Michael Jordan May Sell the Charlotte Bobcats if They Don’t Improve (Updated)

It isn’t the best time to be an NBA owner—many teams are losing money, and the combination of those financial losses with a franchise’s on-the-court losses can be tough for ownership to handle. According to the NY Daily News, Michael Jordan is getting tired of it all, and so he’ll try to instill a rebuilding plan within his Charlotte Bobcats organization over the next three to four years, and then sell if there isn’t any clear-cut progress: “Nearing the end of another lost season as Bobcats owner, [Michael] Jordan recently told his GM, Rich Cho, to start planning for a rebuilding campaign. He also dropped a bombshell, telling Cho and other deputies that if this one doesn’t produce a winner and he continues to lose millions over the next ‘three to four years,’ then he intends to sell the team. ‘I told Rich to make us better,’ Jordan told one associate recently. ‘If that doesn’t work and I can’t make a profit in the next three to four years, then I’m selling.’ This is a change of plans for Jordan, who over almost the past year has been seeking a buyer to purchase half the team. The Bobcats lost $20 million last season and they’re headed for more big losses this season. Jordan’s decision to give the assignment of rebuilding to Cho means that Rod Higgins, his long-time president of basketball operations who goes back to when he ran the Wizards, is on the outs. Jordan told Cho, the Thunder’s former assistant GM who arrived in Charlotte last June, to ‘follow the Oklahoma City model.’”

UPDATE: MJ’s denial, via Yahoo!‘s Marc Spears:

Jordan statement says report he’d sell majority interest in CHA is”false” and he’s “100% committed to building the Bobcats into a contender”

— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) April 1, 2012