Bobcats boss has folks scratching their heads.

• Author: Maley, Frank
• Position: TAR HEEL TATTLER

Soon after he bought the rights to start the Charlotte Bobcats, Bob Johnson made clear why he would be the boss: "Any business I put $300 million in, I'm the CEO."

So it was surprising when in March he promoted Ed Tapscott to CEO of Bobcats Basketball Holdings, the limited-liability company he formed to own and operate the National Basketball Association franchise. It was even more surprising when two months later Tapscott resigned rather than accept a demotion. His duties went to Van Sinclair, president of Bethesda, Md.-based The RLJ Cos., which manages the billions Johnson made from Black Entertainment Television, the cable network he started and sold.

The Bobcats declined a request for an interview with Johnson. But a minority owner says the team has been losing money and the board didn't think Tapscott had enough business experience to fix the problems--plus his contract was to expire in June. "There were some philosophical differences between Ed and Bob, and everybody collectively decided it would be better to part ways," says Nelson Schwab III, managing partner of Carousel Capital, a Charlotte investment firm.

He admits that it was "a little strange" to promote Tapscott two months before offering him a demotion. Schwab says Tapscott was bumped upstairs from chief operating...