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Jordan Wants Brown To Stay, But . . .

Michael Jordan, approved as the new owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, wants coach Larry Brown to stay, but says he will not stand in Brown's way if there is a family issue involved.

This was a question that had to be asked of new Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan: What if coach Larry Brown, with two years remaining on his contract, asked to leave because his family is still living in the Philadelphia suburbs?

But don't get excited, 76ers fans, about the likelihood of Brown returning here if and when current coach Eddie Jordan is replaced.

''I don't want Larry to leave,'' Jordan told the Charlotte Observer after a press conference, his first as the official owner of the team. "I'd like to keep Larry here. But I totally understand his relationship, with what he feels from a husband-wife scenario . . . I'd do everything I can to keep him here. I want him here. But if for family reasons or (wife) Shelly's reasons he feels like he's got to do something else, what else can I do? I'm going to sgtay away from that one.''

Jordan said he would not stand in the way of that type of move.

''I have no choice,'' he said. "I don't see how I could stand in the way of that. I view Larry as a friend, and for me to hold a friend to a contract knowing that his spouse or his family scenario supersedes that, that's not who I am. I'd walk away from that.''

Jordan also did not seem bothered by recent reports that the Los Angeles Clippers had been contacted on Brown's behalf. (We do know that Brown had been pushing for former Sixers general manager Billy King as the Clippers' GM before Neil Olshey succeeded the fired Mike Dunleavy.)

''I don't expect Larry is going anywhere,'' Jordan said. ''In all honesty, I think (when those reports surfaced), there were so many articles being written about George Postolos getting the (Bobcats) and they're clearing house, I can imagine Larry thinking about other options. But everything I read and everything that I understand from Larry, his reason for coming here was because I'm here.''