The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Judith Benjamin
On Wednesday, for the first time in 4,970 days, the Charlotte Hornets will play a game without Michael Jordan as their majority owner. It will be the end of an era for the franchise, one in which the most famous basketball player ever was not only associated with it but also ran the team. When the NBA Board of Governors approved the sale of the Hornets this summer to a group led by Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin, the transaction ended Jordan’s 13-year run at the Hornets’ forefront and under his control, though he will remain a minority owner.
It was not exactly a prosperous era for the Hornets, though they won their first game with Jordan as owner and their last. Charlotte won 41.7 percent of its games under Jordan’s stewardship and made the playoffs just three times, including the season in which Jordan assumed control. The Hornets underwent a name change — the franchise was still known as the Charlotte Bobcats when Jordan bought them in 2010 — and five coaching changes.
Jordan, however, was the constant. He had been the face of the NBA at one point as a star player, and he was nearly the face of the Hornets in his time there, too.
“I know the wins and losses weren’t what everybody wanted but he touched a lot of people. I think it goes beyond the wins and losses…” said Ramon Sessions, who played for the Bobcats from 2012-14 and Hornets from 2016-17. “We had so many different events, different stuff we was doing in the community. Opening up the facility for a big turkey drive for all the families in Charlotte, like different events that we was doing, but it was all stuff that was just like touching the community. It wasn’t like he was partnering with a big company going to do this. There was a lot of stuff that was just really embedded in the community, which I thought was pretty cool. And he would be there passing that stuff out… He was there. That’s Michael Jordan, he didn’t have to do that.”
