$1.7 Billion on the Line, Michael Jordan’s Decision on Tanking For Victor Wembanyama Wouldn’t Surprise Many MJ fans

The 2022-23 NBA season is going a lot differently from the anticipation by most experts and fans before the season started. Victor Wembanyama was supposed to lure plenty of teams into tanking.

But apart from the Houston Rockets in the West and the Detroit Pistons in the East, nobody looks interested in getting the #1 pick for the 2023 Drafts, not even the Charlotte Hornets with a 4-14 record.

The Chicago Bulls legend, Michael Jordan, being the majority owner of the $1.7 billion worth franchise has a thing or two to do with it.

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Michael Jordan might be the biggest obstruction in Hornets getting Victor Wembanyama

As much as the people of Charlotte would like their team to tank with all its will, a Michael Jordan team would surely not get the green flag from His Airness even though they are playing most of their games without the team’s last year’s All-Star LaMelo Ball.

“The hurdle is getting the owner to go along with it,” a general manager told NBA insider Sean Deveney of Heavy.com recently.

“It is Michael Jordan. He has never OK’d something like that, and it is not clear he would, even if it gets bad this year, even if it puts them in a good spot in the draft for Victor. He has been pretty strong against tanking. Hard to see another way forward for them now, though.”

Why should we expect anything else from a man who did not agree to tank with the Chicago Bulls management in his first year in the league back in the 1984-85 season?

Getting Victor would not only make the Hornets contenders

As much of a fun experience, as it is to watch an angry Mike on the sidelines in Charlotte over the years, if he does allow his team to have an easy year this season, the Hornets will rise from the ashes and be contenders straight up if they get the #1 pick.

Victor Wembanyama playing with LaMelo would not only make both the players reach their full potential, but it will also bring such a huge number of eyeballs which this franchise is not habitual to.

If not the killer-winner in him, the businessman in MJ might agree to where the team is already headed towards. The fans would take it, how so ever it comes.

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About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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