Michael Jordan makes a commitment to Charlotte

Welcome back, Mike!

Oh, you haven’t gone anywhere?

It only seemed as if Michael Jordan were fading from the scene because, let’s face it, he hadn’t been omnipresent as Charlotte Bobcats president, with the team’s expected sale to former Houston Rockets president George Postolos.

With Jordan unlikely to stay without total control, and unlikely to get it from Postolos, that would have been it for MJ in Charlotte and, who knows, maybe

in the NBA, as anything

but a famous face at the All-Star game.

Instead, in a surprise news flash, owner Bob Johnson announced he was selling to a group headed by Jordan, putting up a reported $250 million to $260 million for controlling interest.

Unofficial reports have Jordan buying out minority owners in addition to acquiring Johnson’s 70%. NASCAR team owner Felix Sabates has already said he won’t be part of Jordan’s group, suggesting he has agreed to sell his shares.

The news was received with glee around the NBA, with Commissioner David Stern promising “an expedited process to be completed by the end of the month.�

That would be today, a Sunday.

David didn’t put any of his own money in, did he?

In any case, with Stern’s cat-with-a-canary look at his All-Star news conference, talking about the forthcoming sale, if the news was a bombshell for everyone else, it may not have been for Stern.

Charlotte fans rejoiced, because Johnson was reviled only a little less than Hornets owner George Shinn, who carpetbagged it out of there with their first team.

Of course, there might be dancing in the streets, if only local fans could remember who Jordan is.

Stubbornly clinging to his long-held vow that he’s “no one’s show pony,� Jordan has presided over the Bobcats’ basketball operation like a ghost.

Rather than living in Charlotte, he keeps a condo there. He’s rarely seen at games, hidden away in an executive suite -- when or if he attends -- so no one knows how often he’s there.

Media relations are all but nonexistent. The Bobcats didn’t even hold a news conference Saturday, noting Jordan would have no comment until the sale is approved by the NBA.

Nevertheless, the announcement was a major step in holding together what they have built, which was about to blow up.

Coach Larry Brown made no secret of his dismay at the prospect of losing Jordan (“I came for him, no other reason�) and, who knows, may have already been wondering what, or where, came next.

Contract or no contract, it might even have occurred to Brown that the Philadelphia 76ers, who are expected to be looking for a coach this summer and could use a miracle worker, might want him back, not to mention the fact his wife and kids are still living in suburban Villanova, Pa.

Now Larry can chill. OK, for an hour or two.

They might even squeeze a triumphant season in, seeing as how making

the playoffs would be a triumph.

Before Brown arrived last season to post a record 35 wins, the 4-year-old franchise had never won more than 33.

Unfortunately, by then the Bobcats had all but dropped off the map in this Hotbed the NBA Forgot.

Charlotte fans who poured into the Hornets’ new 19,000-seat arena, making the team No. 1 in the NBA in attendance for its first seven seasons, couldn’t have gotten less for their support unless the NBA had flown over and dropped bombs.

Within 14 years, Shinn became enmeshed in a sex scandal, arrived at an impasse with city officials over a downtown arena and left . . . after which NBA sold the same territory to Johnson, the Black Entertainment Television magnate, who jacked up ticket prices in the new $265-million downtown arena built at taxpayer expense.

Johnson, who lived in Washington, D.C., visited infrequently and remained aloof from the local media, but brought in the beloved Jordan . . . who visited

infrequently and remained aloof from the local media.

With his own money on the line -- well, maybe a little is his -- someone might prevail on Mike to put in the occasional appearance, or, at least, have a hologram made so the fans can see him and reporters can talk to him.

The Bobcats have a competitive team with Gerald Wallace, Stephen Jackson and Raymond Felton, in a virtual tie with Miami for the last playoff spot in the East.

Now with Jordan taking over, solidifying everything, for the moment, it’s the greatest day the Bobcats have ever known!

We’re can’t remember what the best day was before this, and we’ll have to see if there’s another this good.

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