How did the best NBA player of all time help to create the worst NBA team ever? We take a look at how Michael Jordan created the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats.
The Worst Team in NBA History
Michael Jordan sold his stake in Charlotte’s NBA franchise ending an era of one of the worst owners of all time.
Jordans horror ownership is best summarised by the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, who finished with a 7-59 record and is the worst NBA team of all time.
In a season shortened by the NBA lockout, the Bobcats were outscored by 14 points on average and won just 10.6% of their games.
It Began With Michael Jordan’s Ownership
Michael Jordan became the second largest shareholder of the Charlotte Bobcats in 2006. By 2010 Jordan would become majority owner with a 97% controlling stake.
To his credit Jordan became the first former NBA player to become a majority owner in the process. In his first season the Bobcats recorded a respectable 34-48.
Charlotte weren’t as good as their record suggested, but there weren’t any signs that the Bobcats were about to become the worst team in NBA history.
Michael Jordan in 13 seasons as Hornets owner:
• Never won a playoff series
• Never finished higher than 6th in East
• 5th worse winning % in the NBAYet MJ will still make over $2 BILLION on the deal, which is more than he has made from Nike in 40 years.
That’s crazy 🤯 pic.twitter.com/lKa82kSdES
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) June 16, 2023
2010 Draft Sets Tone for Worst NBA Team
Michael Jordan has a habit of making the worst picks in drafts. When he was part owner and president of basketball operations at the Washington Wizards, he picked one of the biggest NBA draft busts of all time.
Jordan selected Kwame Brown straight out of high school with the first pick of the 2001 NBA draft and his career was plagued by poor work ethic and a lack of consistency.
So when Jordan took charge of the Charlotte Bobcats he brought across his poor decision making. Jordan overlooked the Bobcats trading away all their 2010 NBA Draft picks and missed out on players like Avery Bradley, Hassan Whiteside and Eric Bledsoe.
2011 Draft Gets Even Worse
The Bobcats had an even better opportunity in the 2011 NBA Draft, a class which isn’t far from being considered one of the best NBA draft classes. Jordan and the Bobcats had the seventh and ninth picks in 2011.
With Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Vucevic and Jimmy Butler on the board the Bobcats picked Bismack Biyombo seventh overall. At number nine the Bobcats selected Kemba Walker.
The Bobcats got it right with Kemba Walker and despite Biyombo having the potential to become one of the dominant defensive bigs in the league, they missed out on a huge opportunity to strengthen their offense with who was left on the board.
Bad Trades Further Fuelled the Worst Team in NBA History
Heading into the 2011-12 season the Bobcats suffered key player departures which weakened their roster considerably. In 2009 they traded Tyson Chandler to the Mavericks mostly because he was injury prone.
Chandler then went on to win an NBA championship in 2011 with Dallas. He also went on to become NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2012 and was voted to the All-Star team in 2013 while at New York.
In early 2011 the Bobcats then traded Gerald Wallace to the Portland Trail Blazers. Wallace was the only player in Charlotte Bobcats history to appear in an All-Star game in 2010, prior to leaving for Portland.
Wallace also earned All-Defensive First Team honors in his All-Star year, and along with David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon, are the only players ever to average at least two steals and two blocks per game in a season. He was also a rare entertainer in an otherwise boring history for the Bobcats.
Between Chandler and Wallace, the Bobcats lost their most important defensive pieces, and they lost all their flair and hustle before their ill fated 2011-2012 season had even started.
This video perfectly describes Michael Jordan’s run as the Hornets owner 😭pic.twitter.com/JQtenHfcAA
— FanDuel (@FanDuel) June 16, 2023
The Worst Season in NBA History
The 2011-12 NBA season was shortened to 66 games because of the 2011 NBA Lockout. Charlotte began their season with a 96-95 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on December 26, 2011. Fast forward to the closing minutes of the season in April and Michael Jordan was booed by the Charlotte crowd as his face beamed across the Jumbotron.
Charlotte only managed wins against Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, New Orleans and against Toronto twice. Rookie’s Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo were thrown in the deep end and given as many minutes that they could handle.
Walker was the only player all season to play all 66 games. Biyombo himself was pushed and played in every game but three. Derrick Brown was in his third season after being drafted in the second round of the 2009 draft and only missed one game all year. After the season he never played in the NBA again.
Power forward Tyres Thomas signed a five-year, $40 million deal with the Bobcats in 2010. He managed to start only 30 games, averaging 18.8 minutes, 5.6 points and 3.7 rebounds. Thomas became one of the worst Bobcats in history and the franchise used the amnesty clause to waive him in 2013.
Injuries also helped derail the Bobcats season. Corey Maggette and DJ Augustin missed many games which limited the Bobcats ability to score. Charlotte were outscored by an average of nearly 14-points per game.
Shooting guard Gerald Henderson Jr. was a rare highlight offensively and he had a breakout year. He averaged 15.1 points, shot at 45.9% and averaged 33.3 minutes per game.
The Bobcats however ranked last in points scored per game (87.0) and points conceded (100.9). With such a heavy reliance on a young Kemba Walker on offense, the Bobcats ranked last in offensive rating and field goal percentage.
Losing Tyson Chandler and Gerald Wallace in the lead up to the season was too much for the Bobcats to overcome. With such a heavy defensive reliance on Biyombo, the Bobcats finished with the worst defensive rating, and second last in total rebounds and steals.
The 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats were the worst NBA team in history and they finished with a 7-59 record, and a win rate of 0.106%. Their worst result was a 44-point loss to the Portland Trail Blazers and they ended the season with 23 consecutive losses.
Seven years ago today, the Charlotte Bobcats set the record for worst winning percentage in NBA history with a 7-59 record. pic.twitter.com/MPBzfhiOgL
— Yahoo Sports NBA (@YahooSportsNBA) April 26, 2019
Worst NBA Team’s Bad Luck Continues
After the worst season in NBA history, Charlotte had the highest chance in the draft lottery to win the rights to the first pick of the 2012 NBA draft. The Bobcats had a 25% chance of drafting generational talent Anthony Davis with the first pick.
With a 13.7% chance, it was instead the New Orleans Hornets who won the rights to the first pick and they drafted Davis in what many people believe was a conspiracy by the NBA. The NBA owned the New Orleans franchise at the time and many believe that the Bobcats were cheated out of the first pick.
The Bobcats selected Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with the second pick. Michael Jordan’s poor history of draft picks continued as he left Bradley Beal, Damian Lillard and Andre Drummond on the board.
The 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats are the worst NBA team of all-time. Despite the Charlotte franchise rebranding themselves in 2014 to the Charlotte Hornets – a name used between 1988 to 2002 – it’s an unwanted record that the Charlotte franchise owns and can never escape.
They have however been able to get rid of Michael Jordan as a majority owner. Maybe now, Charlotte can move forward and make some better decisions off the court.
The Bobcats/Hornets were screwed out of the #1 pick in 2012 after winning SEVEN GAMES because the NBA owned the New Orleans franchise at the time and wanted them to have Anthony Davis.
— Alex Gilmore (@a_gilmore88) June 21, 2018
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