News
Bickerstaff did good job under tough conditions
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Published: May 10, 2008
CHARLOTTE - This might seem to be a confusing, contradictory approach.
Rip the Charlotte Bobcats. Rip them again. Rip them again. Point out all the flaws, all the blunders, all the ways in which this organization has botched matters in its first four seasons -- and then praise the original executives on their way out the door.
You got me. It is confusing and contradictory.
But just as Ed Tapscott deserved compliments when he left the Bobcats two years ago, Bernie Bickerstaff deserves kind words now as he leaves the organization.
Bickerstaff did a good job
Bickerstaff is a good man, and it is essential to stress that as he departs after holding dual roles as coach and general manager in the team's first three seasons and then as an executive vice president this past season.
Under the circumstances, under the limitations that were set from above with the charge he was given, Bickerstaff did a good job and deserves to be remembered in Charlotte's NBA history that way.
If owner Bob Johnson and the Bobcats eventually succeed under the current regime that includes shot-caller Michael Jordan, General Manager Rod Higgins, and new coach Larry Brown, then kudos will eventually be in order for them, too. The Bobcats are already far better today with Brown as their coach than they were this past season with Sam Vincent.
A difficult situation
The appropriate thing to do at this moment is point out that Bickerstaff was a good soldier, under a difficult owner, that Bickerstaff and his teams fought a good fight even when they lost.
Bickerstaff, Tapscott and others came into a situation that was inherently confusing and contradictory.
They worked for a billionaire owner who made public commitments to excellence and private moves to keep the purse strings tight. They had to build an expansion franchise that wasn't really an expansion franchise, but rather a new franchise in an old NBA city that had experienced good and bad times. They settled on the "expansion model" -- slowly but surely -- for building the franchise when they knew deep down that they had to win quickly to win the fans back but also knew they didn't have the wherewithal from the owner to do it.
Bickerstaff served the dual role of coach and general manager in an era when it's almost impossible to do both jobs effectively; he didn't do it out of ego or a need for control as much as to compact operations and save Johnson another salary. His teams played hard, increased their win total each season he was coach, and his personnel moves as GM were creative even when they didn't pan out. He came out of the first draft with the No. 2 pick and Emeka Okafor, after going into the draft with the fourth pick, ineligible to win the lottery.
The biggest gaffe under Bickerstaff was the decision NOT to trade up to get Chris Paul when the Bobcats had the Nos. 5 and 13 picks in the 2005 draft, taking Raymond Felton at No. 5 and Sean May at No. 13. No getting around that. But when you're forced to sell the notion that you are building slowly, when you're forced to buy time while the owner is keeping the purse strings tight, it would be confusing and contradictory to the public to trade two lottery picks to move up two spots.
That's typical of the kind of binds that Bickerstaff often found himself in.
And it probably should be noted that the Bobcats had that second lottery pick at No. 13 because Bickerstaff had acquired it in a trade for Jahidi White.
Something suggests that the Bobcats would be much further along today if Bickerstaff and Tapscott had been given true rein to build the franchise the way they saw fit. But that didn't happen, and, in truth, it probably never happens anywhere in the NBA because owners inherently want to meddle in areas they shouldn't, with logic that works in other businesses but doesn't in this paradox that the NBA has become.
This confusing and contradictory, paradoxical NBA.
One lasting memory of Bernie Bickerstaff comes from the early days, more than a year before the Bobcats' first game. He was up before dawn in what were 16, 18-hour workdays already, for breakfast with a sports writer. It was a question-and-answer session, mostly off the record, and it was truly back and forth. He answered questions. He also asked questions, because part of his and Tapscott's responsibility at the time was to try to understand the landscape and the situation he was inheriting.
It was part of what he often referred to as "due diligence." Anyone who knows Bickerstaff even from afar associates him with the term "due diligence" and knows he always did his due diligence.
Another lasting memory comes from this past season, after he had moved to the role of executive vice president of basketball operations. He had scouted North Carolina's game at Ohio State in late November. He was at the airport for a 7 a.m. flight from Columbus to Charlotte. That meant being up at 5, after a game that ended well past 11 p.m. He had those sunken eyes and a friendly smile.
And here's why it is a lasting memory. The fight was a Northwest Airlines flight, connecting through Detroit, with a significant layover. There was also a U.S. Airways flight from Columbus to Charlotte that morning, nonstop, that left later and got in earlier, but it cost about $200 more. We're talking about a franchise that cost $300 million, and the executive vice president of basketball operations took the cheaper flight through Detroit, on little sleep, spending a big chunk of his day in an airport.
Because he was a good soldier.
He worked the phones throughout the layover.
Call that part of his due diligence, too.
Contradictory and confusing? Nothing about Bickerstaff's due diligence was ever contradictory or confusing.
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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