The Bobcats' original management team is now just a memory. Five years ago, team president Ed Tapscott hired Bernie Bickerstaff as coach-general manager and Chris Weiller as chief-of-staff/chief marketing officer.
The last of that group departed recently when Bickerstaff was told his services -- now as executive vice president -- were no longer required. Bickerstaff will be paid for this season, but apparently the new administration didn't value his voice in the room in contemplating major decisions.
That means part-owner Michael Jordan, general manager Rod Higgins and new coach Larry Brown will run the show in Charlotte. Bickerstaff could surface in New York, where Donnie Walsh is remaking the Knicks' front office and coaching staff.
Bickerstaff never really got his due in Charlotte for how wisely he managed the team's first three seasons. He refused to take shortcuts, which meant there was plenty of room under the salary cap last summer to make the trade with Golden State for Jason Richardson.
Bickerstaff was probably a better general manager than coach in Charlotte. His best work was finding and developing Gerald Wallace (via the expansion draft), trading up to take Emeka Okafor in the team's first rookie draft, and signing Matt Carroll out of the NBDL.
As coach, he succeeded in prodding the Bobcats to play harder than the average NBA team nightly. He never let them surrender to their limitations, and his successor, Sam Vincent, never got the same results.
Bickerstaff also made mistakes. He should have traded the fifth and 13th picks to Portland in 2005, in order to draft Chris Paul. Instead, he offered that fifth pick and a future first (the one that became Jared Dudley in June), but the Trail Blazers chose Utah's offer, and the Jazz selected Deron Williams.
SEASON HIGHLIGHT: For the second straight season, the Bobcats did their best work against the Los Angeles Lakers. Last season, it was a triple-overtime victory in Charlotte, in which the Bobcats fouled Kobe Bryant out of the game. This time it was a March visit to Los Angeles, and the Bobcats so frustrated Bryant that night he was ejected with two technical fouls, the second for kicking a ball at a referee.
TURNING POINT: They knew (because of college basketball commitments at their arena) that 26 of their last 41 would be played on the road. They never built sufficient momentum in November and December to overcome that schedule imbalance, and four straight losses out west -- Sacramento, Golden State, Denver and Phoenix -- did them in during early February.
