‘It’s time for a new set of eyes’: Hornets fans react to Michael Jordan selling the team

During his work week, Fred Smith has a flat screen TV stationed to the left of his barber’s chair.

Smith, the manager of V’s Barbershop in South Charlotte, had a rerun of a dated basketball game on that screen on Friday as the news broke that NBA and UNC legend Michael Jordan is selling his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets.

A fan of the Hornets since their original NBA arrival in 1988, Smith is optimistic about the changing of the guard for the franchise.

“He tried, but I think it’s time for a new set of eyes,” Smith said. “Now, I will miss him being ‘part of the team,’ you know, because Jordan is Carolina, you know, Tar Heels — I’m a Duke fan — but I was obviously a Jordan fan. Going to a game, seeing him, having the chance to see him, or just knowing that he’s there, that would be missed. I think it’s time for a new set of eyes, a new direction.”

The Hornets haven’t made the playoffs since the end of the 2015-16 season. The franchise is 423-600 since Jordan bought majority stake in the squad — then known as the Bobcats — in 2010. And some fans attribute the team’s longstanding lack of success to Jordan’s ownership approach.

Smith says he hears the complaints from customers in his chair.

“They pretty much say the same thing: Jordan, great player but terrible owner,” Smith said.

Jordan, a Wilmington native, is arguably the most popular NBA player in history. And he’s also from the Carolinas, which immediately gives him a local connection to fans. But the lowly output of the Hornets under Jordan’s leadership has made his step back in power — he will retain a minority stake in the team even after the sale — easier to swallow for Charlotte fans.

Evan Kent, the founder of The Crown Club, a prominent Hornets fan club, believes the fan base was patient throughout the majority of Jordan’s run at the top of the organization because of his local ties and on-the-court success as a player. Eventually, though, fans want to see some sort of return on their emotional and financial investments in the team.

“If Jordan had a mediocre record and maybe won one or two playoff series, that probably would have been enough for the Charlotte area to feel like it’s not time for him to go,” Kent said. “I think there was a lot of grace given to him. Obviously, nationally, it’s a very sexy conversation to be like, ‘Is Michael Jordan a bad owner?’ I feel like locally we gave him a lot of grace from UNC, from being from here, from being the GOAT (greatest of all-time).”

Jordan plans to sell his majority stake in the Hornets to Hornets minority owner Gabe Plotkin and Atlanta Hawks minority owner Rick Schnall, who will divest himself of his share of the Hawks. Music producer and rapper J. Cole, who grew up in Fayetteville, and country singer-songwriter Eric Church, who grew up in Granite Falls and graduated from Appalachian State, are also set to be part of the ownership group.

Christopher Pearson, manager of Dilworth Grille in Uptown, is hoping the change brings in a new era of winning for the franchise.

“That we do something different — that we just do something to a point where we can actually start winning some games consistently,” Pearson said. “Get a bigger fan base, more people that actually want to go to the games because they’re seeing us win instead of just wanting to be there because it’s a basketball game, you know? Hopefully it works out. Hopefully, it’s a good turn for us and not a wrong turn.”

While Kent is looking forward to the change at the top of the organization, he believes Jordan — the NBA’s only Black majority owner — should receive credit for his philanthropic work in the community, particularly with the Black community.

“In recent years he’s been much more philanthropic,” Kent said. “So when you look at the basketball operations side of things, you have to give him credit where it’s due in the fact that he did really care about the community in that aspect. It’s not necessarily an excuse for bad basketball when you own a basketball team. But it is something that I feel like in the footnotes of his ownership era that needs to be brought up.”

Ultimately, though, the majority of the Hornets faithful seems to be embracing the impending change in leadership.

Still, Kent realizes that the grass isn’t always greener when comes to NBA owners. While the majority ownership change could lead to more wins at Spectrum Center, the switch could also extend the Hornets’ longtime woes in the Eastern Conference standings as well. The Hornets have not only never made it to the NBA Finals, but they’ve never qualified for the Eastern Conference finals, either.

“It’s a bit of a mystery — that’s the weirdest part about this,” Kent said. “It’s like you’re leaving one long-term relationship and you’re entering into another partnership. You feel kind of dumb because you hope it’s something different.”

The Observer’s Roderick Boone and Langston Wertz Jr. contributed to this story.