Former Bloomington North High School standout Sean May finally made his preseason debut for the Charlotte Bobcats on against the Indiana Pacers.

May, the 13th overall pick in this year's NBA draft, missed six weeks while his surgically repaired right knee healed.

"I've been anxious just like anybody else would be," May said after the Bobcats' morning shootaround Wednesday.
May, who left the University of North Carolina with a year of eligibility remaining, soaked up the Bobcats' concepts while he was out the lineup. He scored 10 points and had eight rebounds in 18 minutes of action in Wednesday's 109-103 win over the Pacers.

Now he's focusing on his endurance.

"My knee is 100 percent," he said. "I feel like I have the same lift I had before I got hurt. There's a difference in being in shape and being in game shape. You don't really experience game shape until you get on the floor."

With the start of the NBA regular season just one week away, the Bobcats strengthened their frontcourt with the acquisition of forward Jumaine Jones from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for a future second round pick on Wednesday, October 26.

"Jumaine Jones is a versatile player who provides a different dimension to our frontcourt positions and will help us in many ways on both ends of the floor," Bobcats General Manager & Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. "He is a proven outside shooter and has shown success rebounding the ball. We look forward to having him on our roster."

Jones averaged 7.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and shot .391 from three-point range in 24.1 minutes last season for the Lakers. He ranked 18th in the NBA in three-point percentage, connecting on 102-261 attempts, and reached double-figure scoring 21 times, including a season-high 25 points on 7-8 from the three-point line against Orlando on Dec. 12.

The 6-8, 218-pound forward has appeared in 377 career games with Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston and L.A. Lakers with career averages of 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 20.0 minutes. His top scoring season came in 2002-03 when he averaged 9.8 points with Cleveland and he grabbed a career-best 6.0 rebounds in the 2001-02 season with the Cavaliers.

Jones was drafted by Atlanta with the 27th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, but had his draft rights traded to Philadelphia. An early entry candidate, Jones spent two seasons at the University of Georgia, where he averaged 16.6 points on .449 (385-858) shooting from the field and 9.0 rebounds in 31.7 minutes. He also recorded 1,079 points and became the first sophomore to reach 1,000 points since fellow alum and NBA great Dominique Wilkins did so during his collegiate career.

Melvin Ely is eligible for a contract extension until Oct. 31 under the NBA's rookie pay scale for first-round picks. But it sounds as if the Bobcats will wait for him to become a restricted free agent next summer.

Either way, coach Bernie Bickerstaff likes what he sees from Ely.

After more than five years of political angst, Charlotte is ready to take the wrapper off a $265 million downtown arena that will be home to the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. And the officials who helped design the building believe they have a winner.
"I think this building, not only from a budget standpoint but also from an aesthetic standpoint, is the best (arena) in the country," building chief operating officer Barry Silberman said Wednesday as the media toured the arena two blocks from the center of downtown Charlotte.

Mayor Pat McCrory and Bobcats owner Bob Johnson are to officially open Charlotte Bobcats Arena at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday. The Rolling Stones headline the first arena event Friday, while the Bobcats open their home schedule Nov. 5 against the Boston Celtics.

No one can accuse Emeka Okafor of spending the offseason lounging around on the couch and eating mounds of ice cream. Especially if they caught even a fleeting glimpse of him in the Charlotte Bobcats' training camp.

Okafor, last year's NBA rookie of the year, sought out the tutelage of former league MVP Hakeem Olajuwon to improve his game and took up yoga to improve his flexibility.

Despite working with weights primarily to improve and tone target areas, the 6-foot-10 forward looks stronger and has bulked up nearly 20 pounds since the end of last season.

"It's a new age," Okafor said Thursday, the third day of the team's training camp at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. "The more we learn, the more we take care of our bodies. The better you take care of your body, the longer you'll play and the more efficient you'll be."

That kind of approach is a welcome sight for the Bobcats, who have made Okafor the face of a franchise trying to make it in a city jaded by a nasty split with its once-beloved Hornets three years ago. He lived up to expectations by leading all rookies with 15.1 points and 10.9 rebounds per game in the team's 18-64 inaugural season, and he doesn't sound content to stand pat.

"I still don't feel like I really deserve that yet," Okafor said of seeing his face on billboards and team advertisements around Charlotte. "It's a good honor, but I feel I can't rest on that. I feel like I have to do more."