The Bobcats announced yesterday they have sold out the approximately 500 season-tickets made available via the “Pay-The-Pick” promotion that launched last Wednesday. Through the promotion, season-tickets could be priced as low as $43 for an upper-level seat, with the cost per game equaling the draft pick the team receives in the lottery (Bobcats). In Charlotte, Andrew Dunn notes by finishing last in the NBA, the Bobcats “are guaranteed one of the top four picks” in the draft on June 28. If the team “falls to the No. 4 pick and takes a less-coveted prospect, the seats will be $4 per game, or $172 for the season.” Dunn notes despite the season-ticket purchase, buyers “won’t be able to trade in tickets or attend off-the-court season-ticketholder events” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/8).
WRAP IT UP: In California, Scott Reid wrote NBA Commissioner David Stern and the league “need to step up and put the Kings out of their misery and fold the franchise.” Contraction “is a necessity to restore credibility to a bloated league that, at 30 teams, is a horribly diluted, often unwatchable product.” The fact is there “just aren't enough big-time players, not enough big-time markets to support a 30-team league.” Kings Owners the Maloofs “are now looking for a corporate welfare package, a bailout for their last, mismanaged, fading asset, the Kings.” Reid: “And make no mistake somebody will give the Maloofs a hand out” (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 5/4).
STILL SEARCHING: NBA.com’s David Aldridge wrote Trail Blazers acting GM Chad Buchanan has been in the position "since last summer, after owner Paul Allen fired Rich Cho” from the organization. The team has said that “it would consider Buchanan, but has been talking lately about wanting someone with more experience," like Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak and TNT analyst Steve Kerr. The team has also “asked for permission to talk” with Pacers GM David Morway. The Trail Blazers' “collapse this season no doubt reflects poorly on Buchanan.” But nobody is “a harder-working bird dog than Buchanan, and Portland is in need of front office stability, not another new face that has to prove himself to Allen and his people” (NBA.com, 5/7).
