Jordan’s questionable decision-making has landed the Hall of Famer at the center of a debate about which former star turned NBA executive has done the worst job.
Jordan spent a season-and-a-half in Washington as team president and later as a part-time player. And while the Wizards were attractive at the box office, they were horrible as a team and owner Abe Pollin ultimately fired Jordan.
Jordan was criticized for trading Juwan Howard and Richard Hamilton, drafting Kwame Brown with the No. 1 overall pick and signing Larry Hughes to a big contract. He resurfaced as a minority owner with the Bobcats in 2006 and assumed control of basketball decisions under the watch of former team owner Bob Johnson.
Yet poor personnel decisions continued to plague him.
The Bobcats swung and missed on draft picks Adam Morrison and Alexis Ajinca. They traded away a first-round pick to get Tyrus Thomas, who’s been a flop and is still owed $26 million over the next three seasons.
The Bobcats managed to reach the playoffs two years ago under Jordan _ who became majority owner in March 2010 _ but after being swept in four games by the Orlando Magic he decided to blow up the roster and start over.
The top six players from that team _ Stephen Jackson (San Antonio), Gerald Wallace (New Jersey), Raymond Felton (Portland), Boris Diaw (Sacramento), Nazr Mohammed (Oklahoma City) and Tyson Chandler (New York) _ were either traded or waived.
“We were vying for that eighth and ninth spot and we looked at that and said, `How can we get to be one of those one, two, three or four teams?’” Jordan said in December. “To do that, you have to grab assets and that’s what we did. We had to create flexibility.”
At the time, Jordan asked fans to be patient, knowing it would take time to reload, but even he couldn’t have imagined this big of a mess.
“I think this is not a wasted season because who knows how good we can be?” Jordan said before it started. “We’ve got some good pieces that can help us get to the playoffs. I’m not waiting until next year. I think we have a good quality basketball team this year.”
The won-loss column says otherwise.
Jordan led the Bulls to an NBA-record 72 wins during the 1995-96 regular season. Meanwhile, the Bobcats are 185-290 in six seasons under Jordan and have only made the postseason once. They’ve never won a playoff game.
Charlotte has become the butt of jokes.
“It has been tough, but we are just trying to move forward,” guard D.J. Augustin said. “Many people are laughing at us and making (the losing streak) as a joke, but we take it very seriously. We are just trying to stay positive and play hard until the end.”
Even Jordan’s friends and colleagues have been critical of his job performance.
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