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I've had it on my mind to write about this since shortly after Ernie was fired.

As I recollect, Ted said, in essence, two things when he let Ernie go. He said the Wizards were "a culture of accountability," & that Ernie had been called to account, let go for promising something & failing to deliver. The second thing he said was that he & the Wizards were grateful to Ernie for his service to the Wizards. Ernie, on the other hand, said nothing. I mean literally nothing. I don't recollect any kind of statement from him at all.

That struck me as quite odd. Actually, both Ted's first remark ("a culture of accountability...") & Ernie's silence both struck me as odd. Ernie was about to turn 64, a perfectly respectable, in fact ordinary, age at which to retire from a job like his. He was at the top of the organization, had been there a long time, & was certainly not of an age that he'd be looking for the next step in his career. Why didn't it go down that way? Why didn't Ernie retire? Who wants to be fired from his last job?

Ted steps into his office and says, in effect, "it's been a long time; it's time for you to go -- but there's no reason for it to be a 'firing.' We'll do it the high-class way, the normal way. You talk about how grateful you are to us; I'll laud your achievements & talk about how grateful we are to you. We'll have a celebration for you. It'll all be positive and a good thing for all." Instead it was the exact opposite: Ernie was let go for cause. Even though Ted did recite the pro forma "grateful to Ernie & his family blah blah blah." But Ernie did NOT follow suit. We never heard a word from him. Nothing about what he'd done for (i.e. to!) the Wizards, his gratitude to be able to lead one of the oldest franchises in the NBA, in a great city, etc....

I'm not sure I can recall anything quite like it. What it tells me is that the last conversation between Ted Leonsis & Ernie Grunfeld was *not* very pleasant. Not pleasant at all -- the opposite.

Does that make sense? Note that when fired Ernie had another year on his contract. He's still being paid. That too makes me think that things got very sticky between these two men.

Thoughts?

Ernie’s gone. We all need to move on.

That’s my thought.

He didn't say goodbye but a whole hell of a lot of us said good riddance.

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Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:He didn't say goodbye but a whole hell of a lot of us said good riddance.

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Sorry I could not edit or delete this comment. I apologize for not being tactful.

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Of course Ernie didnt want to leave. He had his scheme going pretty well and had the owner at arms length. Why would he want to relinquish that? EG had dug himself (or rather the Wizards) into a big hole, and things were not going to get better with EG at the helm. I'm quite fine with EG leaving without a turn at the microphone. I dont need to hear his side of the story. He never really embraced the microphone anyway, and it seemed like he only got in front of a mic because the job required a small amount of it.

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**** Ernie (but I still wish him all the best). However, I hope he writes a book about how he manipulated all the Wiz people for 16 years. I'd be the first in line to buy!

I wonder if Ernie sold his house and beat town...

It's harder to collect unemployment if you quit. Make the boss fire you, then stay home and watch Netflix while the checks roll in.

PS: CCJ, I can delete those comments if you want. Let me know.

I think Ted wanted to give the impression he was doing something and "taking action". You're right PIF it is kind of strange to go down like that after him being there so long, it would have made sense to just retire. No thank yous to Abe Pollin for hiring him, or to Ted and the fans.... that final year money must have been a major source of contention.

Ted can be a prick (see Barry Trotz and Steve Buckhantz).

What could Ernie have to say - after what had to be considered a very long failure other than... "I'm rich biscuits. Arividerci. A luxury villa d'Italia is where your village d'idiot is going."

It's pretty obvious he wasn't agreeable to retiring/quitting. He still has connections around the league that I'm sure he's going to try to wiggle his way into. Our local media could barely get him to talk or had the balls to question him when he was our GM, so not too surprised there's been no followup.

Dark Faze wrote:It's pretty obvious he wasn't agreeable to retiring/quitting. He still has connections around the league that I'm sure he's going to try to wiggle his way into. Our local media could barely get him to talk or had the balls to question him when he was our GM, so not too surprised there's been no followup.

Or in a few years he'll be doing basically what Charlie Casserly is doing - pretending to be a draft expert.

Probably because the fanbase correctly despised him and he had no business being the GM for so long

Ernie was a man of few words. He let his actions speak for him instead. As such, he decided to leave the fanbase with a bunch of parting gifts rather than expressing his gratitude verbally. If you look carefully, you can see his parting gifts all around you. John Wall's contract. A team that won more than 30 games!!! Managing to duck under the luxury tax yet again without having to sacrifice the talents of Ian Mahinmi or Dwight Howard. And plus, he imparted a lot of his long-term knowhow and whatchamacallit magic to Ted, too!!! Really, his gifts were priceless. And most priceless of all was his endearing grin that will forever cause emotions to bubble up in the spirits of Wizards fans.

Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:He didn't say goodbye but a whole hell of a lot of us said good riddance....

LOL !!!!

Nailed!

Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:

Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:He didn't say goodbye but a whole hell of a lot of us said good riddance.

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Sorry I could not edit or delete this comment. I apologize for not being tactful.

Sent from my SM-J337T using RealGM mobile app

Thanks goodness! I think it's HOF !!

montestewart wrote:PS: CCJ, I can delete those comments if you want. Let me know.

No no -- please no!

Perhaps he's busy planning a barnstorming (or bar storming) team with ex-Tennessee teammate Bernie King - as the 60 plus year olds reform the Ernie and Bernie show and take on all comers from coast to coast. https://www.si.com/vault/1976/02/09/558524/its-the-bernie-and-ernie-show

I wonder if there was misconduct involved?

I am not sure it is typical for fired GMs to make statements. I guess a smoother transition would be for it to be announced as a retirement, in which case it typically would make sense for their to be a statement from the guy who is "choosing" to leave.

Maybe Ernie really thought he was doing everything to implement what the owner wanted, and felt he was taking the fall for a track record that Ted should have taken some responsibility for. Who knows?

One thought: Ernie's departure from the Wizards was less awkward than Michael Jordan's.