whether the team is for sale.
There has to be something afoot to explain the mysterious departure of Tapscott, who had been running the Bobcats since their inception. With a month left on his contract, he was suddenly asked to accept a demotion — even though his work had been applauded both inside and outside the organization. It’s hard to believe that a frugal owner like Johnson would actually be planning to increase the size of his front office, as a team source suggested to the Charlotte Observer while explaining that Tapscott had been overworked.
Is Johnson now head-hunting for several managers to take over Tapscott’s vacant headquarters, or is the owner making room for a certain someone to take the franchise off his hands entirely? If it’s true that Johnson is looking to sell, it’s obvious that the first potential buyer on his list would be Jordan.
So Thomsen adds two important wrinkles: That the Bobcats lost money last year and that Jordan would not just join the front office, but own the team.
Then today Observer NBA reporter Rick Bonnell, whose story on Tapscott’s departure Thomsen mentioned, went back to his unnamed Bobcat sources for a reaction. No way. Emphatic denial. No on Jordan and no on selling the team. But Bonnell got nothing on the crucial question of the Bobcats’ finances. The money is where you have to start to figure out where Johnson’s head is at on the Cats. Besides, there is just no way of knowing just how wired into Johnson’s far-flung empire Bonnell’s Bobcats source really and truly might be. The Tapscott move was certainly not on Bonnell’s radar screen.
What we do know is that Johnson has no intention of carrying a money-losing NBA franchise on his books. To his credit, Johnson has made that crystal clear from the outset. Yet like all sports team owners, Johnson gets tremendous intangible benefits from being in the club — an even greater boost for Johnson as one of the few African-Americans in that club.
We also know that Johnson is now primarily focused on his new private-equity and banking venture and that he needs the Bobcats to be on solid footing. If they are not now, perhaps Johnson thinks that roping Jordan into the ownership mix will, in effect, re-launch the team in the Charlotte market. And it could reduce Johnson’s financial risk going forward.
There are also concrete reasons for Jordan to be interested in the Bobcats at this juncture besides the obvious Carolina demigod angle. We know that the Bobcats will absolutely have a new coach next year as Bernie Bickerstaff cycles into the role of full-time GM. This means that the new president and CEO gets to pick his new coach, no question about it. That is an attractive situation.
And, for the city of Charlotte, it should be imperative to find out if Johnson really is losing money on the Bobcats so as to avoid a nasty surprise in the near future. Something like either subsidize the team or be left with an empty $265 million Uptown arena.
