Realignment in NBA

Charlotte’s entry in the National Basketball Association (NBA) has triggered a realignment of forces in the league’s expanded format of six divisions starting this coming season.

The Bobcats are joining the newly-created Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference with Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and Washington.

The East will now be composed of the Atlantic, Central and Southeast Divisions. Boston, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Toronto make up the Atlantic while Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana and Milwaukee are in the Central.

New Orleans, formerly in the East, has jumped to the newly-formed Southwest Division in the Western Conference with Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Memphis. The Northwest Division will assemble Denver, Minnesota, Portland, Seattle and Utah. In the Pacific are the Los Angeles Lakers, the Clippers, Golden State, Phoenix and Sacramento.

The league has expanded to 30 teams with five clubs in each of the six divisions. Teams will play divisional opponents four times each, conference opponents outside the division three or four times each and opponents outside the conference twice each.

The three regular season divisional winners in each conference will earn a playoff berth. The remaining five playoff slots for each conference will go to the teams with the best regular season records regardless of divisional alignment. That means the playoff cast will remain 16 teams, eight from each conference.

Homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs will be based solely on regular season records, not playoff seeding. A divisional winner that has a higher playoff seed than an opponent will not necessarily enjoy homecourt advantage in the series.

Not too many fans know that two former Philippine Basketball Association imports were picked by Charlotte in the expansion draft. They were Seattle’s Richie Frahm and Portland’s Desmond Ferguson.

The expansion draft was held last June 22 with each existing franchise allowed to protect up to eight players. The Bobcats had the option to choose at least 14 players but only one from each of the 29 teams. Among the unprotected veterans who weren’t chosen were Jerry Stackhouse, Antoine Walker, Kerry Kittles, Scottie Pippen, Rick Fox and Allan Houston.

Bobcats coach Bernie Bickerstaff, who used to call the shots for the Harlem Globetrotters, picked young and inexpensive players to build on. Aside from Frahm and Ferguson, Bickerstaff tapped Marcus Fizer, Gerald Wallace, Jahidi White and Predrag Drobnjak among others.

In the regular draft two days later, Charlotte picked second overall and chose University of Connecticut star Emeka Okafor.

There was talk that Michael Jordan would buy the Charlotte franchise but nothing came of it. Jordan attempted to purchase the

Milwaukee Bucks last year and was also thwarted. According to his personal assistant Estee Portnoy, Jordan will try to buy an NBA team before the next season opens. If Jordan succeeds, he may hire his former coach Phil Jackson–released by the Lakers–to call the shots for the new Jordanaires.

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