Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
TagsBY DAVE RAGAZZO
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
It’s easy to say that Michael Jordan’s ownership stats are not as good as his playing stats, and a lot of people are noticing.
One of Jordan’s good friends and former player Charles Barkley expressed his opinion on the Charlotte Bobcats owner where he was pretty blunt about Jordan’s ownership track record, according to SI.com.
“I love Michael, but he just has not done a good job,” Barkley said to ESPN 1000’s “The Waddle & Silvy Show. “Even though he is one of my great friends, I can’t get on here and tell you he’s done a great job. He has not done a great job, plain and simple.”
Barkley believes that Jordan has not surrounded himself with the right brain trust for him to truly be a good owner. He thinks that a lot of people have a hard time telling Jordan, arguably the greatest NBA player ever, what is right and what is wrong for his teams.
“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. “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.”
One of the men Jordan has hired is Bobcats president Rod Higgins. Higgins has held several executive positions for Golden State and Washington, but his results have never been great (especially in Washington and Charlotte, both of which were Jordan owned teams). Higgins is also a former teammate and close personal friend to Jordan.
The Bobcats are 4-29 halfway through the lockout shortened NBA season and some believe it could be worse. According to former coach Jeff Van Gundy, Bobcats coach Paul Silas “should be Coach of the Year” for pulling out those four wins.
Since Jordan took over as owner of the Bobcats in 2006, they have made only one playoff appearance.
Jordan’s start as a part owner of the Wizards was not a good one. In 2001, he used the No. 1 overall pick on Kwame Brown. The pick has been seen as one of the worst picks in the draft’s history as Brown has played for six teams and has averaged 6.8 points and 5.6 rebounds in 10 NBA seasons.
