Michael Jordan had a career that people will remember for a long time. The six-time NBA champion left his mark in the league and is arguably one of the greatest ever to play.

Jordan continued to stay involved in the game, but not on the court. He’s in the front office making big moves. One move he made around Christmas left a coach without a job for the holidays.

Michael Jordan and the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets

In 2006, Jordan bought a minority stake in the Charlotte Bobcats (known as the Charlotte Hornets now), and he became the team’s second-largest shareholder behind majority owner Robert L. Johnson. Jordan took over the basketball side of the operation. Four years later, Jordan became the first former player to become the majority owner of an NBA team. He was also the league’s only African American majority owner of an NBA team.

The Hornets have had three winning seasons since Jordan took over as the majority owner in 2010. The team’s best season was during the 2015-16 season when they finished 48-34. Charlotte finished sixth in the east that season and made it to the 2016 NBA playoffs, where they lost in the first round to the Miami Heat in seven games. In the last three seasons, the Hornets have failed to make it to the playoffs. For years Charlotte has not been a top team in the Eastern Conference. Even though the team has one of the best players ever to play the game working in the front office, he can’t bring that success that he had during his career.

This season’s Hornets team finished with a 23-42 record and failed to make it to the NBA restart. Look at that roster, and it’s a young team. Charlotte only has three players on the team that has been in the league for six or more years. It’s going to be some years until the Hornets become a top team in the east unless Jordan can bring a superstar to the east coast.

Larry Browns’ tenure in Charlotte

Brown has coached for nine different teams during his NBA career. In 2004 he led the Detroit Pistons to their third NBA title in franchise history when they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers. He also led the Philadelphia 76ers to an NBA finals appearance in 2001 when they lost to the Lakers. Brown was named NBA Coach of the Year that season. So, Brown has had success during his coaching career.

When he joined Charlotte for the 2008-09 season, the team finished with a 35-47 record. That team had a mixture of players who were young and who had been in the league for a while. The next season Brown led the team to an impressive 44-38 regular-season finish. Charlotte made the playoffs and was swept by the Orlando Magic in the first round. Brown would not get a chance to finish the next season with Charlotte after a disappointing start.

Larry Brown said that Michael Jordan fired him on Christmas

During the 2010-11 season, Charlotte started the season with a 9-19 record. An ESPN article said that the team announced that Brown was stepping down from his head coaching duties. But Brown had a different story. In an interview from 2017 with Graham Bensinger, the Hall of Fame Coach talked about how everything went down.

Brown said that Jordan put out a message saying that they came to a mutual decision and that he wasn’t fired. He said that was not true and that Jordan fired him on Christmas. Brown understood that Jordan was not pleased with how the team played, especially after making the playoffs the previous year. Charlotte was the last NBA team that Brown coached, and he wanted to make it clear that Jordan fired him despite what other people were saying.