So Michael Jordan is about to take over the Charlotte Bobcats. I am not the only one that thinks he will be horrible at it. This is from Yahoo! Sports.
You’re going to have to get it together, though, Mike.
You’re going to have to grow up, first and foremost. Nothing starts until your childhood ends, and there’s nothing more childish than a game of freakin’ HORSE. You think Bill Gates is playing jacks in the mailroom? Trying to best the water delivery guy at Minesweeper?
From there, you’re going to have to act like a proper owner or a GM. You can’t be both. You’re either going to have to cede control with some input to Rod Higgins, or you’re going to have to take over fully and deal with the idea of someone else acting as principal owner. The job is too complicated, and no person could pull it off in 2010. No man, not even you. Once you’ve grown up, then I’ll believe you can understand that. I’m not holding my breath.
As owner, you’re going to have to show the same initiative and hands-on interest that made you such a successful businessman in the 1980s and 1990s. No, you didn’t build the Nissans or make the Nikes, but you knew how to run things. Sometime, around the time of your second retirement (and, say, MVP.com), that went away.
Now, that’s OK. That’s what retirement is – not having to really answer to anyone, and turning 18 holes into 36 holes. There’s nothing wrong with that, you’ve certainly earned that, but you’re not retired anymore. Your input was on point back in your heyday because you had a set schedule. Meetings to attend, shootarounds to show up for, close to a hundred games a year. You don’t really have that anymore, even with your supposed commitments to the Bobcats. Those days are over.
And if you continue to play the role of the retired guy who isn’t? You’ll fail. Because this organization is set to fail.
I am going to say here that the Michael Jordan era won’t last five years and he is going to replace Donald Sterling as the most disinterested owner in the NBA. Like everyone, I was rooting for him when he took over the Wizards and we saw how that turned out. His involvement so far with the Bobcats? Well he had final say on personnel moves and seemed totally disinterested in that role. Now he is owner… I don’t expect a lot more.
