‘Gonzo’ grows in Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It is 10:15 a.m. and the city of Charlotte knows where its children are – a free-admission National Basketball Association preseason game called the “Cool School Field Trip” for 17,000 area middle scholars. The building, maybe even the whole banking district, could run on their juice, if only scientists could harness the preteen hormone.

On the scoreboard video screen of Charlotte Bobcats Arena during an early timeout is Adam Morrison in a “Read to Achieve” T-shirt, instructing the kids to open their workbooks for a question about the state in which he was born.

“Helena is my state’s capital,” he says. “It is bordered by Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota. This state is known as the Big Sky State.”

Before Morrison can recite the multiple-choice answers, a know-it-all blurts out his best guess from a few rows behind the scorer’s table:

“Gonzo.”

OK, so he’s a little weak on geography. The kid knows his basketball.

“““ As you might expect, Adam Morrison is no stranger here – he is no stranger anywhere. But this is basketball country, if not necessarily NBA country – Tobacco Road and all that – so it’s a little different. Just as Morrison’s profile is a little different. After all, he did engage in a season-long duel with a Carolina favorite son, J.J. Redick of Duke, to win the NCAA scoring title. He was, by virtue of his stats and his quirky game and his manic mop of hair and the mustache that had celebrity all its own, far and away the most recognizable player in college basketball a year ago – and thus in the NBA draft, in which he was the first pick of the Bobcats and third overall after deciding to forego his senior season at Gonzaga in his hometown of Spokane.

Just curious – does anyone even remember any of the other guys?

Also as you might expect, the Bobcats – in just their third year of existence as an expansion team – are working furiously for a foothold in the Charlotte consciousness after ownership of the city’s previous team, the Hornets, thoroughly soured the city on the NBA. It’s been a predictably rough start. The Bobcats won 18 and 26 games in their first two seasons, and in their first year in their new downtown digs ranked 22nd out of 30 teams in attendance, the 19,077-seat Arena about 86 percent full.

This would seem to be a marriage made in marketing heaven. But as you might not expect, Adam Morrison is not the face of this franchise. Not yet, anyway.

On his daily drive into Charlotte on Interstate 77 from his new home in a gated community 25 minutes south of downtown, Morrison encounters no billboards with his eyes staring back at him beneath the cover of his bangs.

At the corner of 45th and Tyron, a sign reminds Charlotte that “Jefferson Davis was standing here when informed of Lincoln’s death in 1865” – not far from where a picture of Gerald Wallace, the Bobcats’ budding star forward, reminds everyone that “Flight Plan” season tickets are available for $999.

In the main lobby of Bobcats Arena, more displays peddle season tickets, these featuring Raymond Felton and Emeka Okafor. Sean May, Primoz Brezec and Brevin Knight have their larger-than-life-size likenesses wrapped around pillars.

This is well before Wednesday night’s season opener against Indiana, of course, but there is a hint of a message here: It ain’t all about Adam.

“And that’s OK,” insisted Morrison. “I kind of just want to be one of the guys. It’s a little bit of a change, but I’m still a rookie and I have to earn my keep.”

Still, there are indications he already has.

Back on draft day in June, the Bobcats ordered 50 Adam Morrison replica jerseys – and sold them out by the next afternoon. On the store’s Web site, Morrison apparel is priced a few dollars above the going rate for other Bobcats gear, including a signature T-shirt that features his face on the front and his new number – 35 – on the back.

“We took a merchandise cart around North Carolina – what we call the Carolina Caravan – with stops in the biggest cities,” said Dave Cromar, general manager of operations at the Bobcats Arena. “Most people were asking for Morrison merchandise wherever we stopped. I would say that Morrison product is our best-selling stuff right now.”

Then again, that might be true of any high-pick rookie – the new flavor of the month. Perhaps there’s more to be read into the fact that season ticket sales are up by more than 2,500 already this season, to a base of nearly 10,000 – though even that has been helped along by a price decrease for about 70 percent of the seats.

Maybe the biggest indicator of Morrison’s impact will come on Dec. 14, when the Bobcats will make their first appearance on a national television broadcast on TNT – against the Orlando Magic and, not coincidentally, Redick. It’s pretty obvious what drove that TV date.

“““ As part of their regional outreach, the Bobcats take one of their early exhibition games up the road to Chapel Hill and the Dean Dome, where even the girders are Carolina blue.

This is where Felton and May won a national championship in 2005, and where Washington Wizards opponents Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood played their college ball. As such, it’s billed as their homecoming, though the turnout – probably about 3,000 – is surprisingly pitiful.

Another surprise: Morrison has his hair restrained by a Bobcats orange headband, which a particularly nervy young fan asks for before the game.

“I’ve got to get a haircut,” Morrison admitted.

Already, Morrison grapples with finding his rhythm in the nonstop NBA lifestyle. On a Saturday night, he was at Lowe’s Motor Speedway with several teammates for an appearance at the Bank of America 500. The next night he took a hotel room in town to beat the commute and the early call for that 10 a.m. exhibition. After that, there was a 2 p.m. flight to Chapel Hill for the next day’s game.

“It’s different,” he said of the concept of basketball as a job. “I’m used to waking up, going to class and going to practice. Here it seems like you’re always headed somewhere. You have to take care of your body a lot better. In college, I never iced, I never stretched. You’ve got to do that and take care of yourself and make sure you’re getting enough sleep.

“It’s not a bad thing. We’re getting paid a lot to do what we do.”

About $3.6 million this year in Morrison’s case, and close to $17 over the life of the four-year contract he signed – not including the endorsement contracts he has with EA Sports (he’s the cover boy for March Madness 2007), Topps, adidas and Life Scan, a blood sugar monitoring device.

To see him through the days and “make sure I show up to the right things,” Morrison has his older sister, Brandie, managing his household.

“Sometimes I get a little cranky with her, but she’s a huge help,” he said.

But in some respects, the demands are actually less. Morrison said it’s impossible not to go somewhere without being recognized, but that it’s a different sort of recognition than what he grew accustomed to in Spokane.

“There are more pro teams and athletes, so you’re not the only show in town,” he said. “People say, ‘Hi,’ and let you go on your way. I’m not saying it’s not that way sometimes in Spokane, but Gonzaga’s so big there – people want to stop and talk about it all the time. Here, they realize you’re a pro, a grown man, which is cool.

“But it was also nice to be in a community like Spokane which was so diehard, win or lose, about our team. So I miss that, too – how supportive the community always was.”

“““ Morrison – obviously and not to his dismay – is definitely not the only show in town here.

The Carolina Panthers are only three years removed from a Super Bowl, and have a slew of high-profile players – Jake Delhomme, Julius Peppers, Steve Smith.

Then there’s the other big-league sport – NASCAR. Charlotte hosts three stops on the Nextel Cup circuit, and most teams base their operations in North Carolina, so homegrown drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett are especially adored.

Even among the Bobcats, Felton and May have greater immediate cachet, thanks to that NCAA title.

“And that’s understandable – they’ve earned it,” said Morrison. “I don’t mind taking a back seat at all. That’s kind of how it was my freshman and sophomore years at Gonzaga, anyway.”

Greg Economou is the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of the Bobcats, a Charlotte native who was an NBA vice president before returning home. It’s his job to, well, sell the sizzle until the Bobcats can serve steak.

“We were extraordinarily fortunate when Adam was available in the draft,” Economou said. “This is a town that works hard and I think people here can appreciate his intensity and work ethic and that’s going to help us connect with fans.

“But on a macro scale, we want to use as many of the assets of our team as effectively as we can. We don’t want to just make this the Adam Morrison show. We don’t want to put any undue pressure on him as the only face of the franchise.”

Indeed, the Bobcats not only have the two Tar Heels, but Okafor – the 2005 NBA Rookie of the Year – and Wallace, and the guiding hand of coach and general manager Bernie Bickerstaff is comfortable with this group growing up together.

“That’s what’s good about this team,” Morrison said. “Gerald is a star in this league, but I wouldn’t say we have what anybody considers a superstar type. But everybody here played on winning teams and everybody is going to be held accountable for playing well if we want to win, and that means we have to work together.”

Economou sees a similar model in the marketing end, knowing the Bobcats are probably riding in the back seat behind the NFL and NASCAR and that they’d better look at them as allies.

“If I’m CMO of the Lakers, of course I would embrace Hollywood,” he said. “You have Jack Nicholson in the front row and an influential and powerful community in your backyard. Well, NASCAR is our Hollywood. Nearly every driver, every owner, lives in our city. It’s part of the fabric here.

“When we took our guys to that race, I think it taught our guys a lesson. They saw how the drivers are so accessible and why there’s such an affinity and such loyalty from the fans.”

And he thinks he sees that same kind of connection in the making between Charlotte and its newest citizen.

“You know, our other guys were national figures, too – Emeka won a national championship, and obviously so did Sean and Raymond,” he said. “But they were on East Coast teams, in our time zone, and we saw them all the time.

“Adam was able to transcend even the time zone issues because he’s such an incredible player, but also with all his attributes – his intensity and personality. He’s a quiet kid, but there’s a charisma about him. It’s not a typical definition of charisma – it’s not verbose and outgoing – but people are attracted to his desire to succeed.”

Just as you might expect.