NBA board approves sale of Bobcats to Jordan

Basketball Betting Lines

03/17/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NBA Board of Governors made it official on Wednesday by unanimously approving Michael Jordan's acquisition of a controlling interest of the Charlotte Bobcats.

Jordan and MJ Basketball Holdings, LLC reached an agreement to purchase the majority of the team from Bobcats owner Bob Johnson in late February, but was awaiting official approval by the league.

"We are pleased that Michael Jordan's purchase of majority ownership of the Bobcats was approved by the NBA's Board of Governors and closed in such a smooth and expeditious fashion," said NBA commissioner David Stern. "We look forward to the continued growth of the Bobcats, on and off the court, under his leadership."

Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, became the first black American to be the principal owner of a North American major-league sports franchise when Charlotte began play in 2004.

Jordan joined the Bobcats ownership group in June 2006 and served as the team's managing member of basketball operations, the same position he held with the Washington Wizards earlier in the decade.

As a five-time league MVP, six-time champion and two-time gold medal winner, Jordan has few rivals in regards to his game on the court.

The North Carolina native's stints in the front office, however, have come under some scrutiny.

First was the tumultuous 2003 split with the Wizards after 3 1/2 unsuccessful years with the organization as president of basketball operations, a position he held while he was finishing up his playing days.

Now in Charlotte, Jordan has rarely been seen at team practices or games despite calling the shots on all personnel transactions.

His most notable move thus far was luring fellow Hall-of-Famer, and North Carolina alum, Larry Brown to coach the team at the start of the 2008-09 season.

The Bobcats have never made the playoffs, but, entering Wednesday, sit in the sixth position in the Eastern Conference race with a 34-32 record this season.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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