My pick for Panthers-Eagles

A few notes prior to Carolina's season opener against Philadelphia, with my prediction at the bottom...

** Big key for Carolina: cornerback Chris Gamble. The Panthers are paying him shutdown corner money. Time to earn it.

** The matchup I’ll watch most closely today is Carolina’s offense vs. Philadelphia’s defense. The Eagles were excellent on D in 2008 – a Top 5 defense in every significant category. But Carolina probably needs to score at least 20 points to win this one. With DeAngelo Williams and Steve Smith, they’ll at least have a chance.

** The Eagles have their own injury problems, and the big question mark is running back Brian Westbrook. He’s a great threat when healthy. But – after trying to fight through both knee and ankle injuries -- is he healthy?

** If you’re watching the game on TV Sunday (1 p.m. on Fox), you get the pleasure of Dick Stockton on play-by-play. He’s such a reliable voice and one of my favorites. You will likely not be familiar, however, with analyst Charles Davis. He’s broadcast college sports almost exclusively in his career – it will be interesting to see how Davis performs on this big stage.

** The Panthers’ 0-4 preseason vanishes in everyone’s mind today if Carolina can win its opener. I can see it happening if Carolina rushes for 150 yards as a team. But I don’t think that will happen. My prediction: Philadelphia 20, Carolina 16.

Follow Scott on Twitter at twitter.com/scott_fowler

Shaq calls Jordan the "hip-hop Dr. J"

A couple of leftovers from Michael Jordan's enshrinement ceremony that I attended Friday night in Springfield, Mass, which inspired me to write the following column:

To Jordan's credit, he didn't do a sugary speech. That's not him. He cried beforehand after watching an extended highlight video of his career, which was interspersed with some entertaining interviews. I thought the best quote came from Shaquille O'Neal, who when putting Jordan into perspective called him the "hip-hop Dr. J."

As I wrote in today's column, Jordan reminded us of what it is like to be like Mike -- eloquent, honest, occasionally arrogant. There were a few uncomfortable moments in the speech, as when Jordan called out Isiah Thomas, who was in the audience and allegedly orchestrated a "freezeout" of Jordan in his first All-Star Game.

While Jordan said he has never known if that was true (Thomas has denied it in previous interviews, but it is true MJ rarely got the ball in that game), he said it fueled his fire. "I wanted to prove to you, Magic [Johnson], Larry [Bird], George [Gervin], everybody that I deserved [to be there] just as much as anybody else, and I hope over the period of my career I've done that without a doubt," Jordan said, looking directly to Thomas.

Jordan also told his three kids in the audience that he loved them but understood how difficult their lives were, growing up in his long shadow. He also fondly mentioned Buzz Peterson -- his close friend, former roommate in college and the player Jordan tried to whip every day as a freshman because Peterson had been chosen as N.C.'s high school player of the year over him.

It was classic Jordan -- he cried before the speech, but then righted himself and ripped his way through 22 minutes worth of a magnetic, "What's he going to say next?" address. It felt like a game night -- as I wrote in today's paper, you couldn't take your eyes off him.

Follow Scott on Twitter at Twitter.com/scott_fowler

Q&A with Michael Jordan

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Michael Jordan spoke to hundreds of media members and guests at basketball’s hall of fame here Friday in a 20-minute question-and-answer session. He said, among other things: “There’s not going to be another Michael Jordan.”

Jordan also laughed as he recounted a conversation with former Chicago Bulls assistant coach Tex Winter after Jordan had scored a bushel of points in a row to win a game for Chicago.
“There’s No ‘I’ in team,” Winter said.

Jordan said he looked Winter in the eye and said: “There’s an ‘I’ in ‘win.’”

Here are other highlights from Jordan’s question-and-answer session with the media. The official induction ceremony – which also honors former players David Robinson and John Stockton and coaches Jerry Sloan and C. Vivian Stringer – is Friday night in Springfield.

- Scott Fowler

--
Q: So many people wanted to “Be Like Mike” growing up. Who did Mike want to be like?A: Probably my father. I have a strong resemblance to him. If you want to be like Mike, that starts with a haircut and a suntan. I’m just happy to be myself.

Q: What was the favorite moment of your basketball career?
A: That’s like asking which one of your kids is your best kid. I had a lot of great accomplishments, spectacular plays, game-winning shots – it’s hard for me to pick out one.
I could start in 1982 with the shot at UNC and I could end with the shot in 1998 at Utah, or with the Dream Team (in 1992) or playing baseball. Although you guys don’t consider that to be successful, I do. It’d be too difficult for me to pick out one.

Q: What is your message to your fans in Chicago?
A: I still live there. A lot of people don’t think I do, but I still do. (When the Bulls drafted me), they took this kid who had never been to the big city. They believed in me. That marriage lasted until now. The city and the team supported my efforts. I will always have the deepest warmth for the city of Chicago.

Q: You’re going into the hall of fame with player John Stockton and coach Jerry Sloan, both of the Utah Jazz. Stockton was labeled back then as maybe the dirtiest guard in the league. Could you reminisce some about that rivalry?
A: I wouldn’t say Stockton was the dirtiest player in the league, or point guard. I could name a couple of other ones. He was a tough, hard-nosed guy who played with every inch of his body. Utah was a great team, even though it never won a championship. Stockton, Karl Malone, coach Sloan – that was a great team that easily could have beaten us a couple of times in the NBA Finals. They were great adversaries.

Q: What would your father James (who was murdered in 1993 in North Carolina) say about this day if he were here?
A: He’d probably love to be standing here, answering all of your questions. He loved to speak for me. I think now he’d understand I’m a grown person. He taught me well. If he was here today, he’d be living it up with all these flashes and cameras, but I think he’d be very proud of what I’ve done over my career. When you see me, you see him. You see my mother. You see my brothers and sisters. I represent my whole family.

Q: You have often been acclaimed the “best” or “greatest” player of all time. What do you think when you hear those accolades?
A: When people say I’m the greatest to ever play the game, I cringe a little bit. It’s an opinion.
For me personally, I never played against Jerry West. I never played against Elgin Baylor. I never played against Wilt Chamberlain. Yeah, I would have loved to. But to say I’m better than those people is not for me to decide. I would never give myself that type of accolade because I never competed against everybody in this hall of fame.

Q: When you came to Chicago (in 1984), the franchise was at one of its lowest points. Talk about some of the struggles you faced there.
A: When I first got to Chicago, the only way we could go was up. Couldn’t go any further down. I came from a prestigious university that was built on winning. At that time winning for us (in Chicago) was getting into the playoffs. And once we got into the playoffs, it was getting past the first round, and getting to the Eastern Conference finals and to the finals.
That growth happened over a period of time. We got better players….
Phil (Jackson) came in. Once we got on top, we didn’t want to relinquish that attitude… Toward the end, I had to be a little more assertive. I was a little more animated, stronger-voiced. I had a conversation with Tex Winter, an unbelievable (assistant) coach, one time after scoring about 20 points in a row to win the game. Tex reminded me, “There’s No I in team.”
I looked back at Tex and I said, “There’s an ‘I’ in ‘W-I-N.’ (Laughter)

Q: For a long time, people didn’t handle the burden of being ‘the next Michael Jordan’ very well. There are two guys now who seem to be carrying that mantle. What have you seen from Kobe and LeBron?
A: I see some resemblance. How can you not see that in Kobe Bryant and LeBron James? They’re going to be fine. But don’t be in a rush to find the next Michael Jordan. There’s not going to be another Michael Jordan. (Applause) Times are different. The game is different.
We – you guys – are constantly trying to find that next Michael Jordan. First of all, you didn’t find me. I just happened to come along and next thing you know, here I am. You won’t have to find me and you won’t have to find that next person, if you haven’t (found him) already. And I think those guys have the strong potential to be better than Michael Jordan down the road. They are their own people.

Q: Have you talked to Phil Jackson (Jordan’s head coach for all six of his NBA championships) about this honor?
A: I haven’t talked to Phil. He’s elusive… But he challenged me at times I needed challenging. Mentally, he made me expand my outlook of the game. He put me in difficult positions in dealing with other players, like Dennis Rodman. But I came around. He’s very deserving of being in the hall of fame, also.

Q: You scored 63 in a playoff game against the Boston Celtics in 1986 and afterward Bird said that was “God disguised as Michael Jordan.” Did that game do a lot for your confidence?
A: Yes. When you look at it up to that point, there was so many media guys saying he’s good but he’s not in the same class as Magic Johnson or Larry Bird. I earned Larry Bird’s respect – to me that showed me I was on the right track. Not the points that I scored, because at the end of the day we lost the game. It’s a good highlight to watch, but not too much fun because I lost. That was the biggest compliment I had at that particular time.

CLT connections at hall of fame induction

I'm in Springfield, Mass., today watching Michael Jordan as he prepares for tonight's induction ceremony. There's a lot of "official" things happening -- MJ just got his official jacket, and his official picture is now up at the hall of fame, and he will later get his official ring. Here's my "official" pre-induction column that ran today in The Charlotte Observer.

Jordan also spoke just for a moment to the media this morning, with plans to talk more later. "Contrary to what you guys believe," Jordan said, "it's not just me going into the hall of fame. It's a group of us."

And that's true. Jordan belongs to one of the stellar classes in hall of fame history, which also includes players David Robinson and John Stockton and coaches Vivian Stringer and Jerry Sloan.

Jordan will be presented tonight by David Thompson, who now lives in Charlotte, works with the excellent 2XSalt ministry and was N.C. State's best player of all time. Robinson will have two presenters -- George Gervin and current Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown.

Jordan also said today in front of his hall of fame cohorts: "It’s truly a pleasure to be here. I can honestly say when I was growing up I never thought about getting into the hall of fame. Next thing you know, here we are. It all started with that little round ball. And if you take that away from any one of us I’m pretty sure we would have struggled. That’s how much the game meant to us, the ball meant to us."

Jordan's top 10 pro moments ever

For Friday's newspaper and online, I have written this column about Michael Jordan's legendary legacy in the pros and his mixed feelings about entering the hall of fame. It's part of our three-part series on Jordan -- Robbi Pickeral did an excellent job on Part 1 (MJ growing up in Wilmington) and Part 2 (Jordan at UNC).I'll also be going to Springfield, Mass., Friday to cover Jordan's induction into basketball's hall of fame, so watch for my coverage of that both online and in the newspaper Friday and Saturday.

As a preview of all that, here's the way I would rank Jordan's Top 10 moments in the pros:

1. June 14, 1998 – In what would be his last game as a Chicago Bull, Jordan wins the decisive Game 6 (and his sixth and final NBA title). He scores 45 points and in the final minutes steals the ball from Karl Malone, more or less shoves Utah’s Bryon Russell out of the way (no call) and swishes the game-winning jumper for an 87-86 victory.

2. May 7, 1989 – Jordan hits “The Shot” – an 18-foot jumper -- over Cleveland’s Craig Ehlo to win a first-round playoff series in the final seconds. Although it wasn’t for an NBA title (which is why I haven't put it No.1), Jordan’s fist-pumping celebration after the basket before a stunned Cleveland crowd remains his most purely jubilant.

3. June 12, 1991 – Jordan’s first NBA title with Chicago refutes the notion that the game’s greatest scorer couldn’t also lead his team to championship. With father James at his side, he tearfully embraces the championship trophy. The Bulls would go on to dominate the decade, winning six NBA titles with Jordan as their centerpiece.

4. April 20, 1986 – In his second year in the NBA, Jordan scores 63 points in a double-overtime playoff loss to Boston. After the game, Boston’s Larry Bird says MJ played like “God disguised as Michael Jordan.”

5. June 16, 1996 – On Father’s Day, Jordan wins an NBA title for the first time since the death of his father James. Jordan then sprawls on the locker room floor, crying unabashedly while hugging the trophy.

6. June 11, 1997 – The “flu game.” Jordan gets hold of some bad pizza in Utah. Dehydrated and obviously sick, Jordan still scores 38 points against the Jazz while the Bulls win another playoff game on the way to title No.5.

7. Feb.6, 1988 -- In a monumental dunking face-off with Dominique Wilkins during NBA all-star weekend, Jordan wins the event for the second time by starting at the far end of the court, lifting off from the free-throw line, double-clutching in midair and slamming it home. Jordan gets a perfect score on the dunk – he never participates in the event again.

8. Summer 1992 – The “Dream Team.” As the biggest star on the U.S. Olympic “Dream Team,” Jordan wins a gold medal (as the Dream Team rolled to eight straight wins). He also helps ensure the worldwide popularity of basketball and stirs up controversy by covering up a Reebok logo with an American flag during the medal ceremony.

9. March 28, 1995 – In his “double nickel game” at Madison Square Garden, Jordan lights up the New York Knicks for 55 points only five games after returning from his ill-fated stab at baseball. Jordan also ends the game with a surprise twist, passing to Bill Wennington in the final moments for a game-winning dunk.

10. Dec.29, 2001 – As a Washington Wizard, Jordan scores 51 against the Charlotte Hornets, showing that at age 38 the old man still has some game. “He kind of went back in time tonight,” the Hornets’ P.J. Brown says.

NFL openers: Do they really set the tone?

You’ll hear a lot in the next few days about how season openers “set the tone” for NFL teams -- how that first game is somehow a lot more important than the ensuing 15 because it tells everyone what kind of team you really have. Talking heads on TV use this term about every 20 seconds during Week 1.

Well, I don’t buy it. As I wrote in Tuesday’s newspaper, I think the Panthers are going to go 7-9 this season – and that’s no matter how the opener Sunday at home against Philadelphia works out.

But occasionally the season opener truly does provide an accurate snapshot of the upcoming season. Sticking only with this decade, here’s my list of the three times the first game really did set the tone for Carolina and the three times it didn’t come close.

WHEN IT DID

1) 2003 – Carolina 24, Jacksonville 23. Jake Delhomme, in his first game as a Panther, leads an amazing second-half comeback against Jacksonville at home. The “Cardiac Cats” were born, the team would go to the Super Bowl and Delhomme remains the starting QB.

2) 2004 – Green Bay 24, Carolina 14. Panthers fall flat in a Monday night debut following their Super Bowl season. And that’s the way it stayed for months, as Carolina started 1-7 in a 7-9 season.

3) 2008 – Carolina 26, San Diego 24. Dante Rosario’s only TD catch of the year was one of the season’s biggest plays, as the Panthers began a 12-4 season with a shocking win at San Diego.

WHEN IT DIDN’T

1) 2001 – Carolina 24, Minnesota 13. Rookie Steve Smith takes the opening kick back for a TD, Chris Weinke looks good at QB and Panthers show promise. Then came 15 straight losses. Never in NFL history has a season-opening win been more misleading.

2) 2005 -- New Orleans 23, Carolina 20. Panthers not only lost that one, they would eventually start this season 1-2. Then they would go on to an 11-5 regular season and NFC title game.

3) 2007 – Carolina 27, St. Louis 13. Panthers’ impressive road win against St. Louis was a mirage, mainly built on the fact the Rams were in a major downward spiral but no one knew it yet. Panthers would finish a desultory 7-9.

Bottom line: The season opener counts for 1/16th of the season – or basically 6.67 percent. Nothing less, nothing more. You’re rarely as good as you seem when you win it, nor as bad as you seem when you lose it.

Panthers fan rips team in e-mail

I wrote this column in Sunday's Charlotte Observer about the Panthers' 0-4 preseason, and specifically how their poor performance in exhibitions had made one longtime Panther fan already sell his two tickets for the season opener Sept.13 vs. Philadelphia.

That column has stirred up quite a hornet's nest of comments. Given that, I thought I would reprint John Rohner's e-mail in full here -- I only used excerpts of it in the paper due to space concerns. You can decide after reading it yourself whether you consider Rohner (whom I also talked to by phone for some more details used in the column):

1) an impassioned fan who has a very good perspective on the 2009 Panthers since he has held PSLs since 1997 and seen a whole lot of good and bad Carolina football, or;

2) a traitorous fan who is putting too much stock in preseason and bailing out way too early.

Here's the full text of Rohner's e-mail -- originally sent to The Observer's executive sports editor Gary Schwab -- which Rohner gave me permission to make public:

"I read your paper on-line daily and appreciate your staff writers' honesty in reporting on the Panthers. Yet, as a 14 year season ticket holder, I see a team that has very little heart or pride.

"If only they could show a little of the determination Mr.Richardson has shown over the past several months! For the last several years my wife and I have driven to almost every home game (8 hours round trip) and each one of those years we had hope of seeing a team that would give their all, which they generally did.

"We have been more than "fair weather fans" but what we have seen in this pre-season is an embarrassment - these young men and coaches should be ashamed of themselves. Yes, it's "only pre-season", but if you can't show you can play the game in practice, what are we to expect in a "real game"?

"I made a promise to myself before the season this year; to never again boo my team when things are not going as hoped - I feel the only way I can keep that promise is to stay home. I have sold my tickets for the first home game and will see if the Panthers have somehow received their own heart transplant so we may return and support our team."

John Rohner
Myrtle Beach, SC