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Larry Brown Says Michael Jordan’s Bobcats Underlings Are Like Spies

Right now Larry Brown is busy preparing to take over SMU, his 736th head coaching job, but he still has some thoughts on his 735th gig, in which he led the now-possibly-historically-awful Charlotte Bobcats. It’s hard to believe now, but just two years ago Brown had the Bobcats in the playoffs. They got swept in the first round, sure, but it definitely beats sitting at 7-57, and since Brown was on the inside, he has some insight into where things went so horribly wrong.

Unsurprisingly, since the Bobcats are owned by Michael Jordan and Michael Jordan is the biggest star in basketball history, much of the talk about the Bobcats’ wretchedness centers around the role he plays in it all. And so today, when Brown made an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show and the conversation turned to the Bobcats, the topic of Jordan inevitably followed. Patrick said he doesn’t see the same fire in Jordan the owner as he did in Jordan the player. Brown sounded more sympathetic to Jordan himself. The people in the organization working for Jordan? Not so much:

Maybe Brown’s exaggerating, but obviously this doesn’t sound too good – and clearly, whatever the Bobcats are doing as far as the organization’s power structure goes, something’s wrong. (Jordan, unsurprisingly, disagrees with the notion that the Bobcats’ front office is filled with yes men. The full story on Jordan’s response is here.)

And though Brown sounds like he’s defending Jordan on his own merits, that defense falls flat. Because if the people around Jordan are as bad as Brown says they are, that’s on Jordan. He’s the boss, and when you’re the boss, the most important thing you can do is surround yourself with good people. If you don’t, you’re failing as a boss, and this Bobcats season has been such an unrelenting string of failure and sadness that Patton Oswalt might do a routine on it. There’s no sugarcoating 7-57 when you’re in charge.

Oh, and Brown’s Anthony Davis obsession? Still going strong. Today, he was saying that he or Patrick could step onto the court with Davis and still form an imposing team. If Davis is even close to as good as Brown thinks he’ll be – still, a pretty tall task – that No. 1 pick is a golden ticket. We think Brown might be going off the deep end on the Davis topic, but hey, he knows more basketball than we do.

[USA Today]

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