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December 18, 2007
Jordan makes points off court, too
Stray thoughts on the day MJ practiced with the Bobcats:
- I don’t know whether Nazr Mohammed will help the Bobcats as much as Michael Jordan thinks, but I now have a better understanding of Jordan’s attraction to the deal.
He believes playing for a big winner grants you a different presence than you would have without that experience. Most Bobcats haven’t experienced team success at the NBA level, whether here or somewhere else.
Mohammed (San Antonio) and Derek Anderson (Miami) were on title teams. Jordan believes that can rub off on Gerald Wallace, Emeka Okafor, Raymond Felton and Jason Richardson.
We’ll see; osmosis is an inexact science. But their presence can’t hurt.
- Jordan scored all those points but never wanted to be a show pony. And he never wants to hire one, based on a comment Tuesday:
"It’s not about us paying somebody $15 million (a year) because he averages 30 points, and yet we win 15 games," Jordan said. "That, to me, doesn’t benefit the team or the overall picture of the organization."
- It sounds as if coach Sam Vincent isn’t counting on Othella Harrington the rest of the season.
"He’ll probably not ever be healthy enough to be a really, really, really effective player. At least not this year," Vincent said of Harrington, who’s suffering additional pain in his left knee. "I don’t want to put a cloud over what he’s trying to do, but not right now."
Posted by rbonnell on December 18, 2007 at 06:32 PM | Permalink
Comments
I agree with Jordan. I hate all of these players making 20 million a year on teams that site at the bottom of their division. Just marketable guys, but not winners. Rather invest in a well rounded team that can win together.
Posted by: Clay | Dec 18, 2007 8:29:46 PM
Nazar was playing for the best team in the nba
maybe that is why he was not scoring as much a s primoz
Posted by: fd | Dec 19, 2007 8:17:07 AM
Nazar was playing for the best team in the nba
maybe that is why he was not scoring as much a s primoz
Posted by: fd | Dec 19, 2007 8:17:45 AM
I hope that Nazr Mohammed's court vision and high basketball IQ will rub off on Omeka Okafor's game. I find it hard to believe that Okafor's free throw shooting continues to plummet each year. Three years ago, Bernie mentioned that Okafor's shooting would improve because of his great work ethic. I also remember Stephanie Ready comments in comparing the pro careers of Chris Paul to Raymond Felton that Bobcats Management felt that Raymond Felton would be just as good as Chris Paul in the long run. I wonder if they still believe that now in year 4.
Posted by: gordon | Dec 19, 2007 12:22:44 PM
I hope that Nazr Mohammed's court vision and high basketball IQ will rub off on Omeka Okafor's game. I find it hard to believe that Okafor's free throw shooting continues to plummet each year. Three years ago, Bernie mentioned that Okafor's shooting would improve because of his great work ethic. I also remember Stephanie Ready comments in comparing the pro careers of Chris Paul to Raymond Felton that Bobcats Management felt that Raymond Felton would be just as good as Chris Paul in the long run. I wonder if they still believe that now in year 4.
Posted by: gordon | Dec 19, 2007 12:35:41 PM
What a night! I still reserve the right to criticize stupid-ass moves like the NFM (Nazr FREAKING Mohammed) trade, but if we can see Jordan show his face regularly, the Cats play hard from tip to horn, and some professional basketball players can suck it up and sink a free throw, we might just be on the right track!
Posted by: Michael Aaron Procton | Dec 20, 2007 3:12:35 AM
The quality of the story about the team is even getting better.
"A Michael Jordan comeback?"
"Gordon Giricek banished!"
"Bobcats, on ESPN!" [that means even satellite viewers can watch it!!!]
We had a full SportCenter game highlight tonight. It's almost like having a real basketball team in town again.
P.S.: Good luck recovering from your injury, 'Zo! If you've played your last game, know that we remember and appreciate everything you did to put the Charlotte franchise on the map!
Posted by: Michael Aaron Procton | Dec 20, 2007 3:23:30 AM
Shut up Michael Procton.
Posted by: MPisgay | Dec 20, 2007 8:28:47 AM
Screw Mourning.
He screwed the Hornets over, as well as several others on his NBA journey (NJ, Toronto).
I will say that I never thought about wishing injury on him, but I'm gonna be honest and say I'm not sad to see his career end this way.
Guess the NBA karma was just a long time coming with this one. At least him whoring himself out and championship-chasing got him a ring, albeit playing second-fiddle, which is appropriate because he could never lead a team anywhere on his own.
C'est la vie.
Posted by: Will | Dec 20, 2007 8:32:26 AM
Mourning is alright, screw George Shinn. I agree with Procton on that one. I am a little surprised to see his reaction to last night's game. One game and your singing the praises of the organization? Next thing you know, Procton will admit that Felton is a decent, developing NBA pg (okay, maybe not). I love what the 'Cats did against Utah but I'm not quite ready to congratulate the front office yet. That might have been the best game of Mohammed's career. I would like to see Jordan at more practices however.
ps Did you see that friggin' block G-Force had against Ronnie Brewer. Oh My God!
Posted by: BustaCat | Dec 20, 2007 3:07:54 PM
No...Felton's still garbage. I was just stunned to see so many good things happen in one night.
Posted by: Michael Procton | Dec 20, 2007 6:11:22 PM
Put a few good games together, and maybe I'll think differently.
We basically sucked for 3.5 quarters against the Jazz, then they collapsed in the 4th on the road, which they've apparently been prone to doing since the Jazz announcers put up a graphic going into the 4th that showed how awful they had been lately in the 4th.
And true to form, they did collapse.
And Shinn wasn't the devil. He offered Mourning 4m/year MORE than Johnson's deal, which was considered crazy at the time (just over 11m/year in total), but Mourning wanted more, and was always jealous that he wasn't the star in Charlotte that LJ was. So he forced his way out. If you wanted to blame it on Shinn early on, ok, that's understandable. But did you see how he treated the Nets? Or how he treated the Raptors? That's just how Mourning is.
Posted by: Will | Dec 20, 2007 7:06:01 PM
Keep fighting the good fight. Although, some folks are going to stick to some things regardless of what occurs. I'm interested to see how Nazi progresses. I definitely like what he has shown so far. Even though not extremely athletic, he is fundamentally sound on both ends, showing good hands, the ability to make himself available for the pass, catch it, and finish. He is a welcome presence there.
Posted by: Bustacat | Dec 20, 2007 10:08:36 PM
And I'm not sure where this year 4 stuff keeps coming from when assessing. He is in the early part of year THREE (3). The franchise in its 4th year and the first rookie was Okafor who is in his 4th year.
Posted by: jperry | Dec 20, 2007 10:12:25 PM
Michael have you ever played a MANS sport in your life. You seem to be an authority on everything but really you do not know Jack.
Posted by: jeff | Dec 21, 2007 3:37:43 PM
Well that is pretty clear. Look at his argument with me in the comments for Bonnell's blog about Vincent getting what he wanted.
Posted by: Good Trade | Dec 22, 2007 12:43:42 AM
Mohammed has already had two better games (in 3 games total) than Brezec has had in two years. Get on his nuts Procton.
Posted by: LeeL | Dec 22, 2007 1:17:45 PM
Lol. Seriously Nazr is obviously better and Procton still backs Primoz. He argues that Nazr good numbers were against the Knicks - who he says play no D, but the game he gives Primoz props for was against GOLDEN STATE! lol
Posted by: Good Trade | Dec 23, 2007 2:03:33 AM
we still have some work to do. until our players get hungry and play hard every night we will contunue to miss the playoffs by just a few games.
Posted by: C.J. Johnson | Dec 26, 2007 12:11:40 PM
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