Former basketball great Michael Jordan could soon be the owner of his own NBA team.
Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown said on Monday that Jordan is doing everything he can to become the majority owner of the club in his home state.
“He said he’s doing his best to put himself in a position to get the team,” Brown said. “He wants it badly.”
Owner Bob Johnson is eager to sell the unprofitable club, and NBA commissioner David Stern said on Saturday he expected a deal to be completed within two months.
While Stern has said Jordan owning the team “would be a good thing,” he may have competition. Former Houston Rockets executive George Postolos has made inquiries, and it’s possible if Postolos gets control, Jordan would no longer have a role with the team.
Jordan, currently a part owner with the final say on basketball decisions, would have to put an ownership group together and agree with Johnson on a price. Jordan declined comment on Monday through a team spokesman.
“I didn’t talk to him about the particulars,” Brown said of his conversation with Jordan last week. “He just told me don’t believe everything you read in the paper and I’m trying my hardest to get this thing done. I’m hopeful that at the end of the day Michael will be running the Bobcats.”
Postolos, who once worked as an assistant to Stern in the NBA offices, has been in talks with Johnson for months.
“I am still not talking to media about Charlotte,” Postolos wrote in an e-mail to reporters on Monday.
Jordan currently has a unique role in Charlotte. While he runs the basketball operations, he’s not officially a team employee and rarely attends practices or games. But he was able to lure Brown, a fellow Hall of Famer, to coach the Bobcats and Charlotte (26-25) is in position to make their first playoff appearance this season.
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