The Grizzlies Are Still Afloat

by Chip Crain

The guy is a billionaire and still profits from his other businesses. Spending $100 million and only recouping $70 million of it back, resulting in a $30 million loss, shouldn't be THAT big of a deal.

These guys own sports teams like someone else might own a boat or something. It's not a necessity that they have to have. It's a status thing.
a post on the Grizzlies Message Board

That has to be one of the least informed opinions I have ever seen. Do people seriously believe that the owners in the NBA can swallow $30 million losses every year because they see the team like a boat?

No one is going to lose tens of millions of dollars every year and not want to do something to stop that trend. Michael Heisley is no different and he took moves this year to stop it from continuing along that path. Sure it will magnify pain in the short run but these moves had to be made to put the team in position to move forward in the future.

Owners in the NBA are extremely competitive personalities for the most part and they want to win. Michael Heisley wants to win too. The team he had at the end of Jerry West's tenure was not the team he wanted and so he decided to remake the team from the ground up. A lot of people, including some who write on this blog, were screaming for him to do this for years. The attitude was that Pau Gasol, Mike Miller and the others were never going to compete in the playoffs. Not because they couldn't be role players on championship teams but they could never lead a team there by themselves and having them in that role of leader was preventing the Grizzlies from getting the type of player who could.

Well Heisley saw the same thing. He decided, along with Chris Wallace and Marc Iavaroni, that the team needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. They decided to go with a youth movement which has its risks not the least of which is some years of struggling at the front end. Do people prefer he try to rebuild by spending up to the salary cap with players who will only make the team average at best?

Heisley understands that the fans have to be won back and that will take wins on the court. He said as much at the press conference welcoming Mayo and Arthur to the team. He wants to win in the worst way and when the time is right he will spend the money needed to get the right player to help put the team in a position to win it all. He's not interested in acquiring a player who will make us marginally better this season but not be in position to spend money on the right player at the right time.

No one knows how well the team will perform this season. Most likely they will struggle with so much youth on the team. However, if Antoine Walker takes hold of the PF position and plays like he wants to be in the NBA in 2010 then who knows?

A Suggestion to Micheal Heisley

by Chip Crain

I was reading Eric Musselman's blog (which I recommend all of our readers do as well) the other day and he mentioned an article in the New York Times. In the Talking Business section was the story "Leaving Boardroom for Skybox" and it was about Home Depot founder Arthur Blank and his travails as owner of the Atlanta Falcons.

Mr. Blank made two keen observations that I hope Mr. Heisley will take to heart as well. First, Mr. Blank made a clear distinction between the business side of the team and the sports operation side for lack of a better term. Mr. Blank associated well with the business side of the operations but has yet to make similar inroads on the field.

So how did Mr. Blank make the inroads on the business side? Quite simply he developed strong relationships with his associates (his word for employees) and then he listened to his clients (i.e. the fans). He took over a franchise that rarely sold out games and turned that around simply by conducting surveys of the fans, listening to what they wanted and expected and implemented changes to address those concerns. Notice that he didn't give lip service to them, he actively got involved to change what was wrong while maintaining what was done properly.

The result has been remarkable. The Falcons routinely sell out games now and actually have a waiting list for season tickets. He did this despite the Falcons failure to produce on the field. The team has only made the playoffs twice since Mr. Blank took over as owner. Last season the Falcons were one of the worst teams in the league.

Mr. Blank also looked at the team and quickly came to the conclusion that, while he may understand the business side of the franchise intuitively, the sports side was a totally different animal. He dabbled in coaching hires and the like but he recognized that he doesn't have the skills to determine what makes a good coach like he can determine what makes a good manager. They are different animals. He admitted to himself that he wouldn't have a clue about personnel decisions either. So he hired the best people he could to make those decisions and then let them do their thing. He didn't look over their shoulders or demand to be given the final word on any deal. He hired people he felt knew how to manage a team and let them do their job.

In contrast, Mr. Heisley has been getting more and more involved in the team decisions while seeming to lose interest in attempting to appease his clients. As he said in our interview:

I'm not so sure the professionals have that much more going for them than the fans have going. A lot of it really turns out to be luck. How many trades do you make that turns out horrible because the guy gets injured and he hardly ever plays for you?

Does that sound like someone who believes there is a difference between managing a business and managing a sports team? Does that sound like someone who doesn't believe he can do as well or better than the people he hired to do the job?

On the other side Heisley doesn't appear to be pushing the please the clients concept either. This season's Fan Advisory Board hasn't been selected yet despite camp beginning in less than three weeks so it is doubtful the board will have any effect on changing the fan experience this season. How much impact will the board have on this season if they won't even be selected as a group prior to the start of training camp? Services have been cut in the past and perks eliminated but has anyone done a survey to figure out how this was affecting the fan experience?

Last season the team opened up the parking garage for anyone. Club or better level season ticket holders used to be the only one's allowed to park there. Did anyone survey the season ticket holders who were denied the opportunity to buy those spaces to see how they felt about it? Did anyone ask the people who pre-paid for the right to park in the covered lot how it felt to suddenly be forced to park on the roof in the rain because their normal spots were taken? Aren't those people the exact ones the team is lamenting losing lately?

So Mr. Heisley, please pay attention to the owners who have been successful and pay more attention to your clients and less on the basketball operations. You have hired Chris Wallace and Marc Iavaroni. Now is the time to let them make the decisions that you hired them to make. Focus on the fans who are your clients. Make them feel like you care. Ask for their ideas and then implement the ones that are feasible.

It is just one person's opinion, but I think it is valid.

Michael Heisley Tells It Like It Is - Part Five

This the continuation of the interview 3 Shades Of Blue had with Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley on Friday, April 4th before the Chalk Talk. Due to the length of the interview it is being presented in sections to make it easier to read. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 were posted earlier.

3 Shades of Blue appreciates Mr. Heisley taking the time to do this interview.

3SOB: If I can interject and respectfully disagree with you on one thing, people didn't feel you were an idiot for the Shane Battier trade, they just hated to see him go. Now the Pau Gasol trade is a little harder for people to understand but even now many people feel that we couldn't get there with Pau Gasol and that maybe we could have gotten more but the best thing to help you...
MH: I wish someone could tell me what could I have gotten for Pau. See that's what always gets me. Everybody assumes that we started off with the idea to get money and not to get players. Do you know how long we tried to get quality players?

3SOB: That's what we read...
MH: We had discussions for months with Chicago, who were interested in Pau Gasol, but they refused to trade any of the players they considered their core, namely, Deng, Gordon or Hinrich. They offered Nocioni, who we felt was not fair value. I wouldn’t trade Pau Gasol for Nocioni. Later on, we offered to try to put together a trade similar to what we did with LA, but the Bulls were not interested because it would put them in the Luxury Tax.

What I don’t understand, I when I was on a couple of talk shows in Memphis, I listened to callers and read the papers. A number of them were urging us to trade Gasol. They said he’s got the wrong attitude, he doesn’t like it here, take what you can get for him. I’m not upset about this, but I knew this would happen. When we made the trade, a number of these people were saying oh my God, why did you do this?

You can't make the trades people want to make because. #1 it's very complex to make a trade in the NBA; #2 the people don't know everything there is to know about it. We don't either, but at least we know more than the average person knows. I hear friends who know if this guy is a problem in the locker room. Some players get traded because there are locker room problems. People say why would you make that trade? Well it's because the guy is making it almost impossible for the coach to coach the team. You're better off getting rid of him and taking someone else and let him take his problems with him. Now maybe he goes to the next location and he turns over a new leaf. Maybe he becomes motivated to do different and everybody says what a stupid trade that was. It might be, but if you were sitting where the coach was sitting and this guy was threatening to beat up people in the locker room, it isn't such a bad trade.

3SOB: I was going to say that when Popovich came out and said he didn't like the Gasol trade but hadn't made a better offer it really took some heat off of the team. A lot of people went wait a minute. You didn't know Pau Gasol was on the blocks or you just didn't offer enough yourself?
MH: He was just upset. He felt we sent him there and got nothing back. Can I tell you something. Popovich does not have a player on his payroll that can do for us what Kwame Brown can do.

3SOB: $9 million dollars in cap space.
MH: Exactly. Kwame was the largest contract offered to us who was coming off the payroll.

3SOB: You're maybe the first owner to allow himself to be interviewed by a true blogger outside of Mark Cuban. Mark also was reported to give you some advice about not listening only to the basketball minds, you touched on this earlier, but to do what your heart and mind tells you is best. Are you following Mark's lead in how to connect with fans or is this a coincidence?
MH:No. I am just talking to you because Stan talked to you, he read your blog and he thought it would be a good idea . . . I would like to communicate more. I will say this to you. I will not be answering any more e-mails.

3SOB: Yeah, we heard about that from Ron Tillery today.
MH: Well that's true. I'm not going to be doing that. I feel that was pretty reprehensible. I only answered about 10. All 9 of them before the people took it between me and them. None of them went public with my comments. They wrote me back thanking me for the comments because I took them at face value. This young man, whoever he is, took it immediately to the news media. He was obviously not interested in having a discussion like he had portrayed in the email and have a real conversation with me like a telephone conversation. It was almost like he taped the conversation and sent the tape out to all of his friends. It was like his purpose was to get me on tape.

I guess I learned something from that. I guess I should have known it before. I was pretty naive to think he would keep that between him and me. Quite honestly if I had wanted that to go to the media I would have sat Down and had a media review for that. I would have basically portrayed it in a way that was meant to go out to a lot of people. I wouldn't have made it so personal, like you said this and I said this back to you. So I will have to tell from all of the things that have happened in the news that is probably the one that touched me the worst. I really was very disappointed that the guy did that.

They have every right to do it. Don't get me wrong. I mean it's just that now all of sudden people who would have written me emails won't get written back and that is sad. Mark Cuban may be like that. Mark does Dancing with the Stars and things like that. He does that fantasy thing. I love Mark Cuban. When Mark Cuban wasn't so popular, when he first came into the league, Mark will tell you his strongest supporter in the NBA was me. I defended him. Well not defended him per se but basically supported him. I think he is the prototype of what a good owner should be in the NBA. I've said so many times in the press.

It would be a blessing for Memphis to have a Mark Cuban and I'm sorry they don't. It seems to me that he and the Malouf Brothers are the perfect type owners. They are owners that are there. They interact with the fans. They're demonstrative. I come from a different era. Mark is the age of some of my youngest children. He's someone who came from a different world just like my father came from a different world than me. When I grew up sportsmanship trophies were very important. Sportsmanship trophies now are sort of for wusses. I mean literally you would almost be embarrassed to get a sportsmanship trophy. Trash talking and so on is the way. It doesn't mean trash talking is bad, it's just from a different time and a different era.

I was stunned, I can't tell you how surprised I was after I bought the Grizzlies they wanted me to walk into a room to meet the press. I walked into this room that wasn't that big - about four times the size of a conference room maybe a little bigger - and there were 75-100 people in that room. There were cameras and lights and the lights hit me and I said Oh ****! Happy Birthday! I'm sitting there and I could not believe it—my wife was absolutely appalled because we have a very low profile. We're from a small town called St. Charles. When the [Vancouver] Sun called up to find out something about me they went to a newspaper that was in our town, a small paper controlled by the Chicago Sun Times. Well the Sun-Times called our little paper in St. Charles and they asked them who Mike Heisley was and were told we don't know who he is and St Charles has 17,000 people. Then they called the mayor and I just happened to be on a school board with her and she told the press who I was, but she didn't know a lot about me either.

Now all of a sudden that life is gone and my wife will never forgive me. I'm not kidding. So the reality is I'm a different person. I'm not Mark. He answers all the emails. He likes that. He likes to get on and interact. I'm doing my best to try and communicate. I'm trying my best to communicate with the fans and let them know what is going on. Maybe this is the right move. Maybe after meeting with you I will realize that was a mistake. I have no idea how this is going to come out. It could come out fine. It could turn out to be a disaster.

I've been very blunt. I try to be very blunt with everyone of the news reporters. Any time Calkins calls me he gets a telephone call back. I do my best. He doesn't call me all that often. Sam Smith, who wrote about me in Chicago more than I got written about in Memphis for a while—he never once picked up the phone to call me and ask whether or not what he was about to say was accurate or not. Why? Because I might tell him that it's not the truth. Then he may be obligated to look further or not print it. That's not what they want to do. They want to print the story that they've gone to their publisher and gotten approved. Otherwise get the story. That's the way it works. If you got the story why do you want to call me? Better to say sources said this and sources said that. If you went to the source and he said it was bull**** then you have a bunch of problems.

3SOB: I assume Mitch Lawrence falls into the same category.
MH: Who?

3SOB: Mitch Lawrence wrote an article saying you were interviewing other people for a coaching position.
MH: Who's Mitch Lawrence? I've never heard of the guy. He said I said that to him?

3SOB: No. He said he had been told by 'sources' that this is what you were doing.
MH: Sure he's told. Who's he told by? They never tell you that. Who's the source? You know what. You can write in your thing and it fits it that I said I wasn't moving the team.

3SOB: The Vancouver paper.
MH: That's right and that's the source so what do you do about it? It's like someone told me that with the internet now. It's like the prosecutors today that go out and talk about things and destroy a person's reputation. It doesn't go away tomorrow. It's with you the rest of your life because someone writes a story and he looks it up and he's got yours and he's got the guy in Vancouver. So how do I get rid of it? Say it 50 times? My only point is that guy I never talked to in my life.

Obviously if I was going to go out and say something. Have I ever talked to Larry Brown? Twice in my whole life. Did I seriously consider him the last time I looked? He was. Have I ever offered him a job? No. So that's where I am. If I'm out doing this, have I ever told Marc Iavaroni he won't have his job next year? No. Have I ever told him he is going to have his job next year? No. I don't know what to tell people. I'm looking and evaluating Marc Iavaroni over the job he's doing. Everybody here seems to be talking with their pocketbook. They aren't showing up at the games. Why? Because the team's not doing very well. So what does that mean? Who's responsible? I don't know how to handle that.

I will evaluate Marc. I will evaluate my options. I'll do what I think is best for the team but I have not even addressed that issue. And I would be a nitwit to address it before the seasons over. And that's what I've told everyone until I'm horse. I can't say it anymore. Isn't it interesting if he has a source why didn't he pick up the phone and call me? I'm the ultimate source. I'm the guy who supposedly will make the offer. Why didn't he call me? I guess he called Larry although I doubt it. You'd think instead of sources he'd say Larry Brown. That'd be better wouldn't it?

Now don't make it come across that I'm angry with the system because I'm not. It's just been an education for me. The biggest education with me is the dealings with the press.

3SOB: How do you view the first seven years in Memphis? Is it a success or a failure or somewhere in between?
MH: I think based on what I'm talking about and you need to talk to more people but based on the opportunity to do good I think it's been an outstanding success. It's the thing I'm proudest of. It's the thing that was the most important thing to me.

Obviously how would I view our performance as a basketball team? I think it's been pretty good. I think we took a franchise that never won more than 21 games in a season and put them in the playoffs three years in a row. If you measure it on how we've done building up a fan base I'd say it's not very good. To me a fan base stays with you in good years and bad years and you always lose a portion of that fan base. I think we've lost a lot more than I would have hoped for. I would be less than honest to tell you I'm not disappointed to be in a situation where sometimes we draw 4,000 fans.

3SOB: Last question. Ron Tillery wrote today that you were truthful in your email about Coach Iavaroni but you wish you hadn't responded. Now that you are done with this interview do you feel the same way?
MH: I don't know. I haven't seen what the blog is going to write about. If the tenor that I tried to put across comes across then Id say okay it's been a success. Would I do another blog? I may. If it turns out terrible for the franchise or causes problems, not because you wrote it but from the news media or the league calls me or something happens, then obviously that's different but right now I feel I made up my mind if I was going to meet with you, I was going to try and tell you to the best I could the answer to your questions. I told you if I've got something I don't want to talk about I won't.

I hope the tenor isn't that I had a battle going on with the minority shareholders, not for any other reason than they are good people. If you meet good people and you end up in some way at odds with them, and you don't know why, it isn't a very satisfying situation. That's the way I feel about the minority shareholders.

I would hope, I feel comfortable in some ways that we still have a relationship. My reaction is I think they do fantastic things for the city and I'm not just trying to color it. I really mean it. I feel proud to be associated with them because the thing that means the most to me they did the most. They showed me what a real good philanthropic citizen really is. Both of them are really special and I never met anyone who are more generous and involved in my life than these two guys. That's the truth. That doesn't make me and them great partners. I have always felt a little uncomfortable because they take such a back row. They don't want to get out front and yet they do so much for the Grizzlies foundation that they are truly what makes it a success. We would not be anywhere near as successful if it hadn't been for them.

If they don't buy the team, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. The idea that I'm suddenly going to do something to the team if they don't buy it, I just don't understand that.

When I talked about bringing Jerry West to Memphis people asked why Jerry West would leave Los Angeles to come to Memphis. I said have you ever lived in Los Angeles because I did. Do you know how long it takes to get to the airport? It takes you like an hour and a half. You know how long it takes you in Memphis? 15 minutes. Memphis rush hour has less traffic than Los Angeles Ventura Freeway has at 3 o'clock in the morning.

I mean it's a different way of life. If you are a hunter or a fisherman and come from West Virginia where do you want to be? Do you want to be on a quarter acre lot in Beverly Hills or do you want to live someplace where you can go with friends and go hunting and fishing down in Mississippi down on a plantation? I just don't understand why people thought Jerry wouldn’t love Memphis.

Then I finally realized that there is just a bad self-image or something. I don't know what the hell it is. I like Memphis. If my wife would move here, I would move here. I like the community. I really do. I don't understand why people think I've got to pack it up and move it out of here. For the health of a franchise its important for you to win games, but you also have to be financially responsible. Nobody over the long run is going to sit here and drop hundreds of millions of dollars into a losing franchise. I've got to get this thing in line with what people are going to support but we can do that and we can have a good team and we can get a break and actually have a championship team.

Is it harder here than in Chicago. You bet your ass it's harder to build a championship team here because there you can take more risks and you can spend more money because you have more support what people don't understand is all of that revolves around the athletes. They want to play before 15,000 people.

So we've got to build a fan base, we've got to have a payroll that's balanced with the size of a market until hopefully at some point the league gets revenue sharing and puts us on even footing with some of the others. As it is right now I've got to be more fiscally responsible. Does that mean I won't go after free agents? No it does not but it does mean there are free agents out there I can't compete with Chicago for.

I really do believe we can have a good franchise here.

Mr. Heisley and I chatted about some other things while he waited to go to the chalk talk. That was when I saw, really for the first time during the two hours we spent together, the fan Mr. Heisley tells us he is. I wish more people could spend time with that man. To hear him describe the joy he felt watching the Grizzlies fourth quarter rally against the Hawks the other night. To hear him relate the pain he felt during game 3 of the Mavs series and the frustration he felt watching the Clippers be rewarded for throwing games at the end of the 2005 season while Memphis was punished for doing the right things. That man would really turn some heads and get people wanting to be a part of his vision. Mr. Heisley the business man doesn't really create a lot of empathy. Mike Heisley the fan is someone you could be sitting next to at a bar and strike up a conversation with.

And remember that Mr. Heisley the businessman has been pretty successful turning things around. I wouldn't bet against him turning things around again.

I really do appreciate the time he spent with me and I hope the Grizzlies fans who read our blog enjoy the interview as well.

Michael Heisley Tells It Like It Is - Part Four

This the continuation of the interview 3 Shades Of Blue had with Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley on Friday, April 4th before the Chalk Talk. Due to the length of the interview it is being presented in sections to make it easier to read. Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 were posted earlier.

3 Shades of Blue appreciates Mr. Heisley taking the time to do this interview.

3SOB: The Grizzlies moved from Vancouver to Memphis. You are now hearing the same story coming out of Seattle moving to Oklahoma City. Do you see any benefits for Memphis in a move like this? Do you see any parallels to what you went though?
MH: My take is simply this. What people don't understand is the way professional sports has evolved in America. There is an idea that on certain levels teams are making pretty good money, but in general in places like Seattle, it becomes essential that you have an arena that has the amenities like skyboxes, restaurants and all these things. The other teams that started this, like Jerry Jones in Dallas, have created ways to create revenue streams. Those revenue streams bring more money into the team which gives them the financial wherewithal to put money back into the team.

I think that Seattle's Key Arena was an old arena. Old by the standards of today. It's like the Pyramid is an old arena. Why was the Pyramid an old arena? Well virtually no skyboxes, one level of amenities, there were things about it that didn't meet the NBA standards. You couldn't generate the revenue that you can out of the FedEx Forum. Now depending on where your market is and what your revenues are you can afford to build one yourself or if you don't have much revenue you have to look for help from the local communities.

I think the situation in Seattle was Shultz, the man who was the controlling owner of the Seattle Sonics, basically sold out because he was losing money and he didn't want to continue to lose money. I think the new ownership that came in, well everyone said they are going to move the team to Oklahoma City. Seattle had the ability to build a new stadium but the city and state decided not to do it. Now there is nothing wrong with that. If I was there maybe I would have said don't do it but then there is nothing wrong...what I don't understand is why then if there is a feeling the state isn't going to do what's got to be done, why is it bad for the person to get up and go to a market that will do what this state won't do? If somebody wants to stand up and help cover my losses then you may move.

Now we came here, we made a commitment to the city and our relationship is nothing like that. We have a contractual commitment to be here for a number of years. No matter what. That's the commitment. And we are going to be here. And nobody has even intimated that we are going to do anything any differently. Do I believe we can be successful in Memphis? Yes. Do I think it's going to be hard? Yeah. When I say successful I mean financially successful. In a small market that means you have to be luckier and better than what somebody does in Chicago. They got 8.5 million people and we got 800,000 people.

So it is a different situation from what the people did up there. So what happened there is the guy from Oklahoma City had demonstrated that they had a lot of interest from Oklahoma City for a professional team. He had gone up there and bought the team. If Seattle and Washington state had agreed to at least build a stadium then they wouldn't have gotten the rights to move out. David Stern went up there and the owners weren't given carte blanche to move. He went up there and said we respect this is your team, this is your city but you have to provide what other cities have done. They chose not to do it so the NBA told the owners they could move. He is now in the process of moving. I don't think that Seattle did anything wrong but now you have people running around Seattle saying can’t you move your team? Any team that goes up there is going to have to get an arena built.

It's just like Cleveland. if you know years ago the Browns were in Cleveland. Cleveland refused to build a stadium for them. So the Browns moved to Baltimore. Immediately Cleveland was incensed and the NFL gave them another team back. Here's what they did. They went out and built a new baseball stadium, a new football stadium and a new basketball arena and they revamped the whole downtown area of Cleveland and it is fantastic. It doesn't even look like anything it was before.

I'm not recommending people do it. I'm simply saying that is the way finances work in professional sports; we could never have come to Memphis without this arena. We would not be here. We would not have moved here if they hadn't committed. Not because I am trying to steal people's money. I put more money into this move to Memphis than the state and city have put in together. Moving the team here has a cost, the cash flow necessary to get the team established, etc., etc.

People say well they built you an arena. Well they didn't have to build me an arena. There were three other cities willing to build me an arena. I'm not trying to be arrogant. I'm just trying to be factual. If you want a professional sports team you have to have either the population, like Rich Daley, Mayor of Chicago. You know what he told the Chicago Bears. I love him. The Chicago Bears said they wanted a new stadium. Rich Daley says you can't have it. You're going to play in Soldiers Field. They said we're going to move to Addison, IL. Richard Daley said move to Addison. There will be another team that wants to move into Chicago with 8.5 million people and he was right. Guess where they went. They went to Soldiers Field. They didn't have to build him a stadium. They didn't have to because they had a population base that made it so the McCaskey's could make money and still help build the arena.

If I had somebody that could come in here and say to me the State and the City will come in here and guarantee you 18,000 people every night, I would have built this arena and I would be way ahead. But nobody wants to hear this stuff. Now I don't expect you to get all of this stuff out and I'm not doing this because of that. I told you I would talk to you and I've given you a broad outline. I'm going to be interested as hell to see what becomes of this.

To be continued...

Michael Heisley Tells It Like It Is - Part Three

This the continuation of the interview 3 Shades Of Blue had with Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley on Friday, April 4th before the Chalk Talk. Due to the length of the interview it is being presented in sections to make it easier to read. Part 1 and Part 2 were posted earlier. Part 4 is up now as well.

3 Shades of Blue appreciates Mr. Heisley taking the time to do this interview.

3SOB: Moving away from the business side for a moment, you made some incredibly nice comments about Pau after the trade. One thing in particular I remember was your saying you were really glad that you could trade him to a team that was competing and could appreciate his skills. Pau came out 3 or 4 days ago and said some particularly disparaging remarks about the team. How did that make you feel?
MH: Well it doesn't make me mad. You see I realize who made the comments. I don't expect Pau to be a general manager. He's just a player. I think he speaks from his experience. His experience was with a world champion with Spain. He was the Olympics champion with Spain (sic). He'd won championships and he came here with a team that basically never made a charge at winning the championship.

And that happens to people. Charles Barkley never won a championship. So I think his point of view is that it is a lot easier for Los Angeles to win the championship than it is in Memphis. You know what. He is absolutely correct. You know what. It is a lot easier. They can afford to go into the luxury tax. Pau could cost them, if they don't cut some other players, $30 million next year because of the luxury tax, but they can do that. So my point is that I think Pau's viewpoint is one that he isn't right. New Orleans is a prime example of that. Cleveland is a prime example. If we got LeBron James, if we got one turn of the ping pong ball, we would have had LeBron James. We wouldn't be seeing 4000 people in the stands. We'd be seeing sold out crowds. When I looked at buying the Vancouver Grizzlies, the Cleveland Cavaliers were for sale and they had 70% of their skyboxes empty. They were having 3-4000 fans in the stands. When they got LeBron James they started selling out the arena and went all the way to the NBA Championship. That's what one player, and in this game with its dispersion of talent across being such a huge thing, that one player can make so much of a difference.

We've never been successful at getting the #1 pick although we've been one of the worst teams for years. It's crazy this system they have. It isn't just that we didn't get it last year. I mean what is the sense of it? It's devastating to a team, the worst team in the league, and all of a sudden you have a chance to get a player like Oden, who everybody says is going to be an impact player in the league and something happens and they are picking 4th instead of picking 1st.

And if you go around and ask fans they assume that if you have the worst record you will get the first pick. And why? Because the NFL does it. Major League Baseball does it. I mean that is the way it generally works. If luck were to come to us which is what we're hoping for we might be 5th. I did a statistical study of every year and every team and where they picked and what happened and position 5 has gotten twice as many top 2 picks as position 1. So we're in position 5! So I don't know. Are we going to have a chance? Knowing our luck we'll probably end up in position 8.

So I don't agree with Pau. Am I upset with Pau? He is a wonderful person. It never gets reported but Pau's mother does volunteer work at St. Jude's Hospital since she was here. They've been active people in the community. They're wonderful people. Pau never gave us a bit of trouble. The worst thing he ever did to people, sometimes criticized by people for playing for Spain. I was the guy who was killed with it. I was paying him when he wasn't playing but a lot of people were upset that 'Pau was injured and didn't play and then asked to be traded.' Nobody was in the room. How could the guy insist it? I never said it. I don't know how people got that, but someone went and talked to some reporter and the reporter put it in the paper and they put it in that Pau's asking to be traded. That's not what happened. Pau said if I get traded would you trade me to a championship team?

Did I try to trade him to a championship team? I tried to trade him to the best team for us. Was I happy he went to LA? I was ecstatic. Why? I was going to get the best deal for me, but at the same time if I could do something for a young man, an outstanding individual who never did anything but the best he could for the Grizzlies, I was happy for him too. That's the whole net end of it. I didn't trade him to take care of Pau. I didn't trade him because the fans were down on him. I traded him because the coach, the General Manager, all of us, sat down and we said we're not going to get there with this team. We're going to have to break this team up, try to start from the ground up and build a team. Pau is young. He's 27 but I can't get there in two years I didn't think and therefore Pau, who is injury prone and so on. So the point was now was the time to basically trade him and get value for him. Young value.

All of these coaches around the league - they all knew, they read it in the paper, everyone knew he was on the block - none of them stepped up. Then we went to Chicago. We tried to trade for dollar by getting an expiring contract. They didn't want to go into the luxury tax. Then we went to LA. They were willing to do it. So we traded him to LA.

Everybody thinks how can Heisley be so stupid. The point is we're trying to make this work. Will it work? If it does somebody is going to be writing about me like I am a genius. If it fails they are going to be basically beating me up.

That's what it means to be a sports fan. I am a fan and a fan buys tickets or they watch on TV. Part of being a fan is being able to bitch about everything. What makes it so interesting is that every fan including me truly believes they could be the General Manager. Otherwise we wouldn't have fantasy leagues. They really truly believe they can do this. They know who you should draft. They know who you should play. They know who you should trade for right now but the interesting thing is when they make a pick and it is an absolutely horrible idea and it turns out if you had done it would have been a disaster you never hear of it again.

Let me tell you, I'm not so sure the professionals have that much more going for them than the fans have going. A lot of it really turns out to be luck. How many trades do you make that turns out horrible because the guy gets injured and he hardly ever plays for you? How many trades do you get where the guy goes out or beats his wife or basically gets thrown in jail or something or gets suspended from the league. There's so much that goes into this thing and so much mystery involved, that's what makes it so exciting. And that's why playing fantasy basketball has so much appeal to the common man.

3SOB: This kind of goes along with what we've been talking about. Some of these questions actually come straight off the Grizzlies message board from people who couldn't be at your Chalk Talk tonight. Are the Grizzlies going to attempt to bring in a young established player to let the fan base know you are serious about competing in the Western Conference? I know you can't promise to sign someone but are there players out there you are going to be trying to go after?
MH: I don't know if you will be hearing about them or not. I don't know. My answer to you is we're going to try and put this program together. You've got the General Manager, myself, the coaches, we're going to look at it and try to do the best thing. Does that mean we are going to be guided by fiscal responsibility? Yes we are. I don't mean that this is going to be the defining motive but I tell you, I am not going to get myself into the luxury tax or something like that down the pike. I am going to try and have a plan that is laid out that we're looking at: what do we need. How do we fit in. A lot of that is going to be told by how we do in the draft.

So the point is I don't know where we will be after the draft. I don't know who is going to be available. So I don't know what you will be hearing. If you hear a lot of stuff out there I would hope my people are smart enough to be like [Jerry] Krause was in Chicago and that is nobody knew who he was going to draft, nobody knew he wanted to trade for until he did it. And the reason wasn't that he hated the press. It was that it made him a more effective general manager. I would think that's the way we hope we could be. I don't want people to know who I'm trying to get and I don't want people to know who I'm trying to draft because that might send someone to do something I don't want them to do. In the past, and I don't know it we will be do that, too much information went out of this place as to what we were going to do.

Since I am going to have something to do about a deal, if you hear something, then I would say to you probably got partial information because I tell you I'm not going to be telling anybody. So my answer is I can't really tell them because I'm not quite sure what will happen in the draft and who's going to be available. We're going to try and run this team and build a championship team that is going to take us in my opinion 3-5 years.

3SOB: Kind of along this same line here, are you willing to spend $9 million or more on a free agent this summer or in the future?
MH: I don't know. I tell you what. If they give me a superstar for $9 million I'll take it. You think I'm kidding. Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? My point is that's the problem in these situations. The question isn't am I willing to make a $9 million investment. The question is will I make an intelligent business decision. Am I willing to pay $9 million for a Joe Baknickknack. No way! Do they think Joe Baknickknack is a superstar? Maybe. I don't know but I'm going to basically do the best thing I can do.

If I get a superstar player, you know I said 3-5 years, hell I might be able to get there in 2 years. I might be willing to do what I said I wouldn't do and get an older player so everything changes depending on what the opportunity is. I'm going to tell you point blank we are going to be fiscally responsible. Let me just make a point to you. At our average ticket price, somebody with a $12 million dollar salary I have to sell almost 5000 seats to every game to pay for his salary. People don't look at it that way. You have to put 5000 people in the stands EVERY NIGHT to make it worthwhile. People will say well there are people out there who do this. Well there aren't many people out there selling 4, 6, 8000 season tickets a night going out running into the luxury tax.

No one should ever assume that I didn't pay and didn't make the effort, and may also make the effort into the future to basically build this team by spending money. Because that is never been an issue. Jerry West will look you in the eye and tell you he was never turned down once on the issue of money. Not once. And we basically had at one time the 4th highest payroll in the league. That's something to say for one of the smallest markets with the 4th highest payroll in the NBA. We were trying to get there. We didn't get there by making mistakes. We didn't get to where we are today because when we tried to cut that salary back some of the guys got older. Some were from bad trades. Quite honestly we tried to go forward.

We traded Battier to try and get Rudy Gay in. When we first did it people said it was the worst trade. People in Memphis wanted to lynch me. I loved Shane Battier. I think he is one of the most outstanding guys. When my son and I interviewed him my son asked me what I thought and I said if he wasn't a basketball player I would put him in charge of one of my smaller companies. That's the kind of leadership guy he is. So no one had to tell me who he was. We had a great relationship. We made decisions to try and improve the team because Jerry felt Rudy Gay was an outstanding opportunity. We brought him in and in the first year he was very young. Rudy didn't catch on right away and everyone thought it was the worst mistake. I'm not so sure people don't feel different right now and next year or the year after people might think they like him even more.

Notice I take the ones who turn out good. I can also take the ones who turned out pretty bad...

3SOB: I'm not going to ask this next question...
MH: Why? What is it?

3SOB: Well, how are decisions being made now in the front office? Is Chris Wallace wielding the same influence Jerry West was rumored to have? Does Jerry West still have any influence?
MH: Jerry West is a good friend of mine. Obviously, I talk to him all the time. Obviously Jerry gives me his opinion. Obviously I listen to him some because he is a bright guy but Jerry West is not actively involved. He doesn't call me and tell me what he thinks I ought to do. In the course of playing golf together or something he may say something.

Chris Wallace is the General Manager. Chris Wallace is responsible for putting together ideas and so on. As opposed to when Jerry was here, I do take basically either approve or disapprove the decisions going forward involving the team. I am more involved. I don't necessarily come up with the trades. I do basically look at the trades. I can't say I can think of anything that Chris has wanted to do that we have turned down. Most of the player moves and trades it has been Chris that put it together. I did not call LA for example.

To be continued...

Michael Heisley Tells It Like It Is - Part Two

This the continuation of the interview 3 Shades Of Blue had with Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley on Friday, April 4th before the Chalk Talk. Due to the length of the interview it is being presented in sections to make it easier to read. Part 1 was posted on Monday. Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 will be linked as soon as they are released.

3 Shades of Blue appreciates Mr. Heisley taking the time to do this interview.

3SOB: Going back to the business side, many times you have stated your intent on selling the team at some point in the future. What do you see as an exit strategy?
MH: Let me try...see I got one thing I want to discuss with you. See there is a problem with me and some reporters and from your background it is especially a problem for me but I’ll get back to that later.

We made a concerted effort to sell the team when we went out about two years ago and we hired Credit Suisse and a sports marketing group to market the team and there were people brought to us. That’s how we ended up with two or three people looking at the team. When that didn’t go forward I said to Memphis people right here in a chalk talk that I’m not going to be part of any effort to sell the team. I’m not going to hire somebody to sell the team and so on. But I’m very, very honest. I’m not going to sit here and tell you we’re not going to sell the team. And then six months from now have somebody walk in and offer me a satisfactory price for the team and take it and everyone will say you know You’re a liar. That statement really sort of gets to me pretty quickly.

So that’s what I told them. That’s exactly what happened. We’ve had people call up and I give their names to Stan (Meadows). We’re not interested in entering into any kick the tires situation. If somebody comes up and makes a legitimate offer to us we will take the legitimate offer and that’s what I said.

Why would I do that? Number one because I think that Memphis would be better off with an ownership that is local. That doesn’t mean you have to come from local but they’re here. They are gonna move here, they’re gonna live here, they are here and in this office on a daily basis. Okay? I think it would be better for the franchise. I’ve done pretty much what I can pretty well do. November 14th two years ago the New York Times wrote an article entitled “A basketball Team in a League of their Own.” They basically identified that we were the largest philanthropic sports team in America. That never even made a blip in the Memphis papers. Big enough to get in the New York papers but it didn’t get in the Memphis papers.

I was very proud of that. I was much more proud of that then getting into the playoffs. That is what drove me. I love basketball. I love the Bulls. Though I own the Memphis Grizzlies, I love the Bulls. I watch every game. I have season tickets and so on and so forth. I still have season tickets on the floor. I use it primarily like I do the Cubs tickets, for business, employees use it, but I still support the Chicago Bulls.

I felt as I got to be much more successful in my life I could do some philanthropic work and when I first got in it. My daughter, my youngest daughter, I talked into getting a graduate degree in that and we started a foundation and I found out it isn’t an easy thing to do, finding the right places for the money. A lot of people want money but that doesn’t mean you are doing anything with it to help anything. So it’s not that easy and I thought, being around the Bulls, people love to be involved with in projects with sports teams. America is a sport team society and if I could bring a sports team into a city and really make a difference I would.

That gets me to one of those things that came out in one of your blogs about what I said to the people in Vancouver and what I didn’t say. Now I’m a big boy and I realize that about 20% of what gets quoted in the news media is accurate, 50% is somewhat accurate and about 30-40% is downright [worthless]. The reality is I never promised the people of Vancouver I wouldn’t move. The news media kept asking and I kept saying I have no plans to move. I have no intentions of moving unless it becomes obvious it won’t work out here and then they said how long is that going to be and I said I can’t give you a time. I don’t know. Then they said what do you mean and I said when I get to the point that I am convinced this franchise is not going to be viable in Vancouver then I am going to move it. That’s what you’ll never find in records if you go back you may find that somewhere in the Vancouver Sun I said that when I announced I was going to make a move.

The big mistake I made was long in advance I told the people in Vancouver I had gotten to that point. If I had been smart I would have just shut my mouth up and gone on and done everything and when I was ready to move gone in and told everyone. What I told people is when I made up my mind I would let them know. So I brought the press there and that is exactly what I said to them. That was history okay.

And I moved and the reason I moved was Vancouver took the team there. They went to David Stern and they had a thing called Save the Grizzlies. They made a commitment to the NBA and that is the reason that David Stern let us move. They were to bring in so many thousand of tickets, season ticket holders. The reality is they brought in 100. The season ticket dropped about 1500 season ticket holders and they were projected to drop even further. I had a much worse financial situation. I was paying $6 million a year to rent the arena. I didn't have any sky boxes. I didn't have any revenue from the concessions. I had no parking revenue. So I lost over $50 million in the first year.

So I offered to sell to local owners if they promised to stay in Vancouver. Several parties looked at the books. No one made an offer so this story about my moving after I promised not to move thing is just pure bull.

What really bothers me is all of a sudden people in the news media, and you in a way are a part of the news media, basically take a statement that was made either intentionally in error or just in error and then it becomes part of your life for ever more because all anyone has to do is pick up the newspaper on the internet and it says that Mike Heisley made a commitment to the people of Vancouver. I fought that battle in Vancouver for 3 months when I was leaving. Nobody ever produced a clip or a statement that I said I was going to do that other than a reporter just put it down. A reporter just put it in the papers, and everybody believed it.

3SOB: That is how I got the comment.
MH: Absolutely, that is how everyone gets it. And I'll tell you the second thing you put in there. You said that I said that Pitt Hyde and [the local owners] did not make an offer and then Pitt Hyde [and the local owners] said I am going to improve my offer. #1 those two statements were made at two totally different times. Pitt Hyde, what started it was, Geoff (Calkins) reported that the local owners had made an offer and the local owners had not made an offer. About a month later I said 'I have no offer from the local owners' and that got put in the paper. Ron Tillery put it in the paper. When Pitt Hyde said he made me an offer, and I am not going to discuss it but I will tell you, when Pitt Hyde made me an offer it was at a later date.

The second thing is, with your background in business, you should know that any comment like I have made an offer is not definitive. For instance, if someone came to you and said I want to buy your team, I want an exclusive for 6 months and this is the thing. I am going to go out and try to raise the money. Is that an offer or not?

3SOB: Well, you are talking about the Brian Davis situation...
MH: No I am not talking about Brian Davis. He did do that. I am just asking you is that an offer or is that not an offer? Okay, the 2nd thing I got was if someone said I offered you a price and then with that price they had 5 things that would reduce the price what is the price of the offer?

3SOB: The real price would be the reduced price.
MH: Right but you don't know what that price is. You don't know if there was a real offer or if someone wanted to be given an option for 6 months while they try to put the deal together.

3SOB: So what you're saying is...
MH: No. I am not saying a damn thing. I am just saying to you since you don't know any of this you don't know if we acted on that offer in good faith or that we didn't act on that offer in good faith. There is nothing wrong with people making an offer that has all of those things but if the news media wants to put the biggest price they can in it then they put the biggest price they can in the article. And if someone says they made an offer the easiest thing for a reporter to do is say can I see a piece of paper that showed what that offer was. Otherwise I don't think you are really qualified to say if an offer was made or what the offer was. My point is nobody's ever bothered to do any of that stuff. I'm not going to tell you what the transactions are between me and the local owners.I'm just saying that nobody knows what those transactions are and as I said in my responses to the newspaper media it is a private discussion between two parties.

I put together between 50 and 75 deals in my life. None of them got negotiated in the newspaper. None of them will ever get negotiated in the newspaper. Not that I've got anything against the newspaper. I just don't think you get there that way. They get negotiated in a room like this between two people who are trying to get together. My point is that sometimes local ownership or someone else buys this team we'll put it together and when there is a real offer or a real acceptance then I will let them know. Right now I am keeping myself quiet.

While that is going on I am getting the hell beaten out of myself in the newspaper. It's just, I guess when I read your blog you more than anybody should be able to understand how deals go together and you should have a feel when somebody says I made an offer it may not be an actionable offer.

3SOB: But you're saying...
MH: I'm not saying a thing. I am saying you don't know what they offered. I am saying that if you want to put in the paper someplace what the offer is, show me the offer. Now if you want to go and get their offer then you would be in a pretty good place to say what I did and what I didn’t accept.

Now I hope we can have more discussions in the future and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble. And I don’t want anybody to look bad by what I’m saying because they did make me an offer, which was unacceptable.

3SOB: You mentioned that if someone came to you with a great number, a real offer, that you would consider it. What number are you looking at now?
MH: I'm not willing to negotiate this in the media.

No one has to tell me what a great person Pitt Hyde is. Pitt Hyde is an inspiration to anyone who gets to know him. He's one of the most philanthropic people I have ever met in my life. Staley Cates is a very, very philanthropic person and between the both of them most of what the Grizzlies have done philanthropically has been done between those two people. They choose not to get publicized for it but they do a tremendous amount of that themselves. Quite honestly it has been a great relationship for me because it enabled me to accomplish what I set for myself when I came here.

What they decided to do with regards to the situation as the minority owners, it is their choice. There was no fight over anything. What actually happened was preordained in the contract we signed 7 years ago. I didn't come up with anything new. I didn't do anything and they didn't do anything. They were perfectly within their right and so on to do.

They had a right to only suffer [a certain amount] a year in losses. I have a right in the contract for what they don't take, if the losses are greater, then I have a right to transfer that into equity. I chose not to do that for 7 years. The NBA wanted some of this debt converted into equity. We basically went to them and gave them the option and said 'what do you want to do to turn this into equity under the formulation of the contract. They chose not to do it and so we did what the NBA asked and converted a percentage of that debt. We've still got more debt to convert at some point. That diluted the minority owners to 5.8% of the team.

That doesn't change my opinion of them. It doesn't change my feeling about their participation with the Grizzlies. It is up to them how they want to participate. Like I said, I still have a high degree of respect for them. I'm not in any kind of fight with them. I don't know why it has become something that gets aired in the news media. Somebody someplace decided to do it.

But that's it. I just wanted to give you my take on it. I'm not going to get into that battle. I'm just trying to give you my take on where we are.

3SOB: Last season you had one of the 7th highest payrolls in the NBA. You were in the luxury tax. You were paying dollar for dollar penalties for being in that area. Next year we are going to be much lower than the salary cap at this time.
MH: Right now we are going to be the lowest or next to the lowest depending on what Philadelphia does.

3SOB: You mentioned in the email to Chris that you had personally lost over $140 million over the last 7 years or that the team had lost that amount. Do you think that with the lowered salary and the reduced overhead that the team is going to be close to break even next year and is that a goal going forward?
MH: Just look at Chicago. Chicago's record over the last 10 years has been worse than ours. I've been to the playoffs more times than they have. They've been the worst team in the league like 3 or 4 times. I've been the worst team once.

Their record, even though they play in the East which by any stretch is a hell of a lot easier than the West these last 7-10 years, but Chicago sells out every game. They have local TV revenue of $30-40 million dollars which is about my total revenue so how am I going to compete with Chicago?

Of course, Chicago makes a lot of money for their owners and we lose a lot of money for ours. That's a real problem with the league that they will have to face up to. It took baseball a long time to face up to it, They did it and they saved the game.

You know Major League Baseball had fallen behind basketball in popularity after the strike when Selig put it in. I have a friend in baseball who said not one team lost money last year in Major League Baseball because of revenue sharing.

I can tell you that probably better than 50% of NBA teams lose money.


To be continued...

Michael Heisley Tells It Like It Is - Part One

3 Shades of Blue was honored to have a sit down meeting with Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley. Being that it is not always the case that bloggers get an opportunity to get the inside information from someone who really knows what is going on, and as was made clear during the interview we haven’t always gotten it right in what we wrote, it was a rare and appreciated gift of time from the person who really does know what is happening.

The interview took place on Friday afternoon before the Chalk Talk and Warrriors-Grizzlies game and was quite long so we will be breaking it up into several blogs. Mr. Heisley was open and forthright to every question we asked and at times possibly too open. For that reason and that reason only some items have been edited. Not to protect the blog but to protect the team and Mr. Heisley. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 will be posted around lunch time each day this week.

3 Shades of Blue will be running a segment of the interview each of the next 5 days. The new parts will be posted around lunch time each day.

3SoB: I know you set some ground rules right off the bat, no talking about player or personnel moves...
MH: I tell you what, ask me whatever questions you want. I will basically, I will be extremely co-operative. I will answer them to the best of my abilities. You might ask me a personnel decision and I might say I’ll answer it. You might ask me a question and I might tell you what I’m doing. So don’t feel anything is out of bounds. Ask me and I’ll answer it. If I don’t feel I can answer a question I’ll tell you I can’t. If I answer the question, you might not agree with it, but you will find out to the best of my ability it is the truth.

3SoB: That’s all I can ask. I don’t know if you’ve read our site at all but...
MH: Actually I have. Stan (Meadows) gave me some of your stuff.

3SoB: We try to be as honest as we can with a bent towards humor. Today we are going to be a little more serious. My first question is pretty straight forward, what is your vision of the team going forward? How long do you expect we can return to the playoffs? How long before we are competing for a championship?
MH: My vision for the team is we are in the process of rebuilding the team. We got a nucleus of 5 young players that we are trying to build a team around. That doesn’t mean that they will be with us for 5 years but it is the nucleus we are going to build around. That includes young players like Rudy Gay, (Hakim) Warrick, {Mike) Conley, Kyle Lowry and (Javaris) Crittenton and they’re the young players that are there. We’ve got 2 or 3 draft picks in this next draft coming up and they will be added to that situation. If we do trades or acquisitions and so on we are basically going to be looking at the age of these people. Something I believe in, I don’t know if we’ve always followed but I have a lot more to say about now is that you basically have to do what you’re saying. You have to basically look at your team, look at the year that you want that team to mature and you got to start working toward bringing that team to maturity.

In other words I don’t want a guy who is 32 now that I think is going to be part of my championship team in three years. He’ll be 35 or 36. Obviously I want to try and build my team around the same so that I at least have my core maturing at the same age. That doesn’t mean you can’t bring in a veteran but the core of the team has to be somewhat maturing at about the same time. You don’t want a team maturing as you go out because after about 6 years the guy who’s maturing is gone and you never seem to catch up so we’re going to try and build the team that way and I think we’ve got a good start and we’ve got some very good players.

How long? Well when Jerry West came here I would have told you that we had not won more than 20 games in the history of the franchise, I told him I wanted to get into the playoffs. He shocked me and we got into the playoffs 18 months after he got here. That was a huge, huge jump and I think we had some fortunate things to happen to us. I think we had some great coaching. I think Jerry made some great decisions. That’s where we got but I think the key was Jerry always wanted to win a championship but in reality our #1 focus was trying to get to the playoffs. This time I think my focus is more on getting much further and have a legitimate chance to win a championship.

I don’t believe the team that took us to the playoffs ever had a chance to develop into [a championship team]. If we had gotten LeBron James we could have possibly made a run to the championship but those are the kind of things you can’t predict. You need luck.

So that is basically my vision for the future of the team.

3SoB: Just real quick, you mentioned Rudy, Hakim, Conley, Lowry and Crittenton. Darko’s 22 years old. Granted he’s been in the league 4 years and this season he’s had a lot of injuries...
MH: I think that’s a good point. I think Darko’s a part of the team. I think the reason you’re looking at it is that Darko’s been in the league for a length of time, you would hope the question is have we seen what Darko is going to be or are we seeing what he is and what he might be might be even better. That’s what we’re hoping. When we brought Darko in our hope was to basically get some of things we’ve gotten out of him and that is #1 defense and I think he’s done a fantastic job against some of the other big men in the league. #2 is rebounding and I think he can do a better job on rebounding, and if we got some offense out of him that was a big plus. I think we need to get more of what we’ve seen from him game to game rather than some of the ups and downs that Darko has.

I was just giving you something off the top of my head (when I mentioned those other players). That goes back to what I was talking about before. We don’t want to bring in a guy who’s 28 that might even be a little bit better than Darko as a free agent. We would rather bring in a guy who’s going to mature at about the same time. If Darko’s can get better, he’s got get better too. I think that is the somewhat of the responsibility on the shoulders of the coaching staff and so on to get these kids better.

Take Boston for example. They’ve got Garnett and Allen who are fantastic scorers and everything else but in reality what they also got was a defensive coach out of Houston. They basically turned the team over to him and he was a great defensive coach. (Kevin) Garnett brought his enthusiasm to the team but my remembrance I don’t ever remember Minnesota ever playing defense anywhere near as good as this team plays defense. They got Pierce who everyone thought could play defense but he never really did. He bought into the system and now they’ve got one hell of a defensive team. Matter of fact, we outscore them! We score more points per game than they do. They just don’t let anyone score more than about 80 something points against them and we let teams score 120 against us.

3SOB: It makes it a little harder to win that way.

To be Continued...

Links: Mike Conley, Iavaroni Interview, Local Owners, J-Critt

SI.com - Conley experiencing growing pains, reality check in rookie season

Sacramento Bee - 24 Seconds with Marc Iavaroni

Geoff Calkins (Commercial Appeal) - Easy to see why the local owners wanted out.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Crittenton's journey in NBA hectic

Basketbawful - The Worstest of the Weekend-a-roonie

Hoopsworld (Via le basketbawl with some funny comments of their own) - Five coaches on the hot seat

Vegan Fish Tacos (great name!) - Framework of a Franchise: Memphis Grizzlies

Blog of the Day: The Wages of Wins Journal

Links: Settle In Edition

Clear your schedule -- this is gonna be a big one!

Jeff Wong (The Score) asked us some questions about the Grizzlies, Tigers and the city of Memphis. Being the sell-out media whores that we are, we were happy to answer them.

Stephen Litel (Hoopsworld) conducted a fantastic interview with Kwame Brown recently. It helps clear up a lot of misconceptions with the former #1 overall pick.

Tom Ziller (The Fanhouse) has some additional thoughts on the ownership news.

Epic Carnival: Fandom is Irrational.

Hardwood Paroxysm thinks it is both hilarious and ironic that Michael Heisley made his money in sewage. You cannot make stuff like this up.

Canis Hoopus reviews the Grizzlies in Part 3 of Examining the Bottom of the Barrel.

The Howeva Files: Memphis = NBA Bad Decision Fantasyland

The Bleacher Report says that if the Grizzlies intend to hire Larry Brown, just shoot Darko in the head right now. My thoughts exactly.

David Stern is creating a new postseason tournament with the Grizzlies in mind?

Former Grizzlies' PG Chucky Atkins is quite the entrepreneur.

Marcus Vinicius -- you remember him, right...he came to the Grizzlies in that deal between the Rockets and Hornets -- returned to his homeland of Brazil last week. Marcus, we hardly knew you.

Nick Emery saw the Kings-Grizzlies tilt live and in person.

Sports Tsar: What's in a franchise name?

Blog of the Day: David's Memphis Grizzlies Blog - David has been posting some great stuff the past couple of weeks, including meeting both Mike Miller and Juan Carlos Navarro.

Heisley Speaks!

Grizzlies Owner Michael Heisley appeared on Ron Tillery's radio talk show Tuesday morning to explain what is happening with the Grizzlies and what the plan is going forward. He made some interesting comments that seem to put into clearer focus the team's plan moving forward.

He talked for just over 15 minutes and fielded some good questions. He did make some obvious comments like "I don't think we have done as well as I or the team or the fans expected starting the year. The owner down to the management has to look at things and say we haven't gotten the job done.' Boy that is a relief to know. I am sure some people were worried this is exactly what the front office and the owners wanted for the team.

On Trading Gasol and the Direction for the Team:

When asked where the team goes from here things started to get a bit fuzzier. Heisley said that

We made an assessment in January before the trade deadline that the team was not going to get 'there' the way we were constructed and we needed to start looking back and trying to figure out how to start building another team with playoff potential. That means from our perspective, since we aren't able to attract as many free agents as other people, that we are going to have to rely very heavily on the draft.

So if we can't rely on free agency why are we insisting on expiring contracts? Why not get players instead of expiring contracts? If as Heisley stated the plan is to build through the draft with a lot of young players then why trade Gasol for a very late 1st rd pick and $10 million in expiring contracts? I know, you can't trade a big contract like Gasol's for only draft picks but if the team isn't planning on using the cap space why have it? A few veterans wouldn't exactly kill the future prospects of the franchise after all. Maybe some veterans would have made the team watchable this season instead of what is on the court now.

Whether or not this is accurate is debatable and it is quite likely that he misspoke or 'misremembered' the number of teams that the Grizzlies talked to about Gasol but it was definitely disappointing to hear him say that only 6 or 7 teams were involved on discussions for Gasol.

Heisley went on to say that the decision to trade Gasol was difficult and how much he liked Gasol. He said that his:

"valuation of Pau was probably twice as high as a lot of people in Memphis. I've always felt he was one of the better players in the NBA. I think the situation for several reasons deteriorated and to a certain extent Pau was beat down this year and quite honestly it got to a point this year where I could see it wan't going to get better and so this year around December I decided we would probably have to trade Pau."

Sounds to me like the Heisley is saying that the fans forced Memphis to trade Gasol and that this was decided in December which is before the January assessment of the team that the team wasn't going to be able to reach 'there' whatever 'there' means to Heisley. It was also peculiar to here him describe his valuation of Pau as twice that of local people since he traded Pau for half of what the same local people seem to think the team should have gotten for him and dramatically under what inside people like Poppovich and Cuban felt he was worth.

Maybe it was the people of Memphis that Mark Cuban meant when he said Heisley was getting bad advice. I don't think that is what Heisley was saying but it was obvious from his comments that the relationship between Pau and the fans had a large impact on the ultimate decision to trade him. At least as much as the so called lack of the team's future ability to get there.

What About Free Agency:

The next question seemed a little odd following up on Heisley's statement that Memphis won't be able to attract free agents like other teams and that his intention was to build in the draft but he was still asked if the team was prepared to offer someone a max contract either this summer or the summer of '09. Heisley responded that he is:

prepared to build a team the best that they can build a team. We will use some of our cap space to try and attract free agents to Memphis. One thing I am not interested in doing is getting free agents who at the end of their contracts and only have 3 or 4 years of good effort left in them. Somebody 32 or 33 years of age because quite frankly they may have great game but we are looking to build a young team and build it around Rudy Gay and Mike [Conley] and Mike Miller and so on. Quite honestly I don't think that spending the cap room in getting tied into expensive cap situations with free agents nearing the ends of their careers is very attractive.

So forget Shawn Marion, Gilbert Arenas and Antwan Jamison but hold your breath for Josh Smith or someone young who can still grow with this team. Of course Josh Smith and other young free agents are usually under restricted free agent contracts and they will be hard to wrestle away from their teams. But Heisley said all he is willing to do is spend some of the cap space money to attract players to Memphis but that he doesn't believe that Memphis can attract them anyway.

On Trading Mike Miller:
Heisley was brief on the possible trade of Mike Miller. He said:

A lot of teams were talking to us about Mike Miller and I think anyone in the NBA, unless they are talking about one of the very, very elite players in the league, wouldn't be honest with you if they said they wouldn't listen to a trade if they felt it would improve their team. Quite honestly we never saw an offer that we felt that we could use.

So the team is always willing to listen (well at least listen to 6 or 7 teams it appears) for offers on Mike Miller but cap space is no longer that attractive and teams weren't offering enough in draft picks to put together an attractive offer.

On Ownership of the Grizzlies:

Heisley got a little testy here. You could hear it in his voice. Again I recommend everyone go and listen to the interview. Heisley interrupted Tillery's question on the ownership issue and said this:

What I am doing is basically what I did. You know I seem to have a hard time trying to communicate. After the last go round I got up in front of hundreds of people at the FedEx Forum at one of our conferences and I was asked this question and I answered very specifically. I am focusing my attention on operating the team and so on. I am not involved in...we have not put the team up for auction, we are not hiring one of those companies...that solicits that type of business. If someone were to come in and make me a good offer for the team that I thought would be a good owner then I would sell the team. And that has been my position from day 1. What has changed is that I am not out looking actively to sell the team. I don't want to be a liar. If someday someone wants to come in a make an offer and we sell the team then I don't want someone to say I said I wouldn't sell the team.

I personally believe this to be true. Heisley would love to sell the team but he isn't actively shopping it right now. He isn't paying a firm to round up prospective buyers for him. Why pay a firm to solicit what everyone knows is for sale anyway? I am sure, and Tillery apparently implied later (not in the interview) the Heisley is getting plenty of prospective interest as it is. He just hasn't heard anything that sounded interesting to him. He ended the question with a quip about the team not being for sale anymore than Mike Miller. I think that basically should clear up any confusion. If you don't think the Grizzlies are shopping Mike Miller then you can feel confidant Heisley isn't shopping the Grizzlies either.

Bias Against the Grizzlies:

He did say that he understands the questions about the moves the team has made and he figures he will continue to answer questions like this for the foreseeable future.

Do I think people are criticizing us? I think everybody that is competing with Los Angeles in the West is very, very upset. What everybody forgets is Jerry Buss was willing to step up. He's over the cap limit, I mean the luxury tax limit with Pau Gasol. He was willing to step up and basically face that when people such as Jerry Rheinsdorf and a lot of other owners were not prepared to do that. So you hear a lot of comments and so on coming in from coaches and general managers of other teams in the West and you'll hear a lot of comments coming in from sportscasters from all over the country saying it was a pure give away...I think you wait 2 or 3 years and so one and when we build a great young team then everybody is going to forget all those criticisms and we won't hear anyone come back in and say 'boy was I loaded.' For example not too many people are beating up on Minnesota for getting rid of Garnett because those young players are sitting up and starting to play. I think another trade that will be looked at quite a lot is that Phoenix trade because the risk there was much bigger than my risk. We were one of the worst teams in the NBA and we made a deal for our best player to try and rebuild with younger players. There they made a trade when they were leading the Western Conference and they traded off one of their best players for Shaq. That will change the whole appearance of their team and I think that was a very gutsy move.

That wasn't a gutsy move. I was a desperate move made in retaliation to Heisley trading Gasol to the Lakers more for cap space than draft picks or young players.

On Season Ticket Renewals:

When asked about season ticket sales, how Cleveland has already started to secure deposits for next season and if he is concerned about sales here in Memphis Heisley had this to say.

Absolutely, We've had a very, very tough time filling the arena and in fact we had a tough time filling the arena when we were in the playoffs. With the team losing like this absolutely you lose fans and making controversial trades upset fans and many of them leave. So obvioulsy we have to get better as fast as we can to get people to get back in the arena and we are doing that as fast as we can.

One of the benefits of being a fan is you have the right to criticize ownership and management and the players. That's what it is to be a fan and that is what I've done all my life. I screamed and yelled at Rheinsdorff for breaking up the team in Chicago. If I had a radio show I would have roasted him.

Well Memphis definately has that Chicago type of fans.

On the Business Side of Things:

When asked about possibly hiring Dick Hackett and the overall business side of the team Heisley said this:

We have basically interviewed and looked at several people. We have some consultants in from the NBA that are working with us trying to improve various aspects of the franchise and we have not made a decision on who is going to take that position (replacing Andy Dolich) just yet.

He didn't elaborate on what the NBA was actually looking at to improve aspects of the team but I bet it isn't hiring a replacement for Andy! Obviously something is viewed as messed up in Memphis if the NBA sent consultants down to straighten out things.

One final thought, I don't know who Tony is or where WHBQ found him but I have never heard a bigger shill in my entire life. I too am a Grizzlies fan but am not a Heisley fan. When a man steps up and proclaims he wants to build the new team with draft picks and young players then trades his best asset for expiring contracts and late picks you have to wonder about his sincerity, especially when you consider that he doesn't believe Memphis will attract any big names in free agency. You have to wonder about a man who says the team isn't for sale unless he gets a good offer. He says what people want to hear but upon further review you realize this isn't what his plan is. If he believes Memphis is going to model Chicago's rebuild then be prepared for 10 years of bad teams and the Grizzlies only becoming successful when they relocate.

I hear Kansas City is desperate for a full time tennant in thier brand new downtown arena...

New Gameshow: Name that Owner!

As Chip, Zack and myself were wrapping up our roundtable discussion on our predictions for the NBA and the Grizzlies (coming soon to a blog post near you), an interesting topic came up. Through a roundabout way, we began questioning why it was that owners who are in the news are typically the "bad owners" in the NBA. There are some exceptions, with Mark Cuban (Mavericks) and the Maloofs (Kings) being the two most obvious examples, but by and large, if people know the name of your owner, chances are he's not in the upper echelon of ownership rankings. Who are the owners of the Spurs, Suns or Pistons? Anyone know? Bueller?

Let's take a look at the owners most serious NBA fans can name right off the bat, excluding the two we already mentioned. George Shinn (Hornets), Donald Sterling (Clippers), Clay Bennett (Sonics), James Dolan (Knicks), Jerry Buss (Lakers), Herb Kohl (Bucks), Glen Taylor (T'Wolves), Michael Heisley (Grizzlies), Jerry Reinsdorf (Bulls), Larry Miller (Jazz) and Paul Allen (Blazers). For a full list of NBA owners, go to the list compiled by the always helpful Hoopshype. Of the guys on that list, which ones own teams that (1) belong in the upper half of the NBA, (2) haven't allowed incompetence to remain in their organization and (3) haven't suffered as a result of the owner's insistence in either meddling in basketball issues or being in the news for the wrong reason? Well, by my count, we can take Herb Kohl, Larry Miller, Paul Allen and Jerry Reinsdorf off that list using that criteria, although Reinsdorf only gets a pass because Jerry Krause is perceived to be at fault for the dismal years the Bulls suffered through after their dismantling following the second three-peat. Ok, so now we have a list we can dissect.

George Shinn (New Orleans Hornets) -- #1 on my list because he has worked hard to set the bar high in alienating fans in not just one, but two cities. He's willing to spend money, which is something others won't do, but he's also a thorn in commissioner David Stern's side, having forced a move from Charlotte after doing his best to convince fans not to show up to support the hometown team. He's the poster boy for Bad Owners.

Donald Sterling (L.A. Clippers) -- He's finally decided to start spending some money on his team, after decades of feeding off the fact that not all of the actors/actresses, agents, power brokers, wannabe's in Los Angeles could score tickets to the Lakers and partook of the Clip Joint in order to see the NBA in action. It's hard to feel too sorry for Clippers' fan, with it being so blatantly obvious that Sterling was a cheapskate, but that doesn't exonerate him from being a bad owner. Especially when he commits the cardinal sin of becoming newsworthy in a tabloid sense.

James Dolan (N.Y. Knicks) -- You know what, just read this...and this...and this...and this. David Stern would love to throw this guy out of the league for all of eternity -- I can guarantee that. That doesn't even cover the incompetence he's allowed by his last two GM's either. Wonder if he'll manage to outlast Isiah in New York?

Clay Bennett (Seattle Supersonics) -- Has shot near the top of the "Bad Owners" rankings with his abrupt about-face concerning the Sonics' remaining in the Pacific Northwest. It went from a statement of hope last September to the current turmoil of a possible move to Las Vegas, Oklahoma City or who knows what other location he might come up with. Nothing like lying to an entire region with a straight face to cement your place among the most reviled in NBA ownership.

Jerry Buss (L.A. Lakers) -- So far, he has meddled in team affairs and been featured in the news for bad behavior. But, unfortunately, it would be impossible for him to alienate his fanbase, so we'll have to settle for two out of three, I guess. I don't know that he's a bad owner, per se, but he's been visible for all the wrong reasons, which is bad for an organization.

Glen Taylor (Minnesota Timberwolves) -- He doesn't make the gossip sheets and he stays out of team affairs as much as possible, so he's this close to being a good owner. But, alas, he continues to allow Kevin McHale to run basketball operations, which has been steadily dragging this franchise down, eventually costing the team its star player -- and subsequently its drawing power -- this past offseason with the trade of Kevin Garnett to Boston. McHale should have been fired long ago, after the Joe Smith fiasco, but Taylor continues to employ him, allowing his incompetence to flourish, because he doesn't think there is someone better out there. That's unfortunate for the fans in Minnesota, who deserve more than the mediocrity they have been given for the majority of their existence.

Michael Heisley (Memphis Grizzlies) -- If you're reading this blog, you were probably waiting for this entry in particular. Heisley used to say and do all the right things, from being visible at the games in his courtside seat to allowing his basketball personnel to make decisions and spend money where necessary. However, when he decided to limit Jerry West's authority in terms of player acquisitions and trades, he stepped over the line that owners should recognize as a necessary boundary. Then he announced the team was for sale and allowed a farcical offer to seem legitimate before allowing the NBA to shoot it down, throwing a wet blanket over an already dismal season. He has faded to the background for now, but something tells me that once the team shows some success again, he'll announce the team is on the market again, creating uncertainty throughout the organization for another season. I hope that is not the case, but experience tells me to expect something along those lines.

I would have added in the Atlanta ownership group, but their fans have suffered through enough horrors without me detailing it, so for once, I'll pull a punch. I think we've been able to illustrate that well-known owners are far-too-often known for the wrong reasons in today's NBA. If you're a fan of one of the teams I've listed above, just know that I feel your pain. If your team wasn't listed above, consider yourself one of the lucky ones, as you don't have to deal with the issues the rest of us face as fans of teams with bad owners. Count your blessings and hope that your owner remains in the background, signing the checks, but allowing his basketball people to make the decisions he pays them to while keeping them in line, and doing his best to stay out of the news and off of Sportscenter.