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Bobcats President & Chief Operating Officer Fred Whitfield,
Majority Owner Bob Johnson, new Head Coach Larry Brown and
Managing Member of Basketball Operations Michael Jordan.

Bobcats President & Chief Operating Officer Fred Whitfield
Good Afternoon. I’d like to welcome each and every one of you to the Time Warner Cable Arena. That has a great ring to it. Today is a very exciting day for us here at the Bobcats organization. Three weeks ago we were fortunate to announce our partnership with Time Warner Cable and the name of this arena and also that Fox Sports Net will carry our games live. Today is another day that we are extremely excited about. I’m happy to see a lot of fans. We’d like to thank the fans and the media and the citizens of Charlotte. It’s a great day to move forward and we feel extremely proud to make a huge announcement today about the future of our basketball organization.

Bobcats Majority Owner Bob Johnson
Good Afternoon. We welcome you all here as we make this very important announcement about the future of this organization. I’m going to be very brief because I know all of you came here to hear about the exciting things that are happening on the court with the Charlotte Bobcats. Let me say this, on behalf of the Bobcats organization and our owners, we are committed to putting a winning franchise on the court for the Charlotte fans. Part of putting a winning franchise on the court is having the best individuals in the game involved in helping you build that team and creating that winning culture and that winning tradition. We are extremely proud and fortunate to have in our organization, the greatest basketball player to ever play the game in Michael Jordan and one of the greatest coaches to ever coach the game in Larry Brown. No franchise can ask for two better leaders to put their talent to work to bring about a winning franchise for Charlotte. It’s my privilege to introduce the head of basketball operations and part-owner Michael Jordan.

Bobcats Managing Member of Basketball Operations Michael Jordan
Thank you for coming out and supporting the Bobcats and what we are trying to do in the city of Charlotte. One of the things I’ve always said in my position here is that we will try to better the scenario here in Charlotte until we get it right. Unfortunately we went though this process last year and now we’re here this year, but I think this is a move that will benefit this franchise as well as the city of Charlotte and the team overall in terms of its success. Without further adieu, I think you guys know Larry Brown. I think you know his history as a coach. He’s from North Carolina. He went to the University of North Carolina. He’s got kids and family here. I think he was looking forward to coming back. We’re very happy to bring him back. He’s been in programs like ours where we’ve struggled to try to find our identity. He’s taken a team and found that and turned it into something very successful. I think he’s going to do a great job here. I think we have the right pieces here. I think the city is waiting and very hungry for a successful franchise here. I don’t want to put too much pressure on Larry, but I think this is the type of atmosphere that he enjoys. I think he’s a great coach and he’s going to take whatever we have here and turn it into something better. Without further adieu, welcome Larry. Thank you for taking the opportunity to come to Charlotte and we’re looking forward to some great things.

New Bobcats Head Coach Larry Brown
Before I get into this, my wife Shelly and my two daughters and their husbands are here, and I know they are as excited about this as I am. Just a few things, the reason I’m here is because of Michael (Jordan) and Bob (Johnson). Obviously I went to school in North Carolina and played for the greatest coach to ever coach this game in Coach (Dean) Smith. I think Michael would say the same thing I do. We learned the game from him. It was always my understanding playing for Coach Smith that you had to surround yourself with quality people that had the same values that he had. Michael has that and I know Bob is committed.

All I want to do is go to practice every single day and challenge the players and make them understand that we want to make them the best possible players they can be and understand the importance of playing as a team. Every day I went to play in Chapel Hill it was written on the board, ‘Play hard, play together, play unselfishly and have fun.’ That’s something I’ve done since I’ve been coaching the game. He always used to add that you have to tell them to rebound and try to defend a little bit, so I figured that one out as well. I haven’t watched the Bobcats the past two years a lot, but I remember when I competed against Bernie (Bickerstaff), the thing I remembered was that team played hard and played together. I thought every single night they competed. The fans that were there were supportive and could feel good about them. I would hope that when you see our team play, you will leave the arena saying they played hard, they played unselfishly and they made you proud with their effort. That’s something I think is the responsibility of the coach.

I don’t feel like I’m a genius. I’m not an innovator by any means, but I probably have the greatest background of any coach. I played obviously for Frank McGuire, who’s in the Hall of Fame and I played for Dean Smith, who’s in the Hall of Fame. My high school coach Bobby Gersten went to North Carolina and he told me when I was in high school that if he thought I was good enough he’d hoped I could matriculate there. I played for Mr. Iba on the Olympic team. I played for John McClendon, who is one of the finest coaches that we know. I played for Pete Newell. I think all of those people have influenced me and they’ve all been pretty consistent in the fact that the team had to come first.

Being in this environment and in this state, we’re used to excellence. The college programs have been phenomenal. The coaching on the college level is phenomenal. There are a lot of great high school players from out of this state that have done extremely well, so obviously the high school coaching is great. I think you people know when a team steps out on the floor if they are well prepared and if they play the right way. Hopefully every time we do that, you’ll feel good about that.

I can’t promise you anything. The only team I’ve ever taken over that had a winning record was Detroit. I think anybody could have coached that team. Joe Dumars assembled a great team. But the players I know that we’ve assembled here with this team, I think all want to get better. I think they’re high character kids and I think they care about the right things. I coached Nazr (Mohammed) for a while and I coached Emeka (Okafor) on the Olympic team. I’ve been around most players in this league. I guess I’ve coached almost everybody in the NBA I’ve been around so long. I’m committed to challenging players to do their best. That’s what Mike was about and that’s what I’m about. I’m not going to ask them to do things they can’t do, but I’m going to challenge them to try to do better. I think with that understanding, there’s a good chance we’re going to be real successful.

I promise you, I will do my very best every single day I go on the court. I’ve never worked a day in my life. I told this to Michael. I’ve been out of basketball for two years as a coach and I realize how much I love it and how much I missed it. When Michael talked to me about the possibility of coming here, it was a no-brainer. There’s no place else I’d rather be than with the Charlotte Bobcats organization and these people up here.