WEFFPIM wrote:No, not everyone knows who Doug Collins is. If you're talking about the team president being one of the main figures of an arena push, Doug Collins doesn't have any effect. The people who will be the forerunners of the arena development don't have any interest in what Doug Collins would have to say. They want to hear from business people. Collins would be brought on as team president solely for his basketball knowledge.
Again, if a basketball figure is hired as team president with some intention of him/her also helping the charge of a new arena, Kareem is the top dog, or Oscar or Junior. People in this city know them, not Doug Collins. I think you're overestimating the impact Doug Collins has ... pretty greatly.
Lastly, to nitpick, John Hammond's primary job has never been to sell the team. His job is the build one and hope the results sell themselves.
1. People your age don't know Doug Collins. Us, ahem older folks know him as an accomplished coach, mainly of the Jordan Bulls and Pistons. Even older folks know him as 76'er all-star, Olympian, etc. And every NBA fan sees him on TNT, etc. for years and years. The attorneys at Foley and partners at KPMG know who he is and those people buy luxury boxes and club seats at a new arena. Collins is a smooth and well known national commodity.
2. Kareem has problems stringing together two related thoughts. He's a free spirit and loose cannon as a person, that's why he's not coaching or GM'ing anywhere. Junior isn't taking a pay cut to do this job. He wants to own a team.
Lasry and Edens don't NEED to hire Collins (this thread is all fun speculation), but he's far more accomplished and smooth than the usual small town Milwaukee thinking of "Hey, let's hire Jerry Augustine to be our spokesman...he played HERE and he's CHEAP."
3. One of the reasons the Bucks got mocked so badly on here the past five years was because Hammond couldn't sell a winter coats to Alaskan residents in addition to not being able to build a team. But if you say that wasn't Hammond's job, the team had no one else in the role. And it is arguably a needed role, unless you prefer Jim Paschke to continue to fill that void.