Michael Jordan has work to do after departure of Larry Brown

Who’s the real winner?

It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature or Michael Jordan....

Or it wasn’t.

Still an icon, Jordan also owns the woebegone Charlotte Bobcats and makes hollow gestures like leaking word he fired Coach Larry Brown ... after announcing Brown resigned ... two months after saying he wanted to extend him but kept getting put off.

Obligingly, the Charlotte Observer reported:

“Jordan gets last word; Brown ousted.”

Good thing for both of them Brown didn’t sign that extension.

Whether Mike can do this, he can’t do it for free, having just lost Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler while bringing in no one.

On that budget, Jerry West couldn’t do it.

Brown gets $8 million in severance and will work more miracles, however brief.

Mike has to stay.

Day 1: TheDwight watch

Move over Carmelo Anthony, tell Chris Paul the news....

The light bulb went off over everyone’s heads with Orlando’s blockbuster trades making it all but official:

With Dwight Howard’s contract up in 2012, they know they must perform to keep him.

So much for speculation about Anthony and Paul, supporting players next to the NBA’s lone superstar big man.

At Howard’s age, 24, Shaquille O’Neal blazed a trail for superstar Magic centers and it led out of town.

Orlando had just gone from a Finals appearance to a loss in the East finals when the fun-loving, attention-devouring Shaq left....

Orlando has just gone from a Finals appearance to a loss in the East finals and the fun-loving Dwight devours attention, too.

Aside from that, no worries.

Blazermania update ...

Catch it and die.

Not only is Portland well into Sam Bowie-instead-of-Jordan II, with Greg Oden out, as usual, as Kevin Durant takes off, Brandon Roy is breaking down, too.

Sidelined for the second time this season with a bad knee, it looks as if Roy’s career is either over or he’ll need surgery.

Like Oden, Roy is an exemplary young man who was on his way to becoming a great player, so this goes under Nice Things Don’t Always Happen to Good People.

Said Coach Nate McMillan, whose days are inevitably numbered, too:

“Everybody is writing him off. They’re saying that he should retire or that we should move on.

“Well, we’re not ready to do that.”

Coast 2 coast

If Orlando’s deals could pay off, it was essentially General Manager Otis Smith trying to undo the damage they had done ... Smith signed Rashard Lewis for an eye-popping $118 million, traded for Vince Carter’s $17-million salary and let crunch-time playmaker Hedo Turkoglu go because ownership wouldn’t pay him $9.8 million per year — before taking him back after sloppy, whiny bust-outs in Toronto and Phoenix.... Noted Magic Vice President Pat Williams, before Turkoglu scored 25 points with 10 assists as they beat the Spurs and Celtics: “Maybe Orlando is the only place he can play.”... Things have never been better and/or worse (cont.): Despite doom-and-gloom projections ahead of collective bargaining, the eagerly awaited season is off to a big start with ESPN and TNT ratings up a whopping 30%.... Heat games are up 69% — but taking out its games, ratings, which had been going up for two seasons, just jumped another 23%.

— Mark Heisler