Bobcats partners may lose millions

nfcchamp2004 · Post #1 » by **nfcchamp2004** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:20 am

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/bobcats/story/664652.html

nfcchamp2004 · Post #2 » by **nfcchamp2004** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:22 am

I think we all expected this due to the down economy and Bob's bad decisions in the past such as C-Set. I also saw a rumor that they won't field a summer league team this year. I guess this explains why.

Post #3 » by **BigSlam** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:30 pm

I thought they were still fielding a SL team, it's just that they will be playing locally rather than out of town in an attempt to keep the costs as low as possible?

Post #4 » by **Walt Cronkite** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:34 pm

And the award for Least Surprising News of the Year goes to...

Rant:
I don't get sports owners, man. It's so obviously just a ridiculously expensive hobby. Here's one for you, I like Cuban. As annoying as he can be, at least he's doing it right. You can't possibly convince me that he doesn't care about his team and want to win, but owners like Donald Sterling and Bob Johnson?

C-Set? How did that seem like a good idea to anyone? I'm pretty sure we didn't even get that channel in Raleigh, I know I was sure as hell never watching it. What are other Johnson bad moves, I'll nominate the obvious choice:

Bernie Bickerstaff. I liked the guy, I think he got a lot out of the players he had to coach, but we make him HC AND GM!? Who does that? Equally infuriating, how did his track record convince Johnson he'd be a suitable nominee for either position? [visited b-r] Okay, so I guess he had some coaching success in the late 80s and once in the 90s-- but what had he ever done to be givin the reins of an NBA front office?? [Wiki, you're my only hope] So he GM'd the Nuggets for 7 seasons, they had some pretty good talent when I was growing up, so I'll cut some slack, but my point remains... is their a worse possible cost cutting move than the ole "Say Bernie... haven't you been an NBA Head Coach AND General Manager over the course of your illustrious career? ZOMG! Did you know, that, like, we're actually currently in need of those very positions!?"

ohara · Post #5 » by **ohara** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:39 pm

What struck me the most was that Bob asked his partners to pony up some cash and they refused. I am hoping this is a power play by them. Perhaps they are trying to force him to sell out to them? "If you cant handle the heat, get out of the kitchen" kinda thing? Possibly what is happening here, at least I hope so.

Post #6 » by **BigSlam** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:42 pm

So it's going to cost the owners tens of millions to break the agreement with the city and move the team to a more profitable market.....................but Top Bob is asking them to kick in extra tens of millions any way to stay in a city that hasnt embraced the team?

Rich4114 · Post #7 » by **Rich4114** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:39 am

Walt Cronkite wrote:And the award for Least Surprising News of the Year goes to...

Bernie Bickerstaff. I liked the guy, I think he got a lot out of the players he had to coach, but we make him HC AND GM!? Who does that? Equally infuriating, how did his track record convince Johnson he'd be a suitable nominee for either position? [visited b-r] Okay, so I guess he had some coaching success in the late 80s and once in the 90s-- but what had he ever done to be givin the reins of an NBA front office?? [Wiki, you're my only hope] So he GM'd the Nuggets for 7 seasons, they had some pretty good talent when I was growing up, so I'll cut some slack, but my point remains... is their a worse possible cost cutting move than the ole "Say Bernie... haven't you been an NBA Head Coach AND General Manager over the course of your illustrious career? ZOMG! Did you know, that, like, we're actually currently in need of those very positions!?"

Ya know, Bernie's not that bad... I think he'd be great to have as an assistant or part of the front office. But putting him in charge of either was stupid. He's never done really well anywhere. His playbook is about 1 page long, and he's way too conservative as a GM. (see refusing to budge on Portland's offer for Chris Paul). Looking back on that, I would've given up my two first rounders and the next seasons top 3 pick for Paul and we STILL would've won that trade. But keeping on base, we had many chances to make a big splash and shake things up and we didn't. Then came the whole "let's play our PG as a SG idea" which unfortunately Sam Vincent followed with when he came here because he was even worse and figured if the last guy did it then he should.

I'm happy they finally got something right with LB coming in. If they brought LB in from the beginning we'd probably be a big time contender by now. But when you go ultra cheap or conservative this is the result. People knock Jordan, and sure he's made some stupid moves (like the Nazr one) but at the same time if he never came on board we'd be a permanent mid-lotto team. I feel like we're the best lottery team so it's a bonus even having a chance at a top 3 pick, and if we get that pick I trust we'll get the BPA with it or at least get close (and not COMPLETELY whif like we did with Ammo and May).

As for Bob Johnson, I think we're all pretty much just waiting for him to give in and sell the team to Jordan. He's more concerned with his daughters horses than he is with an NBA championship. And he keeps talking like this is some sort of business to make money with. Someone needs to inform him this is just a really expensive hobby and if he puts a champion out there he could probably break even.

ohara · Post #8 » by **ohara** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:09 am

I missed the last sentence! If the partners refuse to pony up money on a Cash Call, it reduces their % ownership! This could be a power play by Bob Johnson, not the other way around! That makes this all much more concerning to me. Not that he might move the team, cause he'd pay way too much in penalties to Charlotte. But something stinks about this.