Michael Jordan retired as the consensus pick for the greatest player of all time. The six-time NBA Champion moved on from a glittering playing career in 2002 and quickly sought a role as an owner in the NBA. That opportunity presented itself in 2006, when he joined the ownership group of the Charlotte Bobcats, becoming their majority stakeholder by 2010.
Jordan’s tenure as an owner brought poor results, but it was a cool moment for every Bobcat/Hornets player over his ownership tenure to represent the franchise owned by the greatest player in NBA history. This also allowed those players to have cool interactions, such as the one Raymond Felton revealed.
In an appearance on FanDuel TV’s ‘Run It Back,’ Felton revealed that he and a few other Bobcats got the chance to play Jordan in a one-on-one game, sharing details of this practice matchup.
“He came and played one-on-one with me, Gerald Wallace, Jeff McGinnis, and I wanna say Jason Richardson. He literally didn’t have clothes, so he went to the back and got a Bobcats practice uniform and whatever Jordans he had on that day. I don’t think it was a Jordan I had ever seen before, some chill Jordans.”
“He just came out there… It was fun, that picture is still on my phone, and I want to get it framed. In the picture, I was smiling. I’m guarding my GOAT right now. The best player to ever play the game for me, I am guarding him. So, it was a surreal moment in that situation. I was trying to score on him, but I don’t think I ever did.”
Felton spent five seasons with the Bobcats from 2005 to 2010, so we can assume this happened early in his tenure when Jordan was just a few years removed from retirement. Jordan was still in his mid-to-late 40s for most of Felton’s tenure, so he was clearly still in good enough shape to humble veteran NBA players at the time.
Felton averaged 13.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 6.4 assists with the Bobcats, forming the core of a fun team with the likes of Gerald Wallace and Jason Richardson. Unfortunately, this trio never made an NBA Playoffs appearance. Jordan barely saw the team be a Playoff-caliber team in a weak East over his 13-year tenure as owner.
Maybe the fact that he was beating starters on the team that he owned years after retirement should have been a sign to make more aggressive upgrades. To be fair, Felton’s last season precedes Jordan’s first season as the controlling owner in 2010-11.
Michael Jordan’s biggest contribution to NBA history as the owner of this team was rebranding them back to the Charlotte Hornets after the Hornets’ name was ditched by the New Orleans franchise to become the Pelicans.
Jordan is still a minority owner with the franchise, who had their best season in years by going 42-40 in the East. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make it out of the Play-In Tournament, extending their 10-year Playoff drought by another year.
Michael Jordan is enjoying great success as a primary team owner in NASCAR with 23XI Racing, which won the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series with driver Tyler Reddick.
While Michael Jordan is no longer part of the day-to-day operations for the Hornets franchise, he’ll likely be rooting for them to finally become Playoff mainstays, with their current core of LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, and Brandon Miller looking like they’ll take them to heights the franchise hasn’t seen since the 1990s.
