Michael Jordan earned a reputation as a horrible NBA team owner after a 13-year run as the Charlotte Hornets' majority owner. Retired player and current analyst Jay Williams disagrees with the criticism levied against Jordan, though, citing the franchise's stark increase in valuation under his leadership to debunk the narrative. Frankly speaking, Williams' shot at defending the former executive is an airball.
In an Instagram post, Williams detailed how the organization had been bleeding $30 million per year when Jordan purchased his majority stake in the then-Bobcats for $275 million. Through supposedly shrewd business decisions, such as not chasing superstars or other expensive stars and ducking the luxury tax every year, "His Airness" was able to avoid the "red ink," as Williams put it.
The Hornets had become so financially sound that Jordan bagged $3 billion when he sold his majority stake to the ownership group of Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall in 2023.
Sure, MJ managed to secure a profit 10 times more than his investment. But who's to say Charlotte wouldn't have seen a similar, or even greater, boost in valuation with a different owner at the helm?
Besides, Williams' assertion only proves why some people just aren't meant to run a team. If he sees NBA teams as mere business vehicles and believes that an NBA team's primary measure of success is turning in profit, that would be an easy way to alienate players and fans.
Michael Jordan's ownership tenure saw plenty of mishaps
In addition, Jordan may have avoided a negative bottom line by not taking on extremely bloated contracts. However, his notoriety as a bad drafter is just difficult to ignore. He did ace a few draft selections, including Kemba Walker, LaMelo Ball, and Brandon Miller, the latter two of which have helped set Charlotte up for a hopeful future.
However, his draft record consists of the likes of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller, Noah Vonleh, Frank Kaminsky, and James Bouknight. Some among the Hornets faithful also cannot forget when the organization turned down a total of first-round picks from the Boston Celtics in order to draft Kaminsky in 2015.
Those are just a few of Jordan's miscalculations as owner, and while he certainly doesn't deserve some of the slander thrown his way, calling him a horrible owner isn't wrong. On the bright side, the mistakes of his regime have helped provide plenty of nuggets of wisdom for the current management.