OPINION

By Sam Smith

updated 11:59 a.m. ET April 29, 2008

Michael Jordan, running an NBA franchise for the second time, fired the first coach he hired for each organization after just one season. This time it was former teammate Sam Vincent, who was fired on Saturday.

Though perhaps the news should be that Jordan, given his varied social and business schedule, even knew who the coach was.

Cheap shot, I know. Hey, we're the media. It's what we're supposed to be doing. Right? Nah. Just kidding, Mike.

The general speculation is Jordan will get it right this time and hire Larry Brown, which he should have done a year ago, though most believe cheapskate billionaire owner Bob Johnson didn't want to meet the high price Brown would demand.

Now running out of coaching options to give his career a grand (or respectable) finish after the debacle in New York, the general belief is Brown will come more cheaply. He's had surrogates contact the Bulls and Bucks and the Grizzlies have expressed interest. But Brown wants a chance in the Eastern Conference, where you can do the famous Brown Turnaround Dance pretty quickly.

Brown's a great coach, no matter what happened in New York. The Bobcats could use some teaching, which Brown would deliver, and Brown would stabilize the coaching situation after Bernie Bickerstaff apparently had to take the job because Johnson didn't want to pay a coach and general manager. Then Johnson hired Vincent as the league's least expensive coach.

One issue if Brown does go there would be Jordan's somewhat part-time status as basketball chief. Jordan isn't there much as both a corporate spokesman and worldly bon vivant, and Brown needs someone to sit on him like he had with Donnie Walsh, Joe Dumars and Billy King of late.

There are many famous Brown stories. Most have to do with bad practices and Brown then wanting to trade many of his players. The most famous involves Denver trying for months at Brown's behest to get George McGinnis. Finally, general manager Carl Sheer pulled off the deal for Bobby Jones and after the first practice Brown was said to have asked Sheer to trade McGinnis because McGinnis wouldn't practice hard. Sheer supposedly then left on a three-month scouting trip and wouldn't take calls, though they'd eventually get Alex English for McGinnis.

Maybe the Bobcats will bring in Dean Smith, who is something of Brown's spiritual advisor.

One interesting element of the Brown speculation is this notion you hear around the NBA about the Charlotte franchise and the story I read on the Charlotte Observer's web site Sunday. It was a straightforward analysis of Vincent's departure. I then read the reader comments below about the story and few were about basketball. Most were engaged in a discussion, somewhat puerile and mean-spirited, about whether the Bobcats hire just black people.

It's actually something you hear occasionally about the franchise around the NBA, and I've always dismissed it. Because I do know Jordan from covering him his entire career and writing the book, The Jordan Rules, about his early championship Bulls.

My history with Jordan shows he just wants to beat you at everything and couldn't care less about anything but the color of your money.

And I know Johnson endorses Hillary Clinton in this presidential primary campaign against Barack Obama. Though based on many comments I have seen from Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, he appears to be helping Obama much more than Clinton with clumsy attacks of Obama.

Actually, if there is a bias in a Jordan operation it is against those not from North Carolina, or at least the ACC.

When the Bulls were trying to break through in the late 1980's, Jordan wasn't exactly on the same page with management about personnel. Perhaps it was an indicator of his future as Jordan has struggled with personnel decisions in Washington and Charlotte. His first Washington coach was Leonard Hamilton, sort of one of those "What?" choices like Vincent. Kwame Brown, his No. 1 overall pick, was a disaster, and he lost patience too fast with Richard Hamilton and dealt him for Jerry Stackhouse. Jordan used his first top pick in Charlotte for Adam Morrison, and he's been out one of his two seasons, and it remains to be seen if the Jason Richardson deal will work in the trade of the rights to, surprise, North Carolina's Brandan Wright.

For now, Richardson pretty much duplicates Gerald Wallace, perhaps Charlotte's best player, and Jordan dealt for veteran center Nazr Mohammed, who is more similar than complementary to Emeka Okafor. Thus far, Jordan seems to be adding pieces instead of building a team. It's sometimes why star players have difficulty as executives. They see the game in terms of players like themselves.

It is a job of detail and subtlety as much as skill. It's about team building as well as talent.

Early in Jordan's career, he wasn't getting anywhere despite what was clearly the best individual talent in the NBA. His team was 1-9 in his first 10 playoff games.

The team was pushing to trade for Knicks center Bill Cartwright. The Bulls made the trade for Charles Oakley, a talented young forward and close friend with Jordan. Jordan was furious and for several years derided Cartwright, the trade and management.

Eventually, Jordan admitted he was wrong and how much the Bulls needed Cartwright to get by the Pistons' James Edwards, the Knicks' Patrick Ewing, the Celtics' Robert Parish and the Cavs' Brad Daugherty.

A team often is a fit like a jigsaw puzzle, pieces with different skills in different sizes and shapes coming together, though when you lay them all out it could seem you have nothing.

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Back in Chicago, Jordan fought bitterly with management to draft Duke's Johnny Dawkins over Brad Sellers. Jordan's tyrannical treatment of Sellers, a finesse player, many believe, led to Sellers' declining career. Jordan pushed management to go for former North Carolina star Walter Davis over Scottie Pippen and Maryland's Buck Williams for Horace Grant. Jordan likes the ACC and veterans, and it hasn't hurt Phil Jackson, Jordan's favorite pro coach, that Jackson always said, "You win with men."

The right ones, of course.

Charlotte doesn't have quite enough of them yet, but Brown does work better with veterans.

For all the issues Brown had with Allen Iverson, they did go to the NBA Finals. My favorite story was Brown once retelling dealing with Iverson and Iverson's desire. Brown said he coached Iverson about 500 games and generally substituted him twice a game. Deadpanned Brown: "And he (cursed) me 1,000 times for taking him out."

Brown and Jordan need one another this time and it would help both.

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