NBA Access: Charlotte
ESPN had unique behind-the-scenes coverage capturing a day in the life of an NBA franchise as the Charlotte Bobcats took on the Orlando Magic on Friday December 14, 2007.TrueHoop
• Greetings from sunny Charlotte
• What I learned at shootaround
• The elephant in the room
• Matt Carroll's Christmas list
• Trash talk watch
• A conversation with owner Robert Johnson
• Up close to an NBA trade
• Happy halftime for Charlotte
• Up close to an NBA trade
• Happy halftime for Charlotte
Video 
• Jared Dudley tours Bobcats Arena
• Adam Morrison rehabs his knee
• Bobcats majority owner Bob Johnson
• State of the Charlotte Bobcats
• Thorpe: Magic-Bobcats scouting video
• Bobcats morning shootaround
• Magic vs. Bobcats preview
Podcasts
• NBA Dish: Chad Ford with Rod Higgins
• Mike & Mike: Bobcats coach Sam Vincent
• Mike Tirico with Hall of Famer Hubie Brown
Photo Gallery
• NBA Access: Charlotte photo gallery
Chat Transcripts
• Bobcats forward: Walter Herrmann
• Bobcats forward: Gerald Wallace
• Scouts Inc.'s David Thorpe
Columns
• Thorpe: Bobcats-Magic analysis
• Thorpe: Scouting Dwight Howard
• Hill: Turkoglu raises game to new heights
Game Previews
• Magic-Bobcats, 8 ET
• Lakers-Warriors, 10:30 ET
ESPNdeportes.com
• Walter Herrmann interview in Spanish
• Walter Herrmann interview in Spanish
• Bruno Altieri: Bobcats' Walter Herrmann
• Carlos Morales: Magic guard Carlos Arroyo
• Basquetbol por ESPNdeportes.com
• Jared Dudley tours Bobcats Arena
• Adam Morrison rehabs his knee
• Bobcats majority owner Bob Johnson
• State of the Charlotte Bobcats
• Thorpe: Magic-Bobcats scouting video
• Bobcats morning shootaround
• Magic vs. Bobcats preview
Podcasts
• NBA Dish: Chad Ford with Rod Higgins
• Mike & Mike: Bobcats coach Sam Vincent
• Mike Tirico with Hall of Famer Hubie Brown
Photo Gallery
• NBA Access: Charlotte photo gallery
Chat Transcripts
• Bobcats forward: Walter Herrmann
• Bobcats forward: Gerald Wallace
• Scouts Inc.'s David Thorpe
Columns
• Thorpe: Bobcats-Magic analysis
• Thorpe: Scouting Dwight Howard
• Hill: Turkoglu raises game to new heights
Game Previews
• Magic-Bobcats, 8 ET
• Lakers-Warriors, 10:30 ET
ESPNdeportes.com
• Walter Herrmann interview in Spanish
• Walter Herrmann interview in Spanish
• Bruno Altieri: Bobcats' Walter Herrmann
• Carlos Morales: Magic guard Carlos Arroyo
• Basquetbol por ESPNdeportes.com
- That rosin that Dwight Howard claps on his hands as he's entering the game? Where I was sitting, that crap got all over my laptop. Which is totally great, as an indication of the quality of my seat. Possibly less great if you're an ESPN IT guy reading this.
- Just because you can hear Stan Van Gundy, doesn't mean you can understand what the hell he's saying. He's also, let me point out, very demonstrative with the hand signals.
- People in Charlotte I talked to say they are not at all used to seeing Robert Johnson and/or Michael Jordan. Having them here is a special occasion. That's kind of sad, if you think about it, when a
big part of what they're doing here, Johnson says, is trying to build community. - You can hear a lot more play calls when you sit courtside, and one thing that has proven to be true: when Jeff McInnis brings up the ball, and Sam Vincent doesn't send in a play, McInnis calls the same play (thumbs up) every time.
- This was a big night for Emeka Okafor. Or, it was supposed to be. He's in a contract year, with a chance for a measure of vengeance against the guy who was picked ahead of him in the draft. And the whole big TV show. But he hardly had a memorable moment in this game. What's more, at times he didn't seem to be playing all that hard. In the aftermath of that draft, there were those who said Orlando blew it by taking the unproven high-schooler. Those people were wrong.
- There are sticky pads on the sideline that players use to clean their shoes. If the thing gets enough dust on it, it'll stop working, so you peel that top layer off and, ideally, throw it in the garbage. But there is no garbage can courtside, so Jameer Nelson does the obvious thing (I'm told it's routine): he wads the sticky plastic sheet up in a ball and tosses it at George Galante, the Magic PR guy who sits nearby.
- I got the impression, during my brief time in Charlotte, that people here are friendly. That was confirmed late in the game. You know how at every game there's one guy who is just the loudest, meanest, most obnoxious heckler in the building? In Philly, a guy like that will make you swear never to bring your kids to the stadium. Same goes for New York. But in Charlotte? The nastiest thing I actually heard that guy say was "nice shot, ugly." If that's your worst guy, you're in a nice town.
- I asked Jared Dudley if he can take Sam Vincent's electric hand whistle seriously. The rookie had just finished talking about how he would do anything to get more minutes. He said "you bet. I better take it seriously. I don't know about everybody else. But yeah, I respect that. It's the new generation."
- Is that like the third eye? Gerald Wallace misspeaks, which only emphasizes the general confusion that reigned in the third quarter for Charlotte: ".... then we get stagnant in the third half, we don't know what we're doing, we don't know what plays we're running, we don't know what rotations we're doing on defense."
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