Bobcats name Bickerstaff head coach and general manager...

[Scary Hedo]

October 16, 2003 – NBA veteran Bernie Bickerstaff was named the first-ever general manager and head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats, it was announced today by Bobcats Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ed Tapscott. The expansion team begins play in the 2004-05 NBA season.

http://www.nba.com/bobcats/new_gm.html

[air gordon]

did i read this correctly? N.O will move to the western conference and Charlotte will be in the Eastern conference

what happened to the talk of minnesota going to the eastern conference?

[Andrew]

That won't happen now, unless they realign some other teams. The conferences can't have a difference greater than one team.

[Vins15]

well how are they gonna decide the last two spots for the playoffs ?have a Wildcard division like MLB...

[Andrew]

I don't think the playoff format will change at all.

[jwin]

SPORTS COMMENTARY

NBA realignment should lead to new playoff format

Val Tsoutsouris is a graduate student majoring in journalism.
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Published Thursday, October 16, 2003

The baseball playoffs have been so tense that I don't dare touch my TV set, lest I be electrocuted. The Yankees-Red Sox and Cubs-Marlins series fulminate with so much drama and subplots that not even an episode of "Playmakers" -- snicker, snicker -- can compare.

They've consumed this viewer so much, in fact, that I've had little time to care for many other sports. So it was with little fanfare that the National Basketball Association announced this small bit of news yesterday: The league will realign into six divisions of five teams each beginning in the 2004-05 season when the Charlotte Bobcats enter the league and become its 30th team.

The league unfortunately announced that its playoff format will change little. Eight teams from each conference will still make the playoffs with the three division winners and five best records of non-division winners making it from each conference.

[Andrew]

I stand corrected. Still, that's not much of a change. The division champions will still qualify for the playoffs, with the remaining seeds being the teams with one of the eight best win/loss record in the conference.

[jwin]

no not much of a change at all. except maybe a few more teams being able to claim division titles. the hornets will be going to the west, i believe, so it will be interesting to see how they do there.