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The Solution · 04-28-2008, 04:48 PM

http://www.charlotte.com/sports/story/598629.html

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Blame Sam Vincent all you want for the Charlotte Bobcats' stagnant fourth season, which began with playoff hope and ended with Vincent getting fired only 11 months after getting hired.

But I lay the blame for this 50-loss season mostly at the feet of Michael "Airball" Jordan, whose whiff on Vincent was only the latest example of the fact that he runs NBA basketball teams about as well as he hit a curveball.

Yes, Vincent definitely needed to be fired. He didn't have his players' respect and he made some obvious coaching mistakes. But hiring Vincent in the first place made about as much sense as North Carolina's Danny Green declaring himself eligible for the NBA draft Saturday. Jordan was the one who put Vincent in position to fail.

Jordan may be close to hiring Larry Brown to replace Vincent. If so, more power to him -- Brown would be a wise choice. However, that doesn't erase the evidence of the lost season of 2007-08.

The Jordan myth is that everything he touches turns to gold. It wasn't a myth during Jordan's legendary playing career. But it's about 10 years out of date now. As good as he was when a basketball game was on the line, Jordan has shown no similar Midas touch as an NBA executive.

Jordan has now hired three NBA coaches, and two of them lasted only one season. The other one-year blunder was Leonard Hamilton with the Washington Wizards, who like Vincent seemed thoroughly befuddled by the NBA.

If I had been Vincent -- who wasn't even the Dallas Mavericks' lead assistant in 2006-07 -- of course I would have jumped at the chance to coach the Bobcats last season. Vincent had ambition to burn. At the beginning of his career, he bought a squad in South Africa just so he could coach it.

But Jordan over-reached on this one, and it turned into a debacle. To be fair, not even Vincent's harshest critics could have predicted all the ways in which Vincent failed.

But the fact remains that Jordan is driving this car, and it's been broken down on the shoulder for the past year. While looking for the next Avery Johnson by hiring Vincent, Jordan instead found the next Gene Littles -- the thoroughly unsuccessful Charlotte Hornets coach of the early 1990s. Vincent's career took a body blow, and he won't recover as quickly as Hamilton (now the coach at Florida State).

Jordan hasn't struck out every time as the Bobcats' lead basketball executive. His trade of Brandan Wright to Golden State for Jason Richardson was a superb move. Richardson was the Bobcats' best player during the second half of this past season. Wright looked mostly lost as an NBA rookie.

But now Jordan has to get his next coaching hire right. The Bobcats mostly generate ill feelings or apathy these days. Most people simply don't care. Jordan has to change that.

Hiring Larry Brown? I used to think it was a bad idea, that Brown would be too impatient and too expensive for a young team.

But now, after the Vincent misfire, Brown seems as cozy as a warm blanket. He would give the Bobcats a large helping of what they lack most -- credibility.

And Jordan must stay safe this time, getting either Brown or another well-known commodity, because the Bobcats have to put a lot of distance between themselves and the past 11 months.

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