Open Mike

Remember when Michael Jordan was running things in Washington and he took Kwame Brown with the No. 1 pick in the draft? That was in 2001 and no team had ever taken a high-school player with the first pick. At the time, people thought it was an interesting move. Soon enough, though, they thought it was proof that for all his brilliance on the court, Jordan had a lot to learn in the front office.

So now Jordan is in charge of personnel in Charlotte, and it doesn’t look as if he’s gotten any smarter. He wants to win now, doesn’t want any more kids who have to be nursed along, and so drafted the enormously talented Brandon Wright and then immediately traded him to Golden State for Jason Richardson.

Richardson is a good guy, beloved by the fans, and two years ago he was a terrific basketball player. But he’s starting to break down – knee problems and a broken hand last year held him to just 51 games and pared more than seven points off his scoring average. Wright may need some time to grow into his talent, but Richardson is growing out of his.

Everybody wants to win now, but Richardson isn’t going to take the Bobcats to the Finals; he might not get them in the playoffs, even in the NBA East. No one knows what Wright would do, but if anyone should know that it takes time to develop extraordinary talent, it should be his Airness. All he has to do is look at his own career.

He entered the league in 1985 and in his first three years he scored a lot of points, got in the playoffs, and never got out of the first round. In his fourth year, he lost in the second round. In his fifth and sixth years, he lost in the conference finals to Detroit. Not until his seventh year did everything come together and the three straight titles fall into place. And guess what? If Jordan had been running Chicago’s draft in 1985, he would have traded himself for a player who was awfully good but was never going to be great.

The draftniks killed Jordan on this one, and rightly so. An entirely random selection of blogs give is entries like this at armchairgm: “Poor draft for the Bobcats.”

And this from dcprosportsreport.com: “I guess Michael Jordan taking Kwame Brown with the first overall pick in 2001 wasn’t a fluke. The selection of Brandan Wright was fine, but trading him for Jason Richardson and his $48 million of remaining contract money was a bad idea.”

Sportsnetwork.com wasn’t impressed, either: “the Bobcats were lucky enough to be there to take him. But, to trade him to Golden State for Jason Richardson. What was Charlotte thinking?”

And on ESPN’s broadcast, Stephen A. Smith, who has such a hard time telling people what he really thinks, called the trade “stupid.”

Okay, so a bunch of writers saying a move is awful doesn’t make it so. The players still have the final vote through what they do on the floor. Even so, the trade doesn’t make sense.

Gerald Wallace is the Bobcats’ leading scorer at 18 per game. Like Richardson, he’s a forward. Unlike Richardson, he’s also a free agent. Jordan talks as if he’s going to re-sign Wallace, but most people think Wallace is going to take the trade as reason to move to another team where there’s more chance of winning.

Jordan was a great player. He’s not been a great executive, not in Washington and so far not in Charlotte. And if Wright becomes great and Richardson’s body continues to fall apart, Jordan’s going to find himself on the outside again.

To tell you the truth, it’s where all the evidence says he belongs.

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