2007 Lucky Charm Chosen
May 21, 2007

Turns out there might be more to the Bobcats lucky charm that President and Chief Operating Officer Fred Whitfield will have with him when he’s at the NBA Entertainment studio in Secaucus, New Jersey for the 2007 NBA Draft Lottery.

After receiving close to 50 submissions in our Bobcats Fans Lucky Charm contest, our Bobcats fans have spoken. With over 2,000 votes cast in our online poll to decide the winner, it was the Sajatovic family’s lucky cork that received over 58 percent of the vote – far surpassing Theo’s growl towel and Hank the dog.

While at first glance it may not seem like much of a lucky charm, it’s where it came from that might add a little bit more luck for the Bobcats when the ping-pong balls are selected.

“I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and my husband (Nick) went to Ohio State and is a huge Buckeye fan,” mom Laura, who submitted the cork, revealed on Monday. “We were on a family picnic in Ohio a few years ago, and at the picnic site we were at, the cork was just sitting on the picnic table. Our daughter (Alaina) just loved it. She thought it was really old looking and really cool and asked if she could take it. At first, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of taking somebody else’s cork, but she brought it home and it became our lucky cork.”

That cork made the trip to Charlotte all the way from Columbus, and has brought with it much luck for the Sajatovic family – especially for the kids at school, where someone takes the cork with them on every test day, particularly Alaina. So how has it been working?

“She takes it to school hope for some extra luck on tests,” Laura said. “She’s a great student, and it’s worked out pretty well so far.”

Admittedly a huge Bobcats fan, there is no doubt who is Alaina’s favorite Bobcats player.

“I’m a huge Adam Morrison fan,” she said. “When I first saw him on TV, I though he was kind of weird, but when I came and saw him at a game in real life, I was like, “Oh my gosh.” He’s cool – I really like him. I even started a fan page devoted to him at myspace.com/morrisonmaniacs. It’s a ton of Morrison fans who can post comments about his game – it’s a great way to unify all of us Morrison fans. There are about 500 people on the page.”

While Alaina is helping bring together Morrison and Bobcats fans across the nation, in fact all over the world, her mother was impressed with how the Bobcats reached out to their fans in an effort to help land the No. 1 pick on Tuesday.

“I think this was a great way for the Bobcats to try and get the fans to have a presence at the NBA Draft Lottery,” she said. “It’s good to see them reaching out and connecting with the community.”

And who knows? Maybe the Sajatovic cork will play a major factor in bringing another Buckeye to Charlotte during the 2007 NBA Draft on June 28 in New York.