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Tag Archive - Michael Heisley

GRIZZLIES: Michael Heisley, The Most Dangerous Man With A Mic

March 18, 2010 in by with 0 Comments

Griz owner Michael Heisley told a group of season ticket holders that the team intends to match any offer Gay might receive as a restricted free agent this summer. Heisley spoke before the game at the team’s annual “State of the Franchise” Chalk Talk where season ticket holders could ask questions.

via Griz owner Michael Heisley told a group of season ticket holders that the team intends to match any… – Straight Outta Vancouver.

First, he couldn’t re-sign him because attendance wasn’t good enough. Then he said he would make every effort. Now he’s going to do it no matter what.

So which is it?

I’m about to sympathize with Michael Heisley, so let’s all hold our noses as we plunge into this cesspool.

It’s an impossible situation. If he doesn’t re-sign Gay, no matter how overpaid the offer sheet may be, he’s a cheap owner. But Gay is simply not worth all that much. He’s worth a lot, don’t get me wrong. But he’s worth the most to the Grizzlies as a symbol that they’re willing to spend to compete. Which is something the fanbase, whatever’s left of it, needs.

The attendance in Memphis is bad news bears, pardon the pun. I support small markets. I stick up for small markets. I defend small markets. But the team has been over .500 for the vast majority of the season and was in the playoff hunt as recently as last night when Aaron Brooks hit his 900th three pointer. And yet attendance has been pathetic. Not bad. Pathetic. The Grizzlies have given Memphis every reason to come out and support this team, and instead, the city had basically decided what they thought about the Grizzlies back in October, and have refused to reconsider.

But if they’re going to buy back in, they have to believe this is a franchise committed to winning.  And Heisley’s discussions with the press are not helping matters, even if I can sympathize. The attendance thing? Does not need to be confused with the Rudy issue. If you want to win and think Gay is the way to get there, re-sign him. Don’t try and hold the fans hostage, because that’s not going to work. The people that care if you re-sign Rudy Gay? They’re already coming to the games, decked in blue. Furthermore, as much as it may suck, turning the issue into you being vilified, even if true, is not going to help matters. Who cares who the owner is? Ask Clippers or Warriors fans.

These complicating factors make it really difficult to get a good sense of the real problem here: Rudy Gay isn’t worth a max contract. He’s not worth anything near it. There are players younger than Gay with worse numbers that you can look at and say “That’s going to be a complete player.” With Gay, you’re left with the fact that he’s a pivotal part of this team and yet he’s not clocked in all the time. O.J. Mayo has his struggles. He’s gotten better at the rim, he’s killer from outside, but he has his shooting slumps and gets worn down on defense. But OJAM’s clocked in on every play, every night. Gay is clocked in for about 3/4 of the time. That other quarter is when you can’t figure out where he is or what he’s doing. The things Gay is tremendous at, creating that shifty leaning sideways runner, dunking in the open floor, nailing big shots, these are all valuable components for a contributing piece, not a centerpiece.

Neither Mayo, nor Gasol, and definitely not Randolph (due to age, not effort) may be the future of the Grizzlies, but you can look at their games and see them either becoming those primary components, or laying the foundation of a supporting cast for a true superstar. Gay doesn’t even work in that model, because he demands so much money. But if the Grizzlies let him walk, they’re unlikely to get a true superstar in return, through trade or free agency. They’re handcuffed by the market, and in return, are trying to handcuff the fans.

And the result is simply that both sides are tearing the Grizzlies apart, in what should be a hopeful time for them.

The NBA Gets Rich Off The Lakers While Small Market Teams Drown

December 10, 2009 in by with 9 Comments

The teams losing money in the last 12 months are the Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Charlotte Bobcats, New Jersey Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks.

Teams’ average operating income was $7.8 million, with the Lakers at the top with $51.1 million, just ahead of the Bulls at $51 million. Portland’s value has increased the most, by 10 percent, while the Kings and Grizzlies each have dropped the most, by 13 percent.

via Lakers most valuable NBA franchise, Forbes says – NBA – SI.com.

The headline of course talks about the Lakers, and how rich they are and how popular. At the bottom it talks about how they have over $44 million (think about that number for a sec) more in operating income than the average. Meanwhile, buried within the story is how the small market teams (I would term PDX, ORL, SAC, IND, CHA, MIN, NOH, MEM, and MIL as small market) are in the red. The league, quite simply, has to do something about this. And Nate Jones (a Lakers fan and someone with close ties to NBA business)  has strong feelings about what that something should be.  He emailed this on Thursday.

Honestly, revenue sharing amongst the teams is the only way to solve this damn thing. Read the section on the Grizzlies. The economics of the small market are going to force the NBA’s hand. You can’t make money simply relying on your small market with no chip in from the big markets. It’s insane that the Lakers get to keep all of their gate revenue. I mean, it takes two teams to play a game. They should be taking 30% of gate receipts off the top. Same with local television and radio deals. An organization like the Grizzlies can’t focus on making winning decisions when they know that they are going to lose no matter if they put a winning team on the floor or not. Short of a name superstar arriving there, that market will continue to fail them.

Now, Memphis is kind of a special deal, outlined in a decade of misery and failure, based primarily (according to the article below) on the failures of Heisley as an owner, a premise which Heisley of course vehemently disagrees with:

So the owners are left to grouse about what might have been. Cates says Memphis can support an NBA championship team just as well as San Antonio does. The cities are similar in size and income, and both have only one major league sports team. “They just do things right, and we don’t,” he says. The Spurs, however, were lucky to get two superstars in the draft lottery, David Robinson and Tim Duncan, setting the foundation for four NBA titles. Spurs owner Peter Holt has also kept his executive and coaching staffs stable.

via Memphis Blues – Forbes.com.

The NFL has an economic and competitive environment that exists for every fanbase to cheer passionately and financially support their team with the assumption that they have as good a chance of winning a title as anyone else. The NBA more or less treats teams outside of its major markets as fodder to feed to the big markets on a Sunday afternoon. The Lakers just happen to be the fattest cat. Why else do you see LA playing at home on a Sunday time after time, often on national television later in the year? Why do they keep getting smaller Western Conference contenders on a TNT late game with an opponent coming off a back-to-back? Did you see similar advantages during the Spurs’ run? This trickles down over to Orlando, and why SVG is probably not completely off-track in how the media perceives his team as second-rate, despite being the defending Eastern Conference champions. Hedo nailed a fall away three two years ago to beat the Celtics on the road, and the announcers seemed stunned. I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy which affects play. But I am saying that there is a business model for each player, a business model for each team, and a business model for the league. And the league’s model is best served by one dominant franchise.

Don’t get me wrong, Los Angeles doesn’t luck into this. They have a supportive ownership group dedicated to winning that has made smart moves in hires. Any other GM would have panicked and traded Kobe for the best he could get when he demanded a trade, and most GMs would have given up on Bynum. But Kupchak didn’t, and it’s worked out. I bet their marketing group is one of the best in the league, and while that’s certainly facilitated by having one of the best bandwagon fanbase opportunities in all of sports, the most money of any team in the league, and a gigantic market to pull from, it’s still a chicken and the egg question. Compare that to the Clippers, who are not bankrupt only because they operate in LA.

People ask me why I care. After all, the biggest spenders should get the most reward. But at the same time, teams that have the same effort, with fans that want it just as much (and don’t chant for tacos after showing up in the late second before leaving with time left), and hard-working people in their offices suffer because they simply don’t operate on a level playing field. Every team’s fans root for their team and watch other teams only as an opponent. But as someone who loves the game, loves the fans, and loves the league, this situation creates a disservice to everyone except the biggest markets that are able to capitalize on the advantages given.

And in these economic times, shouldn’t we be focusing on stopping the bleed, rather than selling burial plot space and using the money to hold a party?

*******

An aside on Heisley:

Is it stunning to anyone else how a man can know he’s constantly ridiculed by league insiders and the media, to be aware that the decisions he’s been involved in have not worked out (Iverson, Thabeet), and yet to constantly maintain that he’s right, and that he’ll prove people wrong, all the while making comments which do nothing but hurt the value of his club and his team like “Sometimes I sit back and wonder why I did it”?

I mean, throw out cliches, defer to your GM, deflect responsibility, but at least seem like you’re aware of reality.

The Grizzlies Are Hugging It Out

November 20, 2009 in by with 0 Comments

Fine, so the Memphis Grizzlies apparently had one of these meetings after the Houston debacle. Big deal, right?

But then they go out and beat (an admittedly depleted) Minnesota. Then they come in Wednesday night and play an utterly dominating game against the Clippers, leading wire-to-wire. Even though the victory came against a discombobulated Clipper team on the second night of a back-to-back roadie, the Grizzlies showed us some things we haven’t seen much of this season — Defense for one. Lots and LOTS of assists. Rudy hustling a bit on defense and not forcing (many) shots. Even Hasheem scored a couple of buckets and blocked a shot or two.

via What Goes On Behind Closed Doors | 3 Shades of Blue.

It’s sad that I’ve gotten to the point of openly rooting against this team because of their management.  I love watching Gasol play, he’s the best player on the team right now, OJAM’s going to break through a wall one of these games, and Rudy Gay had the most focused game I’ve seen from him, possibly ever, in the last game. Even Marcus Williams is playing well, and he’s a reclamation project. So really, it’s just Randolph.

You’ll notice a lack of Randolph quote in Chip Crain’s piece on the team meeting and how they talked about coming together as professionals. Maybe the quotes are out there and I haven’t seen them. And don’t get me wrong, Randolph is playing great this season. His assists have dropped off (two assists total in the two wins), but he’s two points from the vaunted 20 and 10 average.  And he’s the only starter anywhere close to positive plus/minus.

So why can’t I let it go? Is it just pride because of how much I hated them bringing in Randolph and Thabeet when they had Gasol? Mostly.  But I think a large part of it is that I see Randolph as a ceiling capper for them. He’s going to play well, they may even improve as a team. But they’re not going to come into their own as a unit, like OKC or Portland. It’s going to be “the young guys and Zach.” And since Randolph’s not likely to improve, there’s always going to be a limit on what they can accomplish. Tonight would be a huge step for them in making something relevant out of this win streak, even against depleted Philly. More on this, well, kind of, in this afternoon’s 15 footer.