After the Lakers finally beat the Bobcats on Wednesday night, for only the second time in their past eight meetings, the Bobcats no longer own the Lakers. The lingering question is, who will own the Bobcats?

And more importantly, if new ownership comes in and team president Michael Jordan goes out, as Ric Bucher speculated this week, would that mean the departure of Larry Brown, who's only the single best thing to ever happen to the franchise?

It was Jordan and the University of North Carolina connection that first lured Brown to the Bobcats. And we all know how quickly Brown can bounce out of town as soon as the weather pattern shifts.

The Bobcats won a franchise-best 35 games last season, Brown's first as coach. This season they're on pace for their first winning record and currently occupy the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Bobcat players offer up as many unprompted tributes to their coach as I've heard in an NBA locker room. Gerald Wallace credited his breakthrough All-Star season to "Coach Brown -- I think that's it."

"Just lighting a fire under me," Wallace continued. "He keeps pushing me to do a lot of little things that players don't want to do. Being aggressive, going to the boards. He's always telling me I can be one of the top rebounders in the league with my athleticism and quickness. That was my main thing, is just try to do every little thing that he tells me to do, and so far it's worked out this year."

That would also make Brown's hiring the best transaction in Jordan's history as an executive with the Bobcats and Washington Wizards. But an NBA source said Jordan is not inclined to make a bid for the franchise that matches the number which owner Bob Johnson has in mind. It is believed that a group led by Houston investor George Postolos, the former president of the Rockets, has made a higher offer. One source familiar with the negotiations read Johnson's backing away from the sale to Postolos last summer and the continued extension of the process as a desire to give Jordan another opportunity to put together a stronger offer. But with league owners already skittish about the possible decrease of franchise values due to the perceived low-price sale of the New Jersey Nets (by Bruce Ratner to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov), there will be pressure on Johnson to go for the higher bid and not let his relationship with Jordan outweigh the prospect of more cash.

The Bobcats are finally gaining traction in Charlotte after stumbling out of the gate with a bad television deal and a failure by Johnson to connect with the city's major financial players. The team now has 22 sponsors, plus relationships with banking giants Bank of America and Wachovia, which are headquartered in Charlotte. More importantly, their games are now broadcast on a network that's in 1 million more households than their previous carrier.

Pair that with their recent success on the court, and the Bobcats -- much like Wallace this season -- are looking better than ever. It's a good time to sell for Johnson, whose desire to shed the money-losing team has been well-known in NBA circles. But would the new ownership want to keep Jordan? Would he want to stay on with an unfamiliar boss if they did? And how would Brown react to the changes?

A source expects the final decision to come by March. Whatever the final sales price for the Bobcats turns out to be, the purchase isn't the same if it doesn't include assurances from Brown.

J.A. Adande is an ESPN.com senior writer and the author of "The Best Los Angeles Sports Arguments." Click here to e-mail J.A.

ESPN.com writers and TrueHoop Network bloggers chatted with fans and gave their in-game opinions throughout Wednesday's games -- all in Daily Dime Live.