The Ted Leonsis Appreciation Thread

[montestewart]

I mean, at least he immediately owned up to his mistake

And why do we assume that he lied to gain attention

Maybe someone else told him the story and he simply repeated it

Or maybe it was a case of something getting distorted as it got repeated and passed along

Of all the possibilities, why do we assume that lying intentionally is the correct one?

Immediately?

It took an article published a full 6 days later to have Leonsis fess up about his story being manufactured, and it's not exactly like he had a choice.

The Washington Post article on the trophy is based on a first hand account by Ted Leonsis, and how do we assume he did it to gain attention?

His pompous ass made a story about honoring the 1977-78 NBA Champion Bullets all about himself, his incredible wealth while painting himself as the savior of a moribund franchise.

I mean, it'd take someone with monumental incompetence to think that he can tell a lie, one that can be easily debunked, on record on the Washington Post and get away with it, doesn't it

Not saying that billionaires aren't capable of incompetence or mendacity

But I'm willing to entertain the possibility that it was a slip up, than an intentional lie

Are these posts intentional irony? Maybe PIF with a secret second account? "Monumental incompetence" indeed!

Why give him the benefit of doubt? This was an elaborated narrative with him at the center, asking people where the trophy is, initiating a search for the missing trophy, describing in detail the (apparently fictitious) appalling condition of the trophy and his own and his wife's steps to restore it to its former luster.

Lies fall on a spectrum, from "I know what the truth is but I'll tell the police this lie and maybe they'll believe it," to "I'm a brilliant billionaire to whom the rules of incompetence and mendacity do not apply. This was a Janet Cooke/Stephen Glass/Donald Trump level of whole cloth fabrication. Maybe to billionaires. it doesn't even seem like a lie if told to suckers and peons, but that was definitely a big ol' lie.

[payitforward]

You're my second account, Monte.

No, wait a minute... you're my first account: I, I mean you, I mean it was here first.

PIF is my, I mean your, I mean the 2d account.

More or less more seriously or... seriously, that is, I'm no fan of Ted Leonsis, but I think your comparisons kind of overdo it.

OTOH, for some reason I don't remember the content of the two articles, & I can't view them via the links above, b/c I'm not a Post subscriber.

Could someone please post the text of these two pieces?

[montestewart]

You're my second account, Monte.

No, wait a minute... you're my first account: I, I mean you, I mean it was here first.

PIF is my, I mean your, I mean the 2d account.

More or less more seriously or... seriously, that is, I'm no fan of Ted Leonsis, but I think your comparisons kind of overdo it.

OTOH, for some reason I don't remember the content of the two articles, & I can't view them via the links above, b/c I'm not a Post subscriber.

Could someone please post the text of these two pieces?

I don’t have account either but opens fine for me. Maybe I haven’t met monthly minimum. Anyway, can’t copy/paste the text on phone. Will try on computer later, if no one beats me to it.

Was kidding about account, but the « monumental » reference seemed pretty sly.

[queridiculo]

You're my second account, Monte.

No, wait a minute... you're my first account: I, I mean you, I mean it was here first.

PIF is my, I mean your, I mean the 2d account.

More or less more seriously or... seriously, that is, I'm no fan of Ted Leonsis, but I think your comparisons kind of overdo it.

OTOH, for some reason I don't remember the content of the two articles, & I can't view them via the links above, b/c I'm not a Post subscriber.

Could someone please post the text of these two pieces?

The gist of what we're talking about from the original article:

Wizards/NBA
1977-78 Washington Bullets, NBA champions, to be honored

By Dave SheininApril 4, 2013
Shortly after taking control of the Washington Wizards and Verizon Center in 2010, Ted Leonsis started asking team employees what he figured was an obvious question with an easy answer: Where’s the trophy? But instead of a simple answer, all Leonsis got in return was a lot of puzzled looks, shrugged shoulders and I-don’t-knows. Nobody, it seemed, had any clue as to the whereabouts of the 1978 Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, symbolizing the lone NBA title in Bullets/Wizards franchise history.

But then, finally, there was a breakthrough. Someone recalled someone else saying sometime awhile back that Smokey Bowie, the late building manager/head engineer/jack-of-all-trades who had been with the franchise since the old Capital Centre days until passing away a few years ago, had at some point taken it home with him for safekeeping. And sure enough, a carload of team employees dispatched to Bowie’s old house found the trophy — scuffed up, tarnished and dented — at the bottom of a closet.

“They bring it in,” Leonsis recalled this week, “and it’s got dings in it, it’s matted, not shiny. My wife [Lynn] is best friends with the woman who runs Tiffany’s in Tysons Corner, so I asked her to look at it, and I said, ‘Look at this – this is what we spend a billion dollars over our lifetime to try to win, and it’s been sitting in someone’s closet. Can you fix it?’ It took about three months, but it came back perfect.”

From the follow up:

On the day before he died in 2008, Everett “Smokie” Bowie, 80 years old at the time and suffering from cancer, reported to work at Verizon Center, which he had been running since its opening in 1997. That night, family members recalled, he watched the Capitals’ game on television, but couldn’t stay up to catch the Wizards’ game on the West Coast. He went to sleep and never woke up. At his funeral, Abe Pollin, in a wheelchair himself by then, delivered an emotional eulogy.

Bowie was a quiet, private man who never sought the spotlight, and his name might have remained unknown to most were it not for a story in The Post last Friday about the 1978 NBA champion Washington Bullets and the championship trophy that came with it. This is the story of that trophy and the man who kept it safe — a man who, according to granddaughter Allison Barger Eddy, “cherished four things in life above all else: God, his family, Abe Pollin and the Washington Bullets.”

And it is a different story than the one related by current Wizards owner Ted Leonsis last week. Leonsis had said that when he took over ownership of the Wizards and Verizon Center in 2010, having bought them from the Pollin family, the 1978 championship trophy could not be located — until it was finally discovered in a closet at Bowie’s house. Upon retrieving it and finding it “with dings in it” and “matted,” Leonsis said, he paid to have it restored by Tiffany’s in Tysons Corner, after which it was put on display in a new case near the main entrance at Verizon Center.

However, according to the family of the late Bowie — as well as Irene Pollin, Abe’s widow and a part-owner of the Bullets and Capitals — none of that is true. They say the trophy was never at Bowie’s house and in fact was displayed — in a different case, built by a construction crew overseen by Bowie’s son, Mike — for most of the 2000s at Verizon Center.

“It never left the Verizon Center,” Irene Pollin said.

[FAH1223]

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[Wizardspride]

Scuttlebutt is Ted wants to focus on the Nats, thus the hiring of competent (hopefully) people to run the Wiz.

[Jay81]

i dont appreciate enough how horrible Ted has been as an NBA owner. Now is he getting praised for making moves that should of been made 16 years ago

[Endless Loop]

Total hats off to Ted. He did awesome!

[gambitx777]

Yeah I mean let's not beat up on the guy. He's still a decent dude by all accounts he's just had enough hired good people and is gonna go piss around with the nationals lol

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[closg00]

i dont appreciate enough how horrible Ted has been as an NBA owner. Now is he getting praised for making moves that should of been made 16 years ago

We are Tina Turner to Ted's Ike

[9 and 20]

Winger coming right out and saying we're not looking to win immediately. Soooo tanking.

Good on Terd for being late to the party instead of not showing up at all. What's past is past.

[nate33]

Winger coming right out and saying we're not looking to win immediately. Soooo tanking.

Good on Terd for being late to the party instead of not showing up at all. What's past is past.

It's a damn shame we missed out on the opportunity to make wiser decisions at the Trade Deadline last year. Kuzma and Wright should definitely have been traded, and it might have been worth keeping Rui.

[9 and 20]

Winger coming right out and saying we're not looking to win immediately. Soooo tanking.

Good on Terd for being late to the party instead of not showing up at all. What's past is past.

It's a damn shame we missed out on the opportunity to make wiser decisions at the Trade Deadline last year. Kuzma and Wright should definitely have been traded, and it might have been worth keeping Rui.

True, but it only just now feels like we are rid of Grunfeld. For that, I am thankful to our lord and savior, G-Wiz himself.

[payitforward]

Winger coming right out and saying we're not looking to win immediately. Soooo tanking.

Good on Terd for being late to the party instead of not showing up at all. What's past is past.

It's a damn shame we missed out on the opportunity to make wiser decisions at the Trade Deadline last year. Kuzma and Wright should definitely have been traded, and it might have been worth keeping Rui.

Of course, if we'd done all that we might still have Tommy at the helm, so maybe it was worth it?

[FAH1223]

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[PaulinVA]

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[montestewart]

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Well, Leonsis and I see eye to eye on that one thing, so I can maybe see some hope for this franchise.

[Jay81]

i dont appreciate enough how horrible Ted has been as an NBA owner. Now is he getting praised for making moves that should of been made 16 years ago

Mfbump

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[FAH1223]

i dont appreciate enough how horrible Ted has been as an NBA owner. Now is he getting praised for making moves that should of been made 16 years ago

Mfbump

Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk

Actually, we should have gotten a President like Winger when Wall was drafted and Ted took the majority ownership in 2010. Right after the blow up of the roster post-gun gate!

Can you imagine how great the 2010-2013 rebuild would have been with a brain trust of Winger/Dawkins type of people from the Presti tree?

The summer of 2016 would have been still a great opportunity to get a star with max cap space and once they struck out would have just signed short-term deals to valuable role players to surround the nucleus of the 2010-2013 drafts.

Ted messed up big time in 2010. And in 2012. Those were the two huge opportunities to have sustained rebuild with Wall.

2016 was another big missed opportunity when they fired Wittman but not Grunfeld.

And we all know that 2019-2023's "middle build" strategy would have worked with a GM/President who could hit on two picks out of four.