If Charlotte attorney John Fennebresque got his way in 1999, Hornets fans would be worried about a retirement today, not a relocation.

Fennebresque recruited Michael Jordan to buy half the Hornets in the spring of '99. Had that deal gone through, Jordan presumably would have played for the Hornets this season and the team wouldn't be focused on a move to New Orleans.

"In my view, that would have solved all our problems," Fennebresque said Wednesday. "It's a real tragedy that didn't happen."

Jordan will likely never play basketball again at the Charlotte Coliseum.

His new team, the Washington Wizards, plays here tonight, but Jordan announced Wednesday he'll sit out the rest of the season with an injured right knee.

By the time he plays again -- if he plays again at 39 -- the Hornets will probably be in New Orleans.

Even if he'd never suited up in purple and teal, Jordan might have changed the course of Hornets history as an owner. The most popular athlete of our time, Jordan would have reshaped Charlotte's arena debate.

As ex-Hornet Dell Curry described last fall, "there wouldn't just be a hole in the ground uptown, it would be filled by now."

However, George Shinn, who then owned 100 percent of the team, wouldn't accept Jordan's terms.

Jordan wanted total control over basketball decisions, including final say-so over player payroll.

Shinn refused to give up that much authority to sell half the team.

"The (issue) was who would run basketball operations," Fennebresque recalled, "not the (purchase) price or percentages."

So Jordan bought into the Wizards -- where he got the power Shinn refused him -- and Shinn instead sold 35 percent of the team to Atlanta businessman Ray Wooldridge.

Wooldridge became the team's front man on the arena issue, with Shinn slipping into the background.

Although Wooldridge often blames local leaders for the team's likely departure, the owners' reputation is the overarching issue, based on polls of Charlotteans.

How much difference would Jordan have made?

"The atmosphere would have been like the first few years of the franchise," said Carl Scheer, the Hornets' first general manager. "If they'd had a referendum, it would have passed, or perhaps City Council wouldn't have required a referendum for approval."

Not that Scheer thinks the city would have melted in Jordan's presence.

Scheer advised Jordan's agent, David Falk, that Charlotteans still needed convincing of the need for a new arena.

Fennebresque said he gave Jordan similar advice.

"Could I write on a napkin, `Michael, we'll get you an arena?' Of course not," Fennebresque recalled.

"And I think Michael was fine with that. There was no guarantee an arena would be built, but with him as an owner, there would have been a solid shot.

"There would have been issues, but we would have had an arena without all the hostility.

"Now we have hostility and no new arena."

Starting lineups

Hornets   Wizards
Baron Davis PG Chris Whitney
David Wesley SG C. Alexander
Jamaal Magloire C Jahidi White
P.J. Brown PF Christian Laettner
Jamal Mashburn SF Richard Hamilton


Scouting report

? Just to quantify the impact of Michael Jordan's absence, the Wizards went 4-8 in the 12 games he missed immediately following arthroscopic knee surgery.

Jordan plans to sit out the rest of the season with that injury.

? Jordan had his best night this season against the Hornets, scoring 51 Dec. 29 in Washington. The two teams haven't played since then, and a sold-out house tonight will be disappointed at his absence.

? Hornets center Jamaal Magloire had a career-high 22 points in the most recent meeting with the Wizards.