Bernie Bickerstaff Comments To Media - June 24, 2004

We want to be a defensively-oriented basketball team. He’s a tough guy. … The guy just represents everything that we would like to become, in terms of his competitiveness. And that’s not to take anything away from the young fella. His potential and his upside are really good. But this guy we can build around, and we want to be a defensively-oriented basketball team. Defense controls the game. He can get you possessions, he can prevent baskets and he has a great outlet pass. And as Bob (Johnson) alluded to, he’s a quality human being.

What about his offensive game? He made reference to that and said that sometimes people don’t pay him much attention.

I watched him when I went to Connecticut, watched his shots, and even if you watched some of the playoff games, his turnaround jump shot on the baseline is very good. I think where people will have some difficulty with him is his quickness around the basket. Just like he’s quick blocking shots, he’s quick to the basketball, and his moves, when you find a guy on him that doesn’t have the same foot speed, he’ll be an impact. But we want him to play defense. We can find guys who want to put the ball up.

Is he a four (power forward) or five (center)?

I think before this thing is all over, some of the combinations that we will eventually have, he can play both. Because if you look at the Eastern Conference -- and everybody if you look at it all -- you talk about there’s Shaq and then there’s the remainder of us mortal beings. I think he can defend anyone on the post. I don’t think he can defend Shaq, but they haven’t made that guy yet.

Talk about his back.

It’s been completely cleared. When we brought him into town, we walked into the room and we left it up to him. We said, “Emeka, we have our doctor, we would like to take you to a spine doctor, but it’s your choice whether you want to go or not.” He chose to go. The results came back, our doctors called us and said there’s no problem. So we took him.

What did you see in Connecticut other than his basketball skills?

The way he carried himself, the program that he was in. That’s a tremendous program. His work ethic, things that Coach Calhoun and his staff did, it was just great to spend five days up there and watch him. To watch his retention abilities in terms of what the coach was conveying and how he retained it. And it was cold.

Did you talk to him up there?

Sure. I talked to him. The coaches introduced us. They were very cordial to us. In fact, we stayed on campus at that hotel and walked from the hotel over to the arena for the practice sessions.

Talk about as a new franchise trying to build a fan base how exciting it must have been when they announced the first pick and the fans seemed to react like they wanted Emeka here, there was just such an overwhelming ovation.

I wouldn’t expect anything else out of Charlotte fans. There’s wisdom there.

How close, if at all, did you get to getting another first round pick?

Our plans were good. I’m proud of our organization. Bob put us in a position to go out and try to accomplish that. I’m so confident that when things arise, that we will have the capabilities to go out and do the things we need to do to get better as a basketball team.

If you do not get something sound out of the rest of this draft at point guard, how much of a priority is it going to be to go sign a free agent?

That’s why we have the cap flexibility. We have the ability, I think something will shake out, when all the big salaries go back in, I think there will be a good basketball player out there. But what I’m pleased about, I think we satisfied – it’s not proven, but that would be the same case if we took a point guard in the draft – 2, 3, 4, and 5 in terms of potential, the same as it would be in the draft, in the expansion draft. It’s just young and not proven.

Can you put into words what your reaction was when you found out that Orlando was taking Howard?

Everybody was elated. There were high fives, low fives, fists, the whole thing. We are immensely pleased that he was there.

Did you know what was going to happen before it happened?

Yes. We got a call early this morning basically saying that it would be the other way. Then we got a call this afternoon apologizing, saying it would be the way that we preferred. It was someone who knew, but he might have been guessing too, after the morning situation. I admire the guy. I like dealing with people like that. He called to apologize, the quality of the person, I have a great appreciation for.

And that was John Weisbrod?

Yes.

You said he would eventually be both a four and a five. Where do you think he’ll start out?

I said he has the capability according to matchups of playing the four and the five. We’ll ask him where he wants to play.

Were you disappointed with the first call?

No, because emotionally we had prepared ourselves either way. And I still feel this way, Orlando got themselves a pretty doggone good basketball player.

Tell us about your second round pick Bernard Robinson.

He was one of the guys that we felt good about, because of the different things that he can do on the basketball court. His ability to handle the ball and defend different positions are some of the things that attracted us to him. We think that he can defend the power forward position, and we hope that other teams’ will in turn defend him with the power forward, creating a good matchup for us. We didn’t think that he would be available at number 45. We thought that he would be taken around the 28th or 29th pick, so we are really happy that he was available at that time.

What are your overall plans for the 45th pick?

We still have no obligation to keep this pick so it’s another important decision we have to make this summer. Robinson is a guy with a lot of talent, but like everyone else, he has to prove himself. We asked Devin Harris when he came in to work out with us who was the toughest player he had played against in the Big 10 and he said Bernard Robinson.

What are you going to do about the team's point guard situation?

We’re going to have to go back and look at the free agent market for a point guard. There are some young point guards out there looking for playing time and we will just have to wait and see how things play out.