It was more than a little startling to hear Sam Vincent go so explicitly on record about the work habits of Charlotte Bobcat owner Michael Jordan. Sure, we’ve mined this territory since the outset of Jordan’s tenure as an owner; he surrounds himself with yes men, and he tends to give short shrift to the work behind his personnel choices. But not only was Vincent Jordan’s former teammate on the Chicago Bulls, he was one of MJ’s biggest hires (and, eventually, fires) as Bobcat boss. And it’s rare to hear an ex-employee, still probably trying to acquire the same job with a different team, speak so candidly.
Vincent didn’t hold back, though, in his appraisal of Jordan. From the Washington Post:
“The work he put in to be a great player and the work you put in to be a great executive, those are different things,” said Sam Vincent, whom Jordan hired as his head coach in 2007 less than a year after he became minority owner. “That additional time you spend on jump shots, running, dunking, I don’t know if he puts in that same amount of time as an executive or if he even cares to.”
Vincent, who now works with the NBA’s retired player association, went on to point out that willing Bobcat fans were more than dubious about Jordan even back in 2007, when Sam was hired. The Bobcats were created a few years earlier as a franchise gift, of sorts, following a move that sent the Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans. Former Hornets owner George Shinn, once beloved in the community, poisoned the well after a series of sex scandals and demands for public funding for a Hornets arena. Vincent claims that fans wanted to know, before they re-committed to a pro basketball team, if Jordan was really in it for the long haul. If he was going to be a member of the community.
(STORY CONTINUES…)
WRITTEN BY Kelly Dwyer | Ball Don’t Lie & FULL STORY HERE
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