Jordan open to changing Bobcats’ name

Bobcats is a dirty word.

Well, it is in Charlotte. Some people there really hate the name -- they think former owner Bob Johnson named the Charlotte franchise after himself. And they can’t stand him. So it’s not a shock that new owner Michael Jordan was asked at his first press conference if he would change the name.

Jordan told the Charlotte Observer’s Scott Fowler he would consider it.

‘The thing is that I’m open for anything. It’s a commitment. We have to go through the league. It’s a process. It’s a financial commitment. Am I willing to look at that and say can we go down that road? Yeah. If I get the understanding from the community, from the public, that we need it and it signifies change, yeah, I would do that. But once again, it’s a process. It’s a $3-million to $10-million investment to do that. I’m not afraid of that, as long as at the backside of that, the public is going to be happy about that, that it’s going to be great for the organization. I think it [could be] a new beginning. Yeah, I would do that. I would consider that.’ ”

What I really liked about Jordan’s press conference -- it wasn’t too polished. He rambled at times, like that answer. There were no great revelations, but it seemed off the cuff. Most of these press conferences are more rehearsed than a Broadway musical, this one felt genuine because it wasn’t.

When the Observer took a poll recently, about a quarter of the respondents said keep the team the Bobcats. The other 75 percent were split on other potential names (Flight was the leader of that group). While a lot of people liked other names better, there was a long way from a community consensus.

The Bobcats have a lot of problems - the franchise is hemorrhaging money, they are locked in with this good-but-not-great core of players for another three years due to long contracts, and a lot of the connection with the community need to be rebuilt. The name may be an issue for some, but it’s an added expense and priority Jordan may choose to wait on.