BFHOS - GEORGE SHINN

[fatlever]

Should George Shinn be inducted to the BFHOS?
66% yes vote = in

make you case below, yes or no.

[fatlever]

When Dell Curry was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1988 NBA expansion draft, the Currys experienced more racism. The Hornets were owned at that time by George Shinn. Sonya Curry, who is a fair-skinned African-American woman, recalls Shinn erroneously thinking she was a white woman and not liking the fact that one of his black players was married to her.

“The owner called in another player, a white guy player who dated black women, and said, ‘We drafted you. We know who you like to date. But we just want to tell you to really be careful about letting people see because Dell Curry is married to a white woman and we don’t know how people are going to take them either,’ ” Sonya Curry said. “The player was like, ‘You are not going to believe what they just said.’ I was like, ‘What?’ Just the assumption of what I look like and all that.”

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/02/19/sonya-curry-former-hornets-owner-george-shinn-cautioned-players-against-interracial-marriage/

First, some background.

George Shinn's kidnapping-for-sex scandal (Shinn was exonerated of the criminal charges, but admitted the sex, and shortly afterward his accuser's husband appears to have committed suicide) got the team run out of Charlotte. According to Business Week he also admitted to a two year dalliance with a Hornets' cheerleader. Shinn was married during both affairs.

https://www.espn.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/835/shameless-hornet-george-shinn

George Shinn, Charlotte Hornets

One of the league’s most religious figures (he has a prayer read over his arena’s p.a. system before each game), Shinn was accused of kidnapping and sexual assault by a Charlotte woman last year. He allegedly offered to drive the woman to his lawyer for help with her child custody problems. Instead, she charged, he drove her to his home. In the car Shinn allegedly grabbed her breast and put his hand up her underwear. She asked to be taken home, but he refused. (As commissioner Stern once said of Shinn, “He doesn’t know how to take no for an answer.”)

In his house, Shinn allegedly pushed the woman onto his bed and forced her to perform oral sex. Shinn’s accuser claimed he later offered her $200 and told her they’d have to “do this again sometime.” A South Carolina prosecutor ultimately decided he didn’t have enough evidence to charge Shinn, but said that he thought “something did in fact transpire between Mr. Shinn and this victim.”

The woman later filed a civil suit, which is still pending and contains allegations of unwanted sexual advances by two former female employees of the Hornets. One of them, a former Honey Bees dancer, claims that Shinn became obsessed with her. Shinn, meanwhile, has slapped a slander suit on his original accuser. Says his attorney of family-man Shinn: “They met, she gave him a blowjob, she left.”

Flagrant Fouls: Estimated net worth: $100 million (in 1994). Shinn, who has called him self “God’s Little Idiot” to explain his financial success, has asked North Carolina taxpayers to build him a new arena to replace the 10-year-old Charlotte Coliseum.

https://www.villagevoice.com/1998/12/01/billionaire-boys-club/

SF: In terms of unpopular basketball-related moves you made in Charlotte, trading future hall of famer Alonzo Mourning in 1995 to Miami has to be No. 1. Do you regret doing that? GS: I think it was something that had to be done. Alonzo was a great player. But at the time, the guy I relied on completely was (then-Hornets GM) Bob Bass. I thought the world of Bob, and he was the person who first told me this isn’t going to work. I don’t want to dig up any old bones or anything, but there were a lot of reasons it just didn’t make sense to go forward. We already had the highest-paid player in team sports at the time in Larry Johnson. And we were going to pay more for Alonzo, but more wasn’t enough … I think the best decision at the time was made.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/scott-fowler/article251311888.html#storylink=cpy

this is just the tip of the iceberg with Shinn, especially when it comes to how badly his mismanaged the quest for a new arena, adding a minority owner (he turned down jordan in late 90s, before bringing on woolridge (who led the charge to move to new orleans)

[fatlever]

a resounding 100% yes, despite the thanks we owe him for beating the odds to get charlotte a team in the 1st place. i'll always give him credit for pulling the ultimate sales pitch with stern and owners in the 80s.

[MPM]

Easy yes. As much of a dipstick as George is/was, his son Chris was a pretty swell fella. Hung with him on multiple occasions.

[luciano-davidwesley]

Obviously yes. The only good thing he did was get a team here in the first place and choose a nice colour palette. Fancy trying to still justify trading Mourning for Rice and only one first because you were too cheap to pay Zo an extra few million a year.

Also being a generally **** human. Batum and Shinn are the co-captains of the BFHOS

[Hornet Mania]

Shinn should skate through qualification, he is a no-brainer.

A distinguished member of the class of scumbag owners who can't make money in a market that otherwise supports a sport because of their own failings (cheap as hell + molesting women killed public support for arena) so they move the team out of town. Shinn's anti-Charlotte pitch to the NBA involved cooking the books (the team was caught claiming in-person attendance was total ticket sales) and David Stern basically all but came out and admitted the league only moved the team because they didn't want to set a precedent that empowered cities that voted down arena funding.

In the end the NBA realized Charlotte was a promising market that was poisoned by a fool and quickly issued a new expansion franchise to the city. The fact the NBA jumped right back into Charlotte even after Shinn insisted it was non-viable is extremely telling about the league's true opinion. Making matters worse, New Orleans is perhaps the weakest market in the entire association (no shade to Pels fans, just stating facts) and it was moronic to drop a franchise there even before Katrina. Shinn set one market back 20yrs only to choose another that quite frankly seems even less capable of supporting a franchise than Charlotte.

Random Shinn story for the jury's review:

After following the team to New Orleans coach Paul Silas was fired after one season. Despite being the most successful coach in franchise history Silas was unable to reach Shinn to hear it directly from him. This was especially comical because Shinn was his neighbor and attempted to duck Silas by disconnecting his doorbell.

https://www.espn.com/nba/news/2003/0509/1551733.html

[LofJ]

A complete and total piece of ****, I will be disappointed if anyone votes no.

[BigSlam]

How do you put your hand up someone's underwear?

[Diop]

How do you put your hand up someone's underwear?

come over here and I will show you

[amcoolio]

Easy yes, broke my 14 year old heart in 2002

[fatlever]

Easy yes. As much of a dipstick as George is/was, his son Chris was a pretty swell fella. Hung with him on multiple occasions.

pretty sure i smoked weed with him at a high school party in 12th grade. lol. we were same age. occasionally we'd cross paths. i seem to remember dad bought him a recording studio to help get him into music??? i think thats how i ran into him from time to time, because all my friends were musicians.

[MPM]

Easy yes. As much of a dipstick as George is/was, his son Chris was a pretty swell fella. Hung with him on multiple occasions.

pretty sure i smoked weed with him at a high school party in 12th grade. lol. we were same age. occasionally we'd cross paths. i seem to remember dad bought him a recording studio to help get him into music??? i think thats how i ran into him from time to time, because all my friends were musicians.

Small world. I'm sure we grew up around some of the same people - musicians galore in my life as well during my early CLT daze. That studio story rings familiar.

Chris sort of existed on the periphery of my circle - he'd show up at random parties, etc. - he always impressed me as a down to earth, likable guy. There also may have been weed involved.

[SWedd523]

Shinn is a 100% Pantheon member.

He took a team that had the most fan support in the entire league, even during the height of the MJ Bulls, and completely destroyed it.

No, he didn't do it singlehandedly. But he was the architect of basketball dying in Charlotte.

It still hasn't recovered and I honestly don't know if that magic will ever come back.

Unforgivable and deserves no praise whatsoever for anything he ever did.

[HornetJail]

this should be a unanimous yes

it has been 20 years since the team left and we haven't come close to recovering

[fatlever]

landslide. vote over. shinn inducted to BFHOS. 16-0 100%

[fatlever]

who should we do next?
diaw
woolridge
vincent
higgins, rod or cory
cho
ammo
lance
dampier dust chip
other

[SWedd523]

Doris meow or the dust saga

[fatlever]

ok, those can beo ur next 2