As I suspected would be the case, NBA commish David Stern moved to slap down reports that Michael Jordan only paid $175m. for one of Stern’s franchises. Stern told local NBA stenographer Rick Bonnell that the selling point was really $275m. — which Bonnell dutifully repeated without question — without even mentioning other alternate valuations.

Let’s walk through this, shall we?

1. If Jordan paid $275m. for the team he has partners. Who are they? Presumably this will come out when the league rubber-stamps the deal next week.
2. What was the enterprise value of the Bobcats at sale? This is what Forbes reporter Michael K. Ozanian zeroed in on when the NBA came gunning for him. The NBA had no answer, meaning Ozanian was correct — MJ put down $25m. upfront, borrowed $150m., assumed the debt, and took the keys to the Bobcats.
3. How much of the Bobcats does MJ own? Ozanian says 90 percent.
4. Does the sale in any way amend the team’s contract with the CRVA for the operation of the arena?

This is not difficult stuff. We should have answers.

Wonderful news on the real estate front. Banks have something a prisoner’s dilemma. They can foreclose on busted mortgages and further thwack real estate prices. Or. Hold off for as long as possible and hope the market re-inflates.

In any event, you don’t want to be the first bank to jump and make real all your losses. This is why the Fed and other regulators are poo-pooing mark-to-market accounting in favor of revenue stream valuation. But guess what? If no one is making payments there is no revenue stream either.

Huh?

Is the mayor talking about Charlotte? The city with the 12 percent unemployment rate? In the county which cannot afford to issue any more debt lest it ruin the county’s credit rating? That handed sacks of taxpayer cash to GM-damn-AC? The city that just swooned and got the vapors because a bank moved its HQ a few miles down the street?

That is getting back into bed with proven public-safety reducing red light cameras because city staff wants the money? That is cutting down oak trees to build a sidewalk no one wants — except city staff? That is building a $500m. streetcar it cannot afford to operate with money it could use for basic services instead? That has a housing authority the city council refuses to oversee and manage?

That has a police department the city council refuses to oversee and manage?

Charlotte is surely a poster child for something — just not recovery.

A NoDa resident concerned by wild swings in her water bill finds out that — the electronic monitor was not even connected to the meter.

The city of Charlotte is in complete denial about the situation CMUD finds itself in. Still, do not be surprised by rate hikes as the “solutions” to these problems will no doubt require additional “resources.”

You could read this Charlotte mag cover story on spoiling your kids — or hit yourself in the head with a hammer. Same impact.

Confirms what a deep wellspring of truly deluded people are breeding, creating an army of dysfunctional young adults unequipped for life in a free society. The idea that children should be held to some sort of high standard for meaningful achievement appears to utterly alien to thousands of middle-class and upper middle-class parents.

I really never imagined myself to be a hard-case on parenting and rules and such, but with every passing year I am more aghast by what many of my supposed peers consider normal behavior in kids.

Be sure to read this entire Bloomberg story on $250m. worth of Detroit debt that is being back-stopped by the state of Michigan.

But my takeaway is that the city is paying over double — 7.56 percent to be exact — the going 3.5 percent rate on quality muni debt. This did not happen overnight. It started with some local pols deciding that paying a little more in order to issue more debt to build and do things they wanted to do was just fine.

Hint. Hint.

Bizarre even by the standards of unions is the latest hissy fit by the US Airline Pilots Association, the union that represents US Airways’ pilots. USAPA has decided that the proposed slot swap between US Airways and Delta is bad for consumers, that the DOT was correct in calling for the airlines to sell slots at LaGuardia and Reagan National to low-cost carriers like Southwest Airlines as a condition for approval, and that the DOJ should investigate the transaction.

Hate to break this to the pilots, but US Airways having to sell slots to a JetBlue or Southwest at DCA isn’t in their self-interest. More competition = lower profits = lower pay in the long run for USAPA members.

So why the economic illiteracy and action against their own self-interest by USAPA? US Airways has also announced it was closing its pilot bases at LaGuardia and Boston and the union thinks the two actions are linked. No US Airways pilots are losing their jobs, though some will have to fly out of other stations, but even that, as far as USAPA is concerned, constitutes a act of shear villainy for which the airline must suffer.

US Airways has said it is closing the two pilot bases regardless of whether the slot swap is approved or not, and that in any case, the slot swap involves regional jets and turboprops, whose pilots are not in USAPA. But reality has never been too important for USAPA.

The KC school board voted 5-4 to close 26 schools, leaving it operating 33 schools — the same number it had in 1889, back when enrollment in the system was also under 18,000, the same as today.

Not a lot, but some starters. Big mish-mash at WR as usual.

But hey, we have Dwayne Jarrett.

In other transportation ideas we’ve been flogging for years and suddenly seem respectable — a toll lane to relieve congestion on I-77 in North Meck. Figures that the idea only becomes real when a consultant for Parsons Brinkerhoff spins it to the Lake Norman Transportation Commission.

But the real forward thinking would be to replace the North line heavy rail line with a cheaper, congestion reducing HOT-Bus Rapid Transit system, an approach that might actually qualify for federal transit funding. And remember, the enabling legislation for Mecklenburg’s half-cent transit tax specifically allows for “HOV facilities” to be built with tax revenue.

Expect our local geniuses to catch on to all this long about 2014.