Jay Williams Dismisses Notion That Michael Jordan Was A Horrible NBA Team Owner

Michael Jordan is still widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, but he is only viewed as one of the worst team owners in NBA history. The Charlotte Hornets/Bobcats were hardly ever successful under Jordan, but former NBA player Jay Williams explained why he wasn't a bad owner on Instagram.

"They said my GOAT was a horrible owner," Williams said. "That he couldn't build a winner, that the Hornets never made a deep playoff run, that Charlotte was a failure. They didn't know s*** about business. Let's actually dig into the numbers.

"In 2010, he buys the Bobcats, the Bobcats for $275 million," Williams stated. "They're bleeding $30 million a year. Small market, trash attendance, no brand equity, no playoff pedigree. But Jordan wasn't buying rings; he was buying position. He turned a $25-30 million personal investment into a $3 billion sale. That's a 10x return, over $2 billion in realized profit. It just ran laps around most PE firms.

"And what most people don't get [is], most NBA teams aren't in the green," Williams continued. "At least 15 to 18 franchises operate at losses every year. Why J-Will? Why does this happen? Because when you stack superstars, you don't just pay salaries. You trigger luxury tax, you fund charter upgrades, increased security, private chefs, 24/7 medical staff, authorized travel, housing stipends.

"All that comes with something we call capital calls," Williams added. "And every round of the playoffs, you don't win, that's red ink with no offset. So while you're laughing at Charlotte missing the playoffs. Jordan was the only one in the room not wiring in more capital. He never chased stars. He never cracked the luxury tax. Not even once.

"He kept costs lean, he ran even a positive, and by 2022, Charlotte pulled $94 million operating profit," Williams shared. "That's more margin than the Lakers and Nets posted combined. You still call that mediocrity? The market calls it mastery. He didn't just flip the team; he revived it."

Williams praised Jordan for rebranding the team to the Hornets in 2014 and stated that merchandise sales tripled. He also pointed out that a $275 million arena renovation deal was agreed upon with zero dilution.

Williams claimed that ownership isn't about how many wins you get, but liquidity events. He believes that while the Hornets didn't make history on the court, Jordan made it off it.

If you look at the situation from purely a business standpoint, you can make a good case for Jordan being an excellent owner. He first bought a minority stake in the Bobcats in 2008 and became the majority owner in 2010 by paying $275 million.

Jordan then sold that majority stake to Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall in 2023 for approximately $3 billion. He still kept a minority stake, and this proved to be a fabulous piece of business.

That said, you can't simply brush aside what happened on the court. The goal for a sports team is to win, and the Hornets/Bobcats didn't do much of that under him. The team had a 423-600 record and made the playoffs just twice in 13 years. They didn't win a single playoff series either.

The product on the court just wasn't good enough at the end of the day, and it's hard to call Jordan a great owner because of that.