Pending resolution to lockout keeps NFL from losing games

The four-month lockout of its players by the National Football League in 2011 will never go down in history as good times for the richest league in North American sport.
Yet the fact that a settlement is imminent after weeks of constructive, behind-the-scenes negotiations should shape the way we perceive the NFL, a $9 billion a year sport industry sector that has overtaken baseball as America’s pastime and is the single biggest sports marketing juggernaut on the continent.

It’s important because it appears that the NFL will once again avoid losing games to a work stoppage, something that cannot be said of the other three major North American leagues, especially over the past 24 years since football's last work stoppage in 1987.

The NBA is in its second lockout in 13 years and third in history, with the most recent one having cost pro basketball 32 regular season games in 1998-’99. The NHL has lost a season and a half in the past 17 years, including 2004-’05 when the full season and Stanley Cup playoffs were cancelled due to its second lockout in the span of a decade. Finally, Major League Baseball saw its World Series classic cancelled on account of the players strike of 1994, the last time two leagues were in concurrent work stoppages.

Yet the NFL appears to know better. Outside of 1987, in which it lost one game and played three others with replacement players , the NFL has a relatively unblemished record when it comes to losing games to labour crises and has never done so through a lockout. It is true it lost seven weeks on a player strike back in 1982, but that season was salvaged with a 16-team playoff tournament. In 1974, a players strike was resolved before training camps began.

In 2011, with television ratings and revenues at an all-time high, it was a risky proposition to chance the NFL's future growth, let alone its status as the biggest sport in North America.

Neither the NFL nor the NFLPA should feel proud of failing to get a deal done before the CBA expired in March. That represented a failure on both sides.

Yet kudos should go to both the owners and the players for understanding what kind of impact cancelled games could have had on the privileged position all parties involved hold in the fantasy world of professional sport. And it is exactly that - privileged.

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One-two punch of CFL and NHL free agency make Canada Day hot

Basketball fans can't jump in as much this year on account of the NBA lockout triggered last night, but nonetheless, Canada Day is carving itself a niche as a hot day on the Canadian sports calendar.The one-two punch of the kick-off to a new Canadian Football League season and the media and fan frenzy that is free agency in the National Hockey League make July 1st one of the most intriguing sports days each year, on and off the field of play.

It's been cranked up a few degrees in fan attention thanks to the increasingly explicit positioning of the CFL kick-off around Canada Day weekend. Made more formal over the past two years, it is part of CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon's smart campaign to promote the CFL on the strength of its Canadiana and heritage. A kick-off on Canada Day is as natural as maple syrup and it goes a long way towards driving home that "CFL as Canadian culture" message.

By definition, TSN becomes the fulcrum for a lion's share of the interest. It is the exclusive English-language home of the CFL on TSN and its hockey panel is the most-watched for coverage of day one of NHL free agency. It's certainly one of the biggest days of the year for the 27-year-old all-sports network and its French-language counterpart, RDS.

In fact, TSN and RDS are arguably front-and-centre on two of the biggest days in Canadian sport each year - the CFL's Canada Day Doubleheader on July 1st and the biggest single-day annual event in our landscape, the Grey Cup on the final Sunday in November (both the CFL's Grey Cup and the NFL's Super Bowl are in the 6 to 7 million range as the top annual events in terms of average national audience on Canadian television).

Only January 1st rivals July 1st as fixed-day destination television, although even that is not as "fixed": Witness the NHL's decision to move its NBC Winter Classic to July 2nd next year and let the NFL do its playoff thing on New Year's Day (assuming, of course, that saner heads prevail and the U.S. football season goes on without a lockout hitch).

For now, July 1st is truly Canada Day when it comes to sports, sports television and the sports web.

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NHL shows gains but NBA still wins 2010 television sweepstakes

Having game 5 of the NHL's 2010 Stanley Cup finals go up against game 2 of the NBA Finals Sunday night might have been unfortunate scheduling for both leagues and their fans but it did offer up a great chance to compare hockey apples with basketball oranges, so to speak, when it comes to television drawing power in North America.

Among the findings that stick with me are that NBA basketball is almost as popular among Americans as NHL hockey is to Canadians, at least when it comes to this spring's match-ups between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals and the Chicago Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup.

The head-to-head showdown showed that on a per capita basis, Canadians are this year 5.75 times as likely to watch Stanley Cup championship hockey than those living south of the border. It also demonstrated that Americans outwatch -- again per capita -- Canadians by 5.43 to 1 when it comes to NBA Finals basketball.

On this given Sunday, the NHL outscored the NBA on Canadian television by a 13:1 margin. In the U.S., however, the NBA beat the NHL by a ratio of 2.66:1 (approaching threefold). Hoops also won the continental battle by a margin of almost 60 per cent, with 16.0 million North Americans watching the Celtics beat the Lakers and 9.7 million tuning in to see Chicago move to within one game of its first Stanley Cup in 49 years (which the Blackhawks clinched in overtime tonight to win in six games).

The television scorecard Sunday looked like this...

                               NBA                              NHL
                               LA/Boston                                Chicago/Philadelphia
                               Game 2                                     Game 5


North America      16.0 million viewers         9.7 million viewers


United States        15.7 million viewers         5.9 million viewers
                              ESPN on ABC                             NBC

Canada                  291 thousand viewers     3.8 million viewers
                              TSN                                            CBC/RDS

The head-to-head comparison is particularly interesting in the U.S., where four of the top eight television markets in the country are directly engaged in the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals. This year's NHL and NBA championship series span the second-largest media market in the country, LA (5.7 million television households), #3 Chicago (3.5 million) and #4 Philadelphia (2.9 million), along with #8 Boston (2.4 million).

Sunday continued to show how heavily the NHL relies on the strength of its local markets when it comes to U.S. television ratings, with more than a third of those Americans tuning into Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final coming from either champion Chicago (where local market shares hit 40%) or Philly (almost 30%).

The New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls could theoretically drive larger combined local audiences if they found a way to return to the NBA Finals, but for ESPN on ABC, there is no stronger match-up in terms of national television interest than the NBA's two heritage brands, the Celtics and Lakers.

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With matchups like this, series sweeps are not what the leagues or their broadcast partners want

Seven-game championship series are always the cat's meow when it comes to driving fan interest and television audiences. But it's even more intriguing a proposition this year for the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and their U.S. broadcast partners.

That's why Claude Giroux's overtime goal in tonight's 4-3 win for the Philadelphia Flyers over the Chicago Blackhawks had to come as a relief for the NHL, Versus, NBC and anyone in all-sports television and radio who cares about hockey.

The clutch goal prevented the Blackhawks from taking a 3-0 stranglehold against the Flyers and likely reducing the length of this year's Stanley Cup final to five or even the minimum four games (which would have prevented it from gaining another second of air time on NBC).

The NHL and its broadcast partners are even more interested in a long series this year because the 2010 final can boast a direct local market engagement of almost 6.5 million television households. It pits the third-largest media market in the country (Chicago, with 3.5 million television households) against the fourth-largest (Philadelphia, with 2.95 million).

It's the best Stanley Cup showdown in terms of the Nielsen's ratings company's Designated Market Areas since 2003 when the New Jersey Devils and the Anaheim Ducks brought together the New York and Los Angeles DMAs and ranks third all-time in terms of television households (behind New Jersey/Anaheim in 2003 and New Jersey/Dallas in 2000).

Given that it showcases two American cities that actually care about hockey, it's the strongest U.S. hockey market match-up since Detroit swept Philadelphia in 1997 and -- if it lasts at least six games -- will drive the best American television ratings since the New York Rangers won the 1994 Stanley Cup in a seven-game thriller against the Vancouver Canucks.

Yet that's only part of the story. The Chicago-Philadelphia Stanley Cup final and the Los Angeles-Boston NBA final make this spring a high-water mark for sports television and radio, combining to make up one of the largest aggregate local market engagements in the history of the NHL and NBA championship series.

The 6.5 million TV households available to the NHL, Versus and NBC are joined by the more than 8 million households in LA and Boston that are being targeted by the NBA and ESPN on ABC. That's almost 15 million U.S. television households directly engaged with the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals and all of the sports television and radio news and talk shows that come along for the ride.

It might not be the biggest-ever local market combination in sheer overall capacity (Denver, New Jersey, LA and Philadelphia in 2001 and Detroit, Raleigh, LA and New Jersey in 2002 rated higher in terms of cumulative television households at north of 16 million each year). There's no denying, however, that this year's showdowns -- third overall in aggregate DMA size -- are anchored in a final four that includes two of the very best American hockey markets and arguably the two greatest big basketball markets in the U.S.

It's not just quantity this year, it's quality of market demographics for the NHL and NBA. Chicago-Philly for hockey and LA-Boston for hoops are dream television match-ups on both counts.

ESPN on ABC will bring the best-of-seven final between the NBA's two heritage brands -- the Lakers and Celtics -- to those strong local markets and to an interested national television audience. Meanwhile, the NHL is basking in arguably its best-ever U.S. hockey market match-up.

Now if only more Americans could find the mid-week Stanley Cup games on Versus.

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Steve Nash is to Canadian basketball what Gretzky was to U.S. hockey

They’re both Canadian sports icons. One is arguably the best player in the history of the National Hockey League and the game’s greatest ambassador in the United States. The other the best Canadian basketball player ever produced and the game’s face in Canada.

Wayne Gretzky was heroic in Edmonton and Canada and became hockey’s big thing in the U.S. Steve Nash is a big deal in Phoenix and throughout the U.S. and is an even bigger deal here in Canada.

In team sport in particular and professional sport in general, they will go down in history as among our country’s greatest exports.

Who is the bigger export presents an interesting debate. One could suggest Gretzky has the edge because he skated in the large markets of Los Angeles and New York and defined Canada most because he played hockey.

Others would point to the bigger footprint held by basketball in the U.S. and give the nod to Nash, saying his talent has been showcased on the larger continental stage of the NBA.

What is clear is that the two Canadians have served as the single most important ambassadors in their respective sports in their generations; with Gretzky popularizing hockey in the U.S. and Nash making basketball more relevant in his own country.

Nash is the most famous face of the Phoenix Suns franchise and has become one of the highest-profile players in the NBA on the strength of two league MVP crowns and the kind of durability and excellence which has led his team to the western conference finals against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Nash and the Suns are in tough against Kobe and the Lakers, who appear destined to reach their third successive NBA Finals and set up a rematch of the 2008 championship round won by the Boston Celtics.

Yet none of that reduces the Nash factor in Canada when it comes to interest in the NBA. When he plays – both during the regular season and especially in these playoffs when the Suns have been a going concern – Canadians pay attention. And that goes for sports editors and sports directors as well as fans watching on television.

When he doesn’t, we don’t. The NBA has been fortunate to score 175,000 viewers on TSN during these playoffs and hoops on Canadian cable television rarely crosses the 250,000 audience threshold. With Nash on the small screen, however, the average Canadian audiences should climb to north of 400,000 if the Suns can make things interesting in Phoenix.

It’s the kind of personal brand appeal – one shaped in part by his on-court talent and leadership and in part by his record of community investment, charity work and social activism – that is all too rare these days in professional sport.

It’s the kind of appeal that makes a great template for Canadian athletes and athletes the world over in any team sport.

It’s the kind of appeal that makes you understand how important Steve Nash is to Canadian basketball and wonder what kind of transformational impact he would have had on the game in this country had he been acquired by the old Vancouver Grizzlies or the Toronto Raptors at any time in his career.

Now that’s fantasy basketball worth considering.

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It's official: Vancouver for Memphis is worst trade in National Basketball Association history

There have been some lopsided trades in the history of the National Basketball Association.

Among the worst trades ever was the 1980 transaction which sent Robert Parrish and the #3 draft pick who wound up being Kevin McHale to the Boston Celtics for the two Golden State Warrior draft picks who became Joe Barry Carroll and Ricky Brown. Also popping to mind are draft day deals sending Kobe Bryant from Charlotte to the Los Angeles Lakers for Vlade Divac in 1996 and Dirk Nowitzki from Milwaukee to Dallas for Robert Traylor in 1988...and let's not forget Seattle sending Scottie Pippen to Chicago for Olden Polynice in 1987.

Yet the worst trade in NBA history has to be Milwaukee's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers for four players in 1975. Right?

Nope. It's Vancouver for Memphis in time for the 2001-'02 season. With the Memphis Grizzlies currently selling upper bowl season tickets at $5 per game -- that's no typo -- in preparation for their 10th anniversary season in Tennessee, it is now officially the worst trade the NBA has ever seen.

Franchise relocations are never a badge of honour, but this one might even rank as the least satisfying in the history of North American sport.

It's all in the 2009-'10 NBA Composite Power Rankings released Monday by TheSportMarket.biz. TheSportMarket.biz.http://www.facebook.com/thesportmarket?ref=ts#!/photo.php?pid=3702634&id=280702824731

And here's why: For the fifth straight year, Memphis is dead last in the NBA in pure sport business rankings, with an anemic box office of about $325 K US per game. The Grizzlies drew an average of 13,485 fans to the FedEx Forum in 2009-'10, despite offering the NBA's bottom-priced tickets averaging $24.10 a pop.

Let's put that in perspective: in 2000-'01, their last season in Vancouver -- with the relocation imminent and local fans enduring a sixth straight losing season -- the original Grizzlies somehow posted an average attendance of 13,737 at General Motors Place.

It's true that the Grizzlies were the 18th-ranked team on the floor this season, staying in playoff contention until the final weeks of the season. Yet that makes their plight in Memphis even more troubling for the NBA, which saw the original Grizzlies make the move south-east despite considerably stronger box office results in their six seasons in Vancouver. And that was despite the fact Vancouver's Grizz never had even a sniff of a playoff berth.

The relocation of the once-proud Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans (2002) isn't working out much better, but the Katrina factor is still in play there. It's also ridiculous that Seattle no longer has its Sonics, but last year's controversial move to Oklahoma City is so far, so good on and off the floor, with the Thunder in the playoffs and earning almost three times what the Grizzlies take in every night in ticket sales.

When it comes to basketball market swaps ranking as significant upgrades, you have Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960, which created a lucrative heritage brand for the Lakers and -- on and off the court -- one of the most consistently high-performing basketball franchises on the planet. http://thesportmarket.blogspot.com/2010/04/nbas-la-lakers-continue-to-fire-on-all.html
But at the other end of the spectrum, we have Vancouver to Memphis in 2001...a trade that is looking worse every season, for the Grizzlies in particular and for the NBA in general.

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NBA's LA Lakers continue to fire on all cylinders

On the court this National Basketball Association regular season, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers continued their winning ways. Off the court, the drawing power of Bryant and the iconic Lakers brand was no less impressive.

That's why the defending champion Lakers top the first annual NBA Composite Power Rankings compiled for the 2009-'10 regular season by TheSportMarket.biz.

With appearances in the last two NBA Finals -- including last year's championship win over the Orlando Magic -- the Lakers are the best all-round professional basketball club on the planet on the strength of the composite power ranking which spans both basketball operations and business operations.

As is the case for the less-celebrated Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (http://thesportmarket.blogspot.com/2010/04/vancouver-canucks-1-in-nhl-composite.html), the Lakers hold the best on and off court results of any franchise in the NBA during the 2009-'10 regular season. Third on the floor through 82 regular season games -- with a winning percentage of .695 -- and first at the box office, the Lakers score an overall performance index of 2.

That puts them #1 among the NBA's 30 clubs in the composite power rankings, which combine final regular season standings (the best way to guage of basketball operations performance across all lines of the game: management, coaching, scouting, sport medical, science and training support and player development personnel) with regular season box office clout (the leading indicator of business operations performance, with sponsorship, merchandise and broadcast sales typically built on attendance and ticket prices).

Powered by 41 virtual sellouts at the Staples Center (averaging 18,997 fans per game) and an average ticket price of $93.25 which is in a class of its own in the NBA, the Lakers edge out the two teams they're most likely to face in the 2010 NBA Finals and western conference finals, respectively; the second-ranked Cleveland Cavaliers and third-ranked Phoenix Suns.

With superstar Lebron James at the helm, the Cavs parlay a league-leading .744 on-court winning percentage and a sixth-ranked estimated box office of over $1.15 million US per home game into an overall performance index of 3.5. Phoenix saw its sellout streak of three plus seasons end last October, but the resurgent Suns have finished strong on the floor under veteran Canadian Steve Nash (fifth overall with a .659 winning percentage) and seventh in the league at the box office, averaging $1.13 million US per game. The Suns' overall performance index is 6.

Dwight Howard and the Magic are seeded to face the Cavs in the eastern final after another solid regular season in which they were second in the conference and second in the league. Yet their home in a small central Florida theme park market means they have to settle for an average ticket price of $40.30 US that is eighth lowest in the NBA and a box office that at $704 K US is about a third of what the Lakers take in at every home game (especially when one considers what the titlehoders make on their "Nicholsons", their VIP courtside seats at the Staples Center).

A new and bigger Amway Center next year will help the Magic move up the overall rankings but the Lakers are clearly well-established as the current league leaders across all aspects of the business of basketball, with a heritage brand, a superstar in Bryant and a winning team...not to mention a home in the second biggest media and television market in North America.

The full NBA Composite Power Rankings for 2009-'10 are available at www.Facebook.com/TheSportMarket.

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Building brand equity for the NHL -- and stars such as the Sedins -- through a more balanced schedule

The one-two punch that is the Sedin twins is one of the greatest assets of the Vancouver Canucks Hockey Club as they prepare for the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs and market for the future.

If it's true they've been undervalued in their own backyard of Vancouver until very recently, it's also true they've been even less appreciated elsewhere in the NHL, with 17 franchises in the eastern time zone and a heavily-unbalanced regular season schedule.

And that's largely because you can't fully understand what you never -- or rarely -- see.

It explains in part why even seasoned hockey media types from throughout the NHL and its 26 designated television markets (DMAs) don't seem to have cracked the code on just how terrific they are. The league is already the only one among the five big leagues in North America that is so largely skewed towards New York and Toronto with a majority of its teams in the Eastern Time Zone.

The geographic concentration of the NHL and its superstars is exacerbated by its schedule, one which does not allow for fans of each club to see the other 29 teams at least once. Seventy-eight per cent of regular season play is intra-conference and almost 30 per cent intra-divisional.

When I first raised the issue in the editorial pages of The Vancouver Sun and Sports Business Journal in the fall of 2006, the situation was even worse, with 87% of each team's 82-game regular season being played within its own conference and a whopping 39% within the division. That travel-saving, cost-reducing, highly-unbalanced format -- supposedly designed to promote regional rivalries -- was what the NHL took out of the lockout to say "Thank You Fans".

http://www.thesportmarket.biz/columns/2006/nov1306.htm

What it did was prevent fans in Vancouver from seeing emerging superstars such as Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals at least once each season. Instead, divisonal rotations meant we'd see #87 and #8 once every three years.

The NHL did slightly tweak its schedule three seasons ago, deploying a wildcard tool that at least allowed the Canucks to play host to Canada's three eastern teams -- the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs -- once each year.

Yet we still need to wait three years between visits from the marquee player brands and marquee team brands of the eastern conference. It's just not good enough for a league that is still a gate-driven business and relies on its season ticket holders for the vast majority of its revenues.

The flip side of this is that the Sedins and other top talents from the western conference are largely "site unseen" in the majority of eastern markets each year. The media and hence the fans rarely have the chance to see them play.

It's only part of the story, but the sooner the NHL's unbalanced schedule is replaced by a more balanced schedule -- i.e. like that of the NBA, which also has 30 teams and plays an 82-game regular season but limits intra-conference play to 63% -- the better. Annual visits (and the resultant television exposure, media coverage and fan impressions) will help build the personal brands of individual players like the Sedins, the team brands of all the teams in the league and, ultimately by extension, the brand of the NHL.

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NHL Attendance: A Solid Bull Market

For all of the criticism directed at the National Hockey League on several fronts, we need to give it credit where credit is due: its performance in arena attendance.

Sure it still has its desert dogs and other problem childs, but the fact is, next to the NFL, the NHL has more franchises playing to full or near capacity than any other major league in North American sport.

Only two of Major League Baseball's 30 clubs sold out their games in 2009 (the Boston Red Sox of the American League and the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League). That's seven per cent. Sellouts are the norm at only two of Major League Soccer's 16 franchises (Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders FC) or 12.5%. In the NBA, it's 15% (five of 30 teams).

The NFL had 28 of 32 clubs -- or 87.5% -- selling enough tickets to avoid television blackouts throughout 2009.

In the NHL, a third of its teams (10 of 30) are selling out every night. It's over half (17 of 30) when you include those virtually selling out (98% capacity or more).

There are five-year plus consecutive home game sellout streaks at five of six franchises in Canada and multiple-year streaks in northern U.S. markets such as Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington. Throw in near capacity sales at Boston, downtown New York (where the Rangers ended a 187-game sellout streak in February), Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis and San Jose (where the Sharks have been virtually sold out all year).

Almost two-thirds of the league plays before sellouts or crowds of more than 18,000 fans. Less than half of its direct competitors in NBA arenas can say the same.

The NHL has more teams among the top-20 North American active home game sellout streaks (seven) than any league except the NFL (11). The NBA and Major League Baseball have only one team each in that top-20 club (the Dallas Mavericks and the Red Sox).

http://www.teamradio.ca/news/story/?id=2917

The NHL also has seven of the top-20 all-time sellout record holders, more than the NBA (six), NFL (five) and MLB (two).

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Stoking+coals+hockey+hotbed/2760498/story.html

What's more, the NHL can boast those sellout streaks despite the most stringent sellout standards in the industry. Top-selling NFL teams benefit from the league's rather liberal definition of a sellout: it does not require that all luxury suites or club seats in its respective stadiums are sold out. Selling out the non-premium tickets does the trick and lifts the NFL television blackout.

Heading into the last week of the regular season, average attendance of 17,475 is good news for the NHL (and outshines the NBA by about 500 tickets per game or 600,000 fans per season league-wide). Imagine the brand equity the league would carry, on both sides of the border, if only it could find solutions for the weak links it has in some of the NHL's southern markets.

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Could Michael Jordan become the next Mario Lemieux?

As he embarks on his tenure as a majority owner in the NBA, former basketball superstar Michael Jordan could do worse than to follow the ownership manual written by former NHL superstar Mario Lemieux.

In fact, it appears he may have already read the first few pages.

Lemieux, the only other living former North American superstar to serve as principal owner and governor of a major league franchise with his beloved Pittsburgh Penguins, was one of the people Jordan consulted with before closing his recent $275 million US acquisition of the Charlotte Bobcats.

The deal not only made Jordan the first former player to hold a controlling interest in an NBA franchise, it made him fourth on the all-time list of former athletes to serve as a majority owner in North American sport.  The other two are Papa Bear George Halas, Sr., who played, coached and owned the NFL's Chicago Bears over a period spanning seven decades last century and former Baltimore Colts player Jerry Richardson, who ironically is the founding owner of Charlotte's other big league team, the Carolina Panthers of the NFL.

The Lemieux ownership manual is a must read for Jordan because the former #66 is the only person to win the Stanley Cup as both player and owner. After winning two Cups in the early 1990s, Lemieux became co-majority owner of the Penguins in 1999, buying the franchise out of bankruptcy with Ron Burkle. Jordan would like nothing more than to become basketball's Lemieux and add a title with the Bobcats to the six he won as the most famous Chicago Bull in the 1990s.
 
The Super Mario playbook will show how you go from bankruptcy to supremacy in 10 years...from being precariously close to relocation to drafting next-generation superstars such as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to making back-to-back Stanley Cup appearances, culminating in a championship in 2009.

The playbook also outlines the approach behind selling out more than 100 consecutive home games (and counting) and gaining the kind of community and corporate support that allows you to build a new, $321 million US arena, the Consol Energy Center, which opens this fall and will help the Penguins make the most of the Crosby era.

Lemieux used his personna and profile to get that support in Pittsburgh. He used his experience playing under both the late Bob Johnson and Scotty Bowman to understand how important it was for him to surround himself with hockey operations talent, including respected general managers such as Craig Patrick and Dan Shero. He used his credibility as a former player selectively, stepping up on occasion to inspire the Pens' lockerroom with a few choice words of wisdom.

They're wired differently and are different people, but Jordan has many of the same qualities. The same profile. The same championship pedigree. The same credibility as a former MVP and winner.

Even though he has less of a hill to climb than Lemieux did in 1999 and despite already overseeing basketball operations since 2006, that doesn't mean Jordan cannot benefit from using the Lemieux playbook to make the Bobcats successful, both on and off the court.

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