Will the Bobcats be sold?

There are a few reports leaking out that an Investment firm, headed by former Houston Rockets President George Postolus is close to a deal to purchase the Charlotte Bobcats from majority owner Bob Johnson. However Johnson may be getting cold feet on the deal. Since Johnson paid 300 million for the expansion NBA team in 2003, and Forbes currently has the value of the team listed as 284 million it stand to reason that Johnson is set to lose a significant amount of money on this deal.

Since Johnson owns just 70% of the team, his lose could exceed 100 million dollars. Of course a large percentage of that loss is Johnson’s own fault. By a pretty wide margin Johnson has been one of the worst NBA owners of the past few years. We should note that NBA legend Michael Jordon owns a significant part o this team and his head of Basketball Operations, and that Rapper Nelly also owns a interest in the team. That makes the Bobcats one of few Minority owned Major Sport professional teams in America.

While the Bobcats have improved since the hiring of Coach Larry Brown, this is a team that has not had a winning season in its five season history. It has a history of taking top ten picks in the NBA draft and turning them into nothing. In fact the team recently traded away their most famous player, Emeka Okafor, for Tyson Chandlier. Through the 2009 off season they ahve failed to sign one notable free agent.