If you're a fan of the two biggest professional sports teams in Charlotte, the past 12 months have been hard.

At this time one year ago, the Charlotte Bobcats had qualified for the NBA playoffs for the first time. The Carolina Panthers were coming off a respectable 8-8 season.

And then both teams flamed out. The Panthers went 2-14 in 2010 under a lame-duck, utterly predictable coach who predictably was replaced.

The Bobcats lost four straight games in the 2010 playoffs and this season fired coach Larry Brown, traded away the only NBA all-star they've ever had and enter tonight's meaningless season finale 15 games under .500.

So with all that angst as a backdrop, let me ask you two questions:

1.) Which one of these teams will get back to the playoffs first?

2.) Which one of these teams will seriously contend for a championship first?

For the sake of this argument, let's assume that the NFL and the NBA come to some sort of labor agreements with their players, allowing full seasons to proceed every year as scheduled.

I would answer those two questions differently. Whether you do probably depends in large part on which team owner you trust more - the Panthers' Jerry Richardson or the Bobcats' Michael Jordan.

Both men played their sport at the highest level - Richardson briefly, Jordan as the best ever. Both won championships as players. Both can now walk into a boardroom and take it over.

But neither has won a title as an owner. Both have taken some justified hits recently on the PR front (Richardson for his rambling news conference a few months ago; Jordan for his cost-cutting maneuvers).

OK, so here are my answers to the two questions.

Question 1: I think the Bobcats will return to the playoffs first. My reasoning stems in part from the fact that 53.3 percent of NBA teams make the playoffs every year (16 of 30), while only 37.5 percent of NFL teams do (12 of 32). The club isn't as exclusive, and you can also turn around an NBA team faster. The Bobcats are 50-50 to make the playoffs next year at least, since they are about to add a couple of draft picks to a team that sorely needs depth.

Also, one great player in basketball changes everything. If Jordan, for instance, were able to lure Chris Paul in free agency in the summer of 2012 - and Paul told The Associated Press Tuesday that possibility was "something to think about" - that would instantly make the Bobcats a playoff team for years.

The Panthers? I don't think they will make the playoffs in 2011. They will improve, but their quarterback situation is very unsettled and their personnel is a mishmash. I like new coach Ron Rivera, but I think it's going to take at least two or three years for Carolina to return to the playoffs.

Question 2: I think the Panthers will be the first team of the two to seriously contend for a championship, although I don't see that happening for several years.

Rivera strikes me as a consensus builder who will do it the right way. Richardson has shown in the past (2010 being the notable exception) that he will spend the money necessary to win.

As I have written, the Panthers should choose Cam Newton with the No.1 overall pick this month to get this process started.

The Bobcats? Coach Paul Silas is a great guy, but he's 67 and not the long-term answer for this team. Perhaps his son Stephen is. It's hard to say as of yet.

The larger problem, though, is that Jordan hasn't shown the ability - or flashed the cash - to win a free-agent sweepstakes. And until Jordan does that - or gets extremely lucky in an NBA draft - the Bobcats remain destined to bang into a glass ceiling earlier than the Panthers once both teams inevitably, and finally, get better.