February 18, 2018; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer greets Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan to pass the game ball to the 2019 host during the 2018 NBA All Star Game at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Looking back at what went wrong during Michael Jordan's tenure as Hornets' owner

Originally posted on Charlotte Hornets on SI
By Ryan Stano | Last updated Sep 9, 2025 9:32 AM ET

The Charlotte Hornets thought that bringing in Michael Jordan as the principal owner would help entice some free agents to choose Charlotte. That ended up not being the case.

Instead, the Jordan era was a massive failure. He took over in 2010, and he eventually sold his stake in the team in 2023. During that 14-year period, the Hornets made the playoffs just two times. They were eliminated in the first round both times.

So what went wrong while Jordan was owning the team? The ripples of what he did are still being felt with the team now.

Why the Hornets were so bad during Michael Jordan's ownership

The biggest issue under Jordan was poor drafting. Charlotte had just two draft picks make an All-Star team during his tenure. One was Kemba Walker, who also helped lead them to the two playoff appearances they had. The other is LaMelo Ball.

Screwing up high draft picks was the biggest issue that Jordan faced. The Hornets drafted in the top ten six times during his ownership, which shows just how bad the teams he was putting together were.

After Walker, those top ten picks were used on Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller, Noah Vonleh, Frank Kaminsky, Ball, and Brandon Miller. Only two of those picks aren't busts yet.

Charlotte has never been a free-agent destination, so they weren't able to fix these bad picks by signing better players on the open market. It was just an endless circle that they couldn't break.

The Hornets had instability during the Jordan era throughout the organization

Bad drafting was the only issue that plagued Jordan. He had three general managers during his tenure, along with six different head coaches. All of that in just 14 years is a recipe for disaster.

Jordan was not the leader that everyone thought he was going to be. He had a large influence on who the team was going to draft, and he often just looked at the best college teams and took players off those teams.

International scouting was not something that the Hornets took seriously under Jordan. Because of that, they lost out on opportunities to draft several All-NBA players over the years.

The hope is that those mistakes will not be repeated under the current ownership group. It's going to take a while to undo the mess the Jordan regime created.