Bobcats Meet The Press After Expansion Selection

President & Chief Operating Officer Ed Tapscott: As the three of us sit here on this stage to discuss this historic day for us. I’d like to say thank you to all of the members of our staff that has grown rather quickly for all the work, all the effort, all the time in what is often a very trying situation, a start-up franchise. I personally feel, and I know Bernie agrees with me, and Bob does too, that we owe each one of them a debt of gratitude for all of their work.

General Manager & Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff: I’d just like to echo the sentiment when you talk about our staff. That was the thing I just alluded to on the television, that they are the people in the trenches that make things possible for us to get the headlines.

Bernie, can you talk a little more about how many of these guys you figure will actually make the first roster, and what you were trying to accomplish in terms of cap flexibility for the average fan who might not understand?

Bickerstaff: The one thing we think is that cap flexibility is really important. That’s why we took a lot of restricted free agents. Now there are some restricted free agents that we want on our basketball team and when the appropriate time comes, we will negotiate with them and we think we will be able to have them on our roster. But it is important that we have flexibility. We feel that we underlined maybe 7 to 8 players that we would like to bring to training camp and give them an opportunity to perform for us.

Bernie, can you talk about the draft Thursday? Are you likely to have more choices than just the No. 2 pick?

Bickerstaff: I think we probably will have more choices. Overall, I think we’ll have some picks, whether they be this year or at subsequent times. We’re in the process now of going through a mock draft. If we feel that there is a player in the mid-first round that we like, then we will do everything in our power to pursue trading for another first round pick.

Bernie, if you took those 19 players and you had to suit them up and play them in a regular NBA season starting tomorrow, how many games would they win?

Bickerstaff: You know what we talked about about making predictions about the future. It’s kind of difficult. And fortunately, we don’t have to suit up with that team. I would not be happy at all if that was the group that we would have to suit up, because there is no balance in that basketball team. We need some more size. That was the reason that we moved up to No. 2.

Bernie, you don’t have a point guard. What are you going to do about that?

Bickerstaff: We will -- that’s the flexibility that we have. We think when all the big contracts go back in, something will shake loose. And that’s something that we will be looking at in the draft Thursday and as we do our mock drafts tomorrow. Whether there is someone that merits that consideration.

What kind of lessons did you learn from the demise of the old franchise, and how did you apply those lessons to today’s draft and Thursday’s draft?

Tapscott: Certainly there was a lot of research done coming in the market here by all members of our staff. I think that obviously there was great passion for NBA basketball here for a number of years. Things went on to a different conclusion. We certainly want to learn the lessons both positively and negatively about the situation here in Charlotte. We think that clearly to be open and engaged with the community is one of the things that we wanted to do here. We’ve tried to do that. I think we found, from the number of you that I have seen down at the practice center have an opportunity to engage with the potential athletes. I think what you’ll see from us is the continuance of the things that you’ve seen over the last year and a half. I told Bernie, as we go forward, I want him to maintain that very pleasant sense of humor he has today as we shape this roster and get started with games. Like I said, the interaction that we have with fans and the media will continue, and we think that is where we learn most of our lessons.

Ed, can you talk about this day and this event – certainly there’s been a lot of talk about this week – can you talk about what it means to have some Charlotte Bobcats even though many of these guys may not be here?

Tapscott: Certainly we are tremendously excited and very, very grateful for the work of many of the people on our staff. And not to speak for Bernie, but we’re also relieved to finally get to this moment and have a chance to start the process of building our product. We’ve had a lot of dialogue here in this community about a number of things that we’ve done. But ultimately we will be judged on the success and failure of this process going forward. So we have been chomping at the bit to get started. Bernie and I have had many, many meetings; we’ve bothered Bob with just as many meetings, every time coming to a consensus about the direction of this franchise and how we would step forward after this day and the many to follow. This is just the first step. We have a lot of work to do. Thursday, with the draft, we take another step. We have a whole summer to bother Bob, and Bernie and I are looking forward to bothering him all summer long about what we’re going to do with this team and this franchise.

Bernie, could you talk about Jason Kapono, the type of player he is and what he will bring?

Bickerstaff: He stretches the defense, and it’s something that you don’t see in the United States, guys who can shoot the basketball and have got range. He knows how to play. He’s not the quickest guy but he understands angles. He’s one of those guys who will pay attention to detail. He was most definitely one of the guys that Cleveland wanted to protect. In fact, there were inducements that were offered for us not to take him.

Bob, you talk a lot about an emotionally engaging experience. Does the No. 2 pick represent that?

Majority Owner Robert L. Johnson: Absolutely. When you’ve got the choice between two extremely talented young men. Not only are they talented but what I’ve gleaned from looking at some of the background information on them, they are very fine young men. The family background, their commitment to a strong work ethic, their value system, it all makes it exciting for us to have the potential to have either one of these two gentlemen. As I said, if you have a chance to build a foundation of an organization around either one of these two young men, you really look forward to having them here in this town and having them be a part of your organization. They definitely would help us create that emotionally engaging experience for the fans and be a vital part of our success in Charlotte.

Bob, you see some owners around the league, the perception, such as the L.A. Clippers, a team that doesn’t seem willing to spend a lot of money on their free agents historically, and then you have other owners like Mark Cuban who’s willing to spend money at all costs to win. Where do you see yourself in the next couple of years? What kind of owner are you going to be financially as far as signing free agents and willing to spend that money to produce a winner?

Johnson: I think our position is that we’re prepared to spend whatever is prudent to put the best player personnel on the court.

Mr. Johnson, As far as how the organization is run, there’s got to be a prototype at least in the back of your mind of how you’re going to do business as the Charlotte Bobcats?

Johnson: It’s very simple for me, and I’ve done this in other businesses. What I try to do is paint or lay out a vision. This is where we want to go. Get everybody on board with that vision, then go out and find the best, talented individuals to execute that vision and bring them all the necessary resources to carry that out. Then I sort of step back and let them do their jobs. The classic example of that is Eddie Tapscott, as President of the Charlotte Bobcats/Charlotte Sting organization and C-SET, has my green light to carry out that vision and he knows that we’re going to provide the resources to do it. He demonstrated that when he brought in Bernie, he brought in Trudi and he built an organization that in less than two years -- if you go back to December 17 when the NBA awarded the franchise -- that I think, and I would probably say many people in the league would share this in New York, has become very quickly one of the finest organizations in the NBA. And I didn’t do that, Eddie did that. So that’s my philosophy, and as long as these two gentlemen are comfortable with that approach, we’re going to have a very stable organization. To me, stability is what builds a winning tradition, and that’s what I expect to have here in Charlotte.

Bernie, could you talk about the attributes of the two players that you’ll get the chance to draft and what they’ll add to the teams lucky enough to draft them?

Bickerstaff: I think they’re different. Emeka Okafor controls the basketball game with his defense, which is what we want to become. We want to be a defensive presence and we want to be unselfish. We think his power, his ability to block shots, his ability to get possessions through rebounds and his tremendous outlet pass, and his experience because of the NCAA and the championship. The young fella has upside. He’s a tremendous athlete. He plays the game a little different than Emeka, but he gets it done. The upside, his ability to run the court, his athleticism, his ability to get the rebound, break out and pass it with different hands. He did not play with a basketball team in high school who had the ability to get him the basketball in his sweet spot. They would basically throw it up to him and then four guys would converge on him, but he never lost his cool. Again, when I go home tonight, when we finish, and when we prepare for the draft, we’re not preparing for No. 1 or No. 2, because we’re comfortable whoever remains, it will be a win/win for the Charlotte Bobcats.