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Jordan beats us again...
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ActionJackson
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8/23/2010  4:27 PM
...to the signing of a "quality" big man
Kwame Brown, Bobcats agree to deal

A reunion that no one in the league expected after their well-chronicled difficulties in Washington will be taking place in Charlotte this season after Brown struck a one-year deal at the veteran minimum with the Jordan-owned Bobcats.

Mark Bartlestein, Brown's Chicago-based agent, told ESPN.com that the sides agreed to terms Monday after Brown played the past two seasons for the Detroit Pistons.

As a nine-year veteran, Brown will earn $1.3 million next season. The 6-foot-11, 270-pound Brown appeared in 48 games last season, averaging 3.3 points and 3.7 minutes in 13.8 minutes per game.

"He really wanted to take the challenge of playing again for Michael and playing for a top coach like Larry Brown," Bartelstein said. "I think it says a lot about Kwame that he wanted to go to Charlotte.


The last few years have been difficult for him, but I think he's really excited to go there and try to create a new chapter in his career.

-- Kwame Brown agent Mark Bartlestein
"The last few years have been difficult for him, but I think he's really excited to go there and try to create a new chapter in his career. He wants this opportunity to go back and prove something."

Brown became in 2001 the first high schooler in league history to be drafted No. 1 overall when Jordan, as president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards, used his first draft pick as an executive on the Georgia teenager.

But the gamble worked out disastrously for both, with Brown chafing under the pressure of not only being drafted by Jordan but playing alongside him as a teammate when Jordan unretired and began his final comeback as a player shortly before Brown's rookie season.

With the drafting of Brown cited often as the prime misstep of what is generally regarded as an unsuccessful front-office tenure for Jordan, then-Wizards owner Abe Pollin abruptly cut ties with the future Hall of Famer after the 2002-03 season when Jordan hoped to return to his personnel role.

"Michael was very much a part of this," Bartelstein said of Jordan. "He wanted this to happen and he wanted to give Kwame another opportunity.

"There's been so much written about the fact that this was Michael's first pick [as an executive] and so much criticism directed at both of them when it didn't work out. When that happens you can do one of two things. You can run from all that or you can use it as motivation. What better way to try to turn your career around than to go back to where it all started?

"There were a lot of easier places Kwame could have gone, a lot of safer places. I think this says a lot about his competitive instinct and fire that he wanted to take on this challenge."

The latter qualities are areas in which Brown has been frequently questioned in the past, especially by Jordan himself when both were in Washington. But Bartelstein also cited Larry Brown's reputation as a teacher as another attraction for Kwame Brown as he tries, like fellow recent Bobcats signee Shaun Livingston, to resurrect his career.

It was widely presumed around the league that Jordan, because of their history, would not want to work with Brown again, but the 28-year-old -- at a bargain-basement price -- fills a need for the size-deficient Bobcats after attracting interest this summer from several playoff teams including Utah, Phoenix and Atlanta.

The Boston Celtics also strongly considered signing Brown before another future Hall of Famer, Shaquille O'Neal, agreed to sign with the Celtics at the league minimum.

The Bobcats have yet to officially comment on Brown's signing, but it's believed that Jordan is willing to try again with the much-maligned power forward not only because of the inviting price but because the other centers on the roster are thirtysomethings Nazr Mohammed and Erick Dampier and veteran DeSagana Diop, who has at times fallen out of favor with Larry Brown.

Marc Stein is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com.

AUTOADVERT
Panos
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8/23/2010  4:41 PM
Jordan who?
These days, I reserve my venom for Riley and the B*tches in Miami
K22
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USA
8/23/2010  5:15 PM
When he was a Laker, Phil Jackson called Kwame a *****. Larry Brown is going to make him cry.
-- the preceding post was brought to you by the letter K and the number 22.
Marv
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8/23/2010  5:19 PM
DON'T let him beat us to the resurrection of jerome!
Childs2Dudley
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USA
8/23/2010  5:20 PM
"Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us." - Earl Nightingale
knicks1248
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8/23/2010  5:42 PM
This guy has been a major flop IMO, yet has manage to stay in the league...I have no clue...
ES
CrushAlot
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USA
8/23/2010  7:34 PM
One of Kwame's problems is he has small hands.

I'm tired,I'm tired, I'm so tired right now......Kristaps Porzingis 1/3/18
Ira
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8/23/2010  7:59 PM
He's not much better than Earl Barron.
TymeLessKnicks
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Sweden
8/23/2010  8:37 PM
knicks1248 wrote:This guy has been a major flop IMO, yet has manage to stay in the league...I have no clue...

so true. if it wasnt for MJ, wonder if anyone would have signed him this year?

Had enough Melo?
TheGame
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USA
8/24/2010  9:03 AM
Ira wrote:He's not much better than Earl Barron.

IMO he is not better than Earl Barron. Barron knows how to play and can hit a jump shot. Barron does not have Kwame's athleticism and Kwame is probably a stouter defenisve presence, but as far as overall game, I would take Barron over Kwame. That being said, they are both marginal and I have no idea why Jordan would want to sign Kwame.

Trust the Process
jimimou
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8/24/2010  12:49 PM
interesting article on this whole mess btwn jordan and kwame. jordan really is a class A douche

Kwame And Michael Succeeding Where Chris Brown And Rihanna Failed
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 8:30 am

Kwame Brown has reunited with the man that originally drafted him and subsequently emotionally stripped him, Michael Jordan, by signing a new contract with the Charlotte Bobcats. Michael Jordan is the majority owner of the ‘Cats and Kwame is now his employee. This right here is a shining beacon to formerly abusive relationships everywhere, if at first you don’t succeed, try try again.

You see, its tough to get past the whole “I abused you relentlessly” thing. Look at Chris Brown and Rhianna for example. They couldn’t get past their prior abusive relationship to give things another go in the present. Michael and Kwame though, see they know better, nay, they ARE better than mere mortals. Apparently they can get past those errors in judgment.

When Kwame first got into the league, he was a naive young boy. Jordan took him under his tutelage and made him a MAN. An emotionally crippled and useless seven footer on the court, but a man nonetheless. Jordan accomplished this by constantly tearing Kwame down to his emotional bare bones, at least that’s what Scoop Jackson said in this 2005 ESPN page 2 article. Let us quote liberally:

Sticks and stones can paralyze the most immortal of men, but these words – they stripped Kwame Brown of ever having a chance to be or find himself as a basketball player and as a person.

***

“Flaming … ” That was the first word. One of life’s other “f” words followed. It came in succession. It came from Michael Jordan’s mouth. The words never reached Kwame Brown’s ears, they went straight to his heart.

In Jordan’s quest to build the next him while he was in charge and out of retirement in D.C., he broke Kwame Brown down to the very last compound. Emotionally and psychologically killed his spirit.

Want to know what that 2nd “F word” was that Jordan used against Kwame? Lets go back to an article by the Washington Post’s Michael Lehay from 2003 recounting Jordan’s last season with the Wizards (only accessible through the Post’s archives) and some more of the emotional abuse he laid upon Kwame.

As always, he reserved his harshest criticisms for 21-year-old Kwame Brown, at whom, a year earlier, he had screamed, “Flaming faggot,” when Brown complained as a rookie about being fouled in an intrasquad game.

***

But Jordan and other Wizards officials were swayed by Georgia high school senior Brown’s abilities after he dominated another highly touted prep player, Tyson Chandler, during a private one-on-one competition. But now Jordan was tired of waiting for Brown to get better.

For his part, Brown said the right things: “Anyone can learn from Michael” if that “player listens.” But, privately, Brown reeled under Jordan’s and Collins’s criticism off and on for two seasons now, desperate to receive a slice of the encouragement Jordan had lavished on him during Brown’s golden days. On many nights, he had gone from wunderkind to waste. Despairing, Brown began to seek counsel from other teammates, notably Stackhouse, who could provide solace but little else, suffering beneath the weight of his own disappointments and, like Brown, having nowhere to turn.

Wow. So now things are better between them? I mean, its cool that Kwame can turn the other cheek after Jordan helped to ruin any chance he had at meeting his potential as a number one pick and turning him into an emotional basket-case. I wonder if Jordan is going to be any better this second go around?

Who knows, maybe Jordan has changed. Sure he’s not going to be near Kwame as much as when he was a player or general manager, but they are going to have to interact with each other at various points throughout the season. No way that goes wrong, right? When has getting back together with your abuser ever gone wrong? We all know that leopards can change their spots…oh wait they can’t? Well damn. In that case, maybe this ISN’T a good thing and I am horribly wrong about this.

This $1.3 million veterans minimum contract Kwame got is really just Jordan saying “I’m sorry baby, have a million bucks on me, it’l never happen again baby, I just lost my cool back in 2002. It’l never happen again.”

Yeah right.

GustavBahler
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8/24/2010  1:17 PM
If Kwame doesn't show anything it reminds people about Jordan's ability as an executive and a judge of talent, and reminds everyone what a bust Brown was. Jordan is the owner now so I guess he doesn't care.
Jordan beats us again...

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