OT: Michael Heisley is a good owner

[DH34Phan]

Michael Heisley is rebuilding the Grizzles the right way. Although the Gasol trade was terrible, he realized they probably wouldn't win a title with Gasol as the #1 player, and sees that his team is young.

http://3shadesofblue.blogspot.com/2008/04/michael-heisley-tells-it-like-it-is.html

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

[BucksRuleAll22]

Any guy that trades one of the best bigs in the NBA for nothing is not doing anything right. Gasol is one of the biggest trade steals ever.

[MickeyDavis]

Memphis has never won a playoff game.

[paulpressey25]

Agreed......I don't think the guy knows what he's doing. The Gasol trade was awful.

It also is more likely than not that in three years a nucleus of Gay, Critt, Conley, Miller, Lowry is a 28-win team.

Just like us, he's got to land Rose in the lotto.....

[drew881]

Its easy to talk like that (sounds good on paper what you are saying), but its a lot harder to make it work (what Portland is doing).

I guess Rudy Gay and Conley are nice prospects, and they have some PG's that they can trade down the line, but that championship "in three years talk" is total BS. Memphis will be horrible for the next 3 years at least

[JoeHova]

Beasley seems like he would be a much better fit in Memphis than Rose (not counting possible marketing possibilities).


I agree that Heisley is one of the worst owners in the NBA though. That Gasol trade alone makes him terrible, but he also promised to keep the team in Vancouver and then moved it a year after buying it.

I'm not saying Vancouver was the best place to have a team, but you would think a promise to stay would last more than one year.

[MickeyDavis]

Moving from Vancouver was smart. Picking Memphis was stupid.

[LUKE23]

If you're going to trade Gasol, you have to get a lottery pick and/or a young player that could develop into a star and/or significant cap space. What good are the Lakers picks going to do them? On top of that they got absolute junk back (I am not high at all on Crittendon). I like Gay and Conley alot, but that's about all that excites me about that roster.

[Downtown]

If Heisley knew how to go about building a winning team he wouldn't be in the same situation as he was when he first moved to Memphis. He traded away high drafted players who were still in their prime like Bibby and Abdur-Rahim because he wanted to "rebuild". So in comes Gasol and Battier to take over and build around.

Fast forward to now and both players are gone, the team is one of the worst in the league, and Heisley is still saying he wants to go with young players again. He's fallen for that never ending cycle of trading good players if the team doesn't make the playoffs in order to start from scratch, only to sit in the same situation over and over.

A good owner? Hardly. This is a guy who lied about his losses so he could leave Vancouver. This is a guy who while telling everyone in Vancouver he was committed for the long haul secretly had already sent out his financial guy to scout other cities to see who would cough up a better deal. This is a guy who had said from day one he loves basketball and the financial side won't take precident but now is supposedly looking to bail out and sell. This is a guy who traded his best player in Gasol just so he could save money with expiring contracts. If I were a memphis fan I would be worried about the owner of my team being Michael Heisley. It's not about the winning but rather about the bottom line.

Yeah, a great guy allright.

[L Gator]

A heisley owned company is one of my biggest competitors and I once had a meeting with him and his posse as they wanted to buy me out. After meeting him there was no way in the world I would ever give one penny to that EXPLETIVE or let him take something I have built and kill it. He was one of the most off putting people I have ever met. Smug, arrogant, and thinks he is way smarter than he is. Some of the things his lawyers said to him during the meeting were priceless, he was just totally disconnected. By the way I am crushing his business and his arrogance and inflated self worth is one of my main motivations for going to work everyday.

[deflated]

Moving from Vancouver was smart. Picking Memphis was stupid.

Vancouver could have been a great market if they didn't get shafted by the rest of the owners. New building, sweet concession deals, etc.. You win the Tim Duncan lottery? Sorry, you're not allowed the first pick for your first 5 years in the league - that's 4th pick for you. While you're at it you also can't send more than 2/3rds of the salary cap either. Good luck.

Heisley lied his way out of Vancouver with a smile on his face. He was approved as new owner as he promised, unlike Bill Laurie, that he'd keep the team in town for 5 years and re-evaluate profitability then. 6 months later he presents Memphis to the board of govenors as a done deal with the threat of a massive, embarrassing lawsuit against the league if they raise a finger against the move. He is not someone you want as owner of your team - you never know what he'll do if someone waves a dollar under his nose.