Jordan concerned Bobcats aren't connecting with community

You can merge this in the NBA thread if you'd like, but I thought it was an interesting article in the Charlotte Observer this morning that could generate discussion on here. Brings up the Hornets, and why the Bobcats aren't connecting.

Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan admits his team has an image problem, and he's not referring to their 4-26 record.

It's something worse, in his opinion. Somehow, after eight seasons as a franchise, the Bobcats still are not considered a part of the fabric of the community.

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"The former owner let things slip," said Jordan, and opportunities were lost in the process. The sports icon's frustration is obvious, particularly when he brings up how Charlotte's first NBA franchise, the Hornets, ranked No. 1 in league attendance.

"Number one for 10 years!" Jordan said, his voice rising. "The community supported it and at that time, the Hornets supported the city. I want to duplicate that. I want us to be No. 1 in attendance and No. 1 in the community.

"If we ask people to invest in us, we must invest in them."

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http://www.charlotteobserver.com/20...el-jordan-seeks-to-restore.html#storylink=cpy

Any opinions on how the Bobcats can re-connect with the Charlotte/NC community?

He needs to sink a large amount of money into making sure that the team becomes connected with the community. He has the funds, he needs to make it happen. Winning cures a lot and this is no different.

They need a different name and a star player to rally around imo.

draft more Tarheels

He realizes that he's one of the biggest problems, right? I've lived here since 2002 and not once have I seen Jordan in Charlotte. Meanwhile, I see Muggsy around town randomly about once a year, if not more, and I've seen him at a few events I've attended. And I see various Panther's players/coaches out to dinner and at events often. But not one Jordan sighting.

If he wants to connect with the community, he should be a part of it.

I've seen Rich Cho and Rod Higgins at lunch on numerous occasions in the last year since I started working uptown. Jordan stepping out to lunch a couple days a week around uptown would do a lot for making the team feel more a part of CLT.

go back in time and get Shinn to resign Zo, not cheat on his wife, etc., making the hornets never become unpopular and never leave

go back in time and never let Bob Johnson get the reigns, thereby eliminating the problem of no one being able to see the team for the first year or two thanks to C-SET, which was only available on digital cable, at a time when no one had digital cable. Don't let him name the team Bobcats, and don't let him choose shit colors. The hornets gear was bad apples and iconic. People still wear that shit cause it was awesome.

other than that, hard to say

cookoutdeac said:

They need a different name and a star player to rally around imo.

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Yeah, they need to rebrand to get the stink of the Bobcats off of them. Jordan needs to stay out of all basketball decisions and continue to hire established basketball minds and needs to use all the Jordan Brand sway possible to get decent players there to start winning.

cookoutdeac said:

They need a different name and a star player to rally around imo.

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People will eventually forget about the name thing since Bob is no longer around the team. But they need their "Cam Newton." If they had Paul or Durant, I think attendance would be way up. They need to focus on the draft and find that person.

Yeah orange and blue, as well as the name Bobcats, is fucking terrible.

Nobody cares.

CHange the name, color, logo, mascot, colors, and stop sucking. Done.

Bobcat is a fucking terrible name. Seriously. No one wants to cheer for the fucking bobcats. it's a slightly overgrown house cat for god's sake

Get Cam Newton to play basketball. He would probably be a decent SF.

The name should have been "Flight" all along.

Yeah Flight would have been awesome. Bobcats is the worst.

We need a star player agreed, and I think if we can change the name of the team to like the Charlotte Flight things would help.

MJ is just laying the groundwork to take the team to Vegas!

I'm.......joking?

i literally don't think the bobcats have done a single thing right in establishing themselves. First, like I said, for the first season (maybe even 2), you literally could not watch the team. Think about that. Charlotte was very, very wounded by the Hornets, and it would take something special to get the city caring about pro basketball again. So they start out with not letting anyone see the new team. Then, the owner names the team after himself, despite first saying there was going to be a fan vote, and the fan vote turned out to not want the Bobcats as a name at all. So right there we already have two strikes, both of the owner on top of that, when the Hornets failed primarily because of the actions of the last owner.

Then, they choose the colors on top of the mascot, which are terrible. Probably the worst in the league.

Then, they go and try to turn the team into the Tarcats, alienating everyone in the state that doesn't go to UNC. And it's not like any UNC fans are going to cheer for the Tarcats over the Tarheels anyway

Then, they finally start shedding the Tarheels label, get to the playoffs, and Larry Brown destroys the team. In response the club blows the team up, trading their one player that had in any way connected with the community in Gerald Wallace, and then Stephen Jackson. Team is 4-20. No one likes the team.

The only players I have dealt with in the community are Derrick Brown and Matt Carroll. And while they were incredibly nice and Brown even helped my brother on his game for 10-15 minutes, it's matt Carroll and Derrick Brown. No one else is even visible in Charlotte

cookoutdeac said:

They need a different name and a star player to rally around imo.

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A.k.a. Be everything that Bob Johnson wasn't and then some.

They're making strides on the basketball side of things (i.e. Rich Cho seemingly understands how basketball works, unlike past GMs), but the "community" remains abstract as long as you treat it as such...

On the TV thing, there are STILL places that can't get the Bobcats. I have Charter and live exactly 50 minutes from the arena. Charter refuses to pick up the Bobcats games on Fox Sports, showing poker reruns and "In His Own Words with Les Miles" instead. Because I'm so close to the arena, games are blacked out on NBA League Pass. So if I want to follow a game, I either have to go to a shitty link on FirstRowSports, listen to it on the radio, or follow it on my phone.

I remember the Hornets used to be EVERYWHERE when they were in Charlotte. You could get them on basic cable, every night.

4-26? What they need is a better X's and O's guy like that Jeff [Redacted].