The Amazingly Suck Theodore Leonsis Thread

[fishercob]

Mods, please merge with a Ted thread or Wiz in the Media thread.

That said, this article is stupid. It doesn't exactly take a brilliant analyst to say "the Caps (and Wiz) haven't won or met expectations,, therefore the guys running them should be let go." When teams win all the experts say that coaches and GM's should keep their job, when they lose everyone is sure they should be fired. Duh, okay. And?

Can we get a little depth with that analysis?

I haven't loved Ted's Wiz-related PR this year, but whatever. Even if he had said all of what I wanted, the team would still suck and be mired in a season-long tank-fest in an effort to land another high pick.

Ted gets a lot of love for connecting directly with his customers and fans -- especially when they are happy and the teams are winning. By the same token, his accessibility makes him an easy target when people want to vent their frustrations. It is what it is.

[The Fax]

Ted is the best owner any DC pro franchise has had in a long long time. This article is spam.

[TGW]

A yahoo blogger-reporter responds to Ted's blog on the unprofessionalism of bloggers. Pretty funny.



http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball- ... uZIaK8vLYF

Want to offend the sensibilities of your readers? Type your blog posts in one-sentence paragraphs. So fun to read.
Want to tick off your fans, the media and the fans that sometimes act as your media? Own a miserable 7-22 team that had to fire its coach a week into the season, then rip the bloggers that cover your team for not putting up timely game reviews following your team's seventh win in 29 tries -- forgetting to look at your team's most prominent blog in the process -- before being told that you totally whiffed on reading one of the gamers.
OK, let's put some names to my long-winded description. Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis pulled this off on Wednesday morning, and did we mention that the Wizards' win was in Portland? Which meant the team bloggers that do this for love and usually very little money would have been writing their gamers around 12:30 in the morning Washington-time, hours before having to wake up to go to their real jobs? Here's Leonsis' blog post:
So today I woke up early — 530 am, and looked to the scores of the Wizards vs. Trail Blazer game last night. As noted — I only could stay up til half time.
I then went online and read the Washington Post. It covered the game well as the writer was at the game.
I then went to several of my favorite Wizards blogs; and what did I see?
Previews of the game. A story about Portland and their plans.
One had an article about the Miami Heat game from Friday.
It appears no local Wizards blogger stayed up late and wrote about the game in real time? I am sure they will do a good job later today; but without NBC local and the Post — I wouldn't have the data that I wanted and needed.
Thank goodness for professional media in this regard.
I agree on the last part, Ted. The professional media that is paid to fly out to these games, given hotel accommodations, and paid to work these strange hours amongst all this intense travel? Thank goodness for them. They make everyone's lives easier. Us bloggers would be nowhere were it not for the mainstream media that actually walks into those locker rooms 82 times a year. Or 66 times a year, as a result of the lockout that you and your owners instituted, Ted.
But this is also their job, Mr. Leonsis, to be getting out of the arena in Portland around two in the morning Washington-time. Their next gig is to be ready to travel the next morning, not to wake up in six hours for a typical 9-to-5 that is followed with yet another Wizards game at night to cover. This is what team bloggers do.
They have jobs, and they're essentially working double shifts to cover your team. And we don't know if this was some sort of misguided attempt to get us to remember what a great job "professional media" does when they're acting all "professional" (that is to say, getting paid to do something, and doing it), but it came off pretty crummy. It came off as Ted Leonsis, who couldn't make it past halftime of his own team's West Coast game, ripping on his team's bloggers (who more often than not work for free or a small stipend) for not staying up to watch and report on the same game.
(Save for Mike Prada. And Sean Fagan. Who did. Which is why Ted had to apologize later, though he only apologized for "missing the timestamp and feed." Not for alienating an entire group of devoted fans that adore his terrible team so much that they essentially work a second job while covering it on their blogs.)
To vent like this while presiding over a 7-22 team? To take the team's biggest win of the season, a tough road win over a very good Portland Trail Blazer team, and make this about bloggers vs. newspapers? Big miss, Ted. Big miss.
The newspaper, website and TV workers that make it so we can follow our favorite teams for a nominal fee and very little effort from our end? Bless those people. But also understand what these team bloggers are doing, Mr. Leonsis, in helping to cover and promote your team for free. And how bad it looks for a millionaire owner of two professional sports teams to be ripping on them for not providing you with a timely blog recap of a game that yourself couldn't even make it through without succumbing to the late hour.

[Nivek]

Man, Ted is just screwing the pooch with PR lately. Ripping bloggers for not staying up to write about this piss-bucket of a team? If anyone wants to pay me the salary I get for my day job, I'd happily stay up late to write about whatever's happening with the Wizards.

[fishercob]

Man, Ted is just screwing the pooch with PR lately. Ripping bloggers for not staying up to write about this piss-bucket of a team? If anyone wants to pay me the salary I get for my day job, I'd happily stay up late to write about whatever's happening with the Wizards.

He's getting killed in the blogosphere:

http://theclassical.org/theclog/wizards ... log-faster

[verbal8]

Man, Ted is just screwing the pooch with PR lately. Ripping bloggers for not staying up to write about this piss-bucket of a team? If anyone wants to pay me the salary I get for my day job, I'd happily stay up late to write about whatever's happening with the Wizards.

I think what makes his criticism worse is that he didn't even stay up for the second half of the game. I am not sure whether he was trying to criticize bloggers or praise sportswriters.

[Nivek]

Here's the thing: If Ted wants to praise the professional writers, fine -- praise the writers. I think we can all agree that it's good there are people out there covering the team for a living. Some of them actually do a good job of it. But don't compare the dedication of people who are PAID to report on the games to the dedication of volunteers.

[montestewart]

Maybe he was trying to say, "I don't really care too much about the Wizards, but for those that do, shame on you."

[closg00]

JaVale on the Denver organization.

“This is a great organization,” McGee said. “There are a lot of hard working people here and this organization gives their players everything they need.”

“It’s definitely a different atmosphere,” McGee said. “It’s a better atmosphere here.”

http://www.hoopsworld.com/mcgee-didnt-s ... ade-coming

This is a continuation of what I was reading about the Wizard org during the early Gilbert years, it is 2nd or 3rd rate when it comes to what it provides it's players in-terms of support and facilities is what I gather from Gilbert's and JaVale's comments.

Someone on this board posted several times,an article on Gilbert from the Post where Gilbert discusses and compares what the Wiz org provides it's players compared to what he had observed when visiting other clubs. Please post-it again.

[Rafael122]

JaVale on the Denver organization.

“This is a great organization,” McGee said. “There are a lot of hard working people here and this organization gives their players everything they need.”

“It’s definitely a different atmosphere,” McGee said. “It’s a better atmosphere here.”

http://www.hoopsworld.com/mcgee-didnt-s ... ade-coming

This is a continuation of what I was reading about the Wizard org during the early Gilbert years, it is 2nd or 3rd rate when it comes to what it provides it's players in-terms of support and facilities is what I gather from Gilbert's and JaVale's comments.

Someone on this board posted several times,an article on Gilbert from the Post where Gilbert discusses and compares what the Wiz org provides it's players compared to what he had observed when visiting other clubs. Please post-it again.

Meh, Javale and Nick contributed to a toxic locker room, and the team was losing. Bad combo.

[closg00]

Ruz - The players don't control what the Wizards org provides to its players. That was the larger point. Wish I could find that article where Gil discusses this.

[Silvie Lysandra]

If this continues, Shanahan's Redskins WILL win a Super Bowl before Leonsis's Wizards win an NBA championshp, because Shanahan has come in and not only changed the status quo, he exploded it. Leonsis, for the very most part, has stuck with the status quo.

So yeah, about that amazing suckiness, huh. Looks like I'm hitting 1.000 on this so far. Hate to quote myself and all, but even I can't believe that it is coming to pass exactly as I predicted it would.. Leonsis has not made a single significant organizational change since becoming owner of one of the worst teams in pro sports. And now even the Caps are looking like a fraud - he essentially lucked into a bunch of high draft picks who gave a few years of monster production but there was no organizational vision so it flamed out.

Ted is just a younger Abe Pollin with a better grasp of spin and PR.

[closg00]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1174 ... ear-future

[hands11]

Wow, what a thought provoking article.

So he ignores everything good and projects the worst and then draws his conclusions. Now that was deep.

I can't wait to read what he writes once they announce Randy is returning for another year.

[verbal8]

I can't wait to read what he writes once they announce Randy is returning for another year.

Foye or Wittman?

[hands11]

I can't wait to read what he writes once they announce Randy is returning for another year.

Foye or Wittman?

Travis

[closg00]

Larry Bird Executive of the Year. Not 1 for for Ernie Grunfeld, SHOCKER. The jokes on you Ted.

Larry Bird, Indiana 12 8 4 88
R.C. Buford, San Antonio 8 4 4 56
Neil Olshey, L.A. Clippers 6 7 4 55
Gar Forman, Chicago 2 2 - 16
Kevin O’Connor, Utah - 2 4 10
Glen Grunwald, New York - 2 2 8
Pat Riley, Miami 1 - 2 7
Sam Presti, Oklahoma City 1 - - 5
Chris Wallace, Memphis - 1 2 5
David Kahn, Minnesota - 1 1 4
Rod Thorn, Philadelphia - 1 - 3
Dell Demps, New Orleans - 1 - 3
Rick Sund, Atlanta - 1 - 3
Danny Ainge, Boston - - 1 1
John Hammond, Milwaukee - - 1 1
Lon Babby, Phoenix - - 1 1
Mitch Kupchak, L.A. Lakers - - 1 1
Otis Smith, Orlando - - 1 1
Masai Ujiri, Denver - - 1 1

http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2012/05/16 ... rd-olshey/

[MF23]

You just lost 30mil in salary to invest into 2 starters from one of the worst teams in the league last season. This is what you get when you retain a veteran GM who's built 2 contenders during his entire career. Those 2 teams were in the 90's built around a player who was already there! This trade displayed no savvy as every bit of leverage seems to not have been applied. This is a lazy trade, the front office did not work for the best deal possible! This is the typical crap I expect out of Ernie Grunfield. This is why I don't feel comfortable with this man building a contender. He did this in Mil. and with the first Wizards trio where he stopped and held in his glory of barely being above mediocrity. Ernie Grunfield and his team are great talent evaluators but they are too lazy to build a contender. Where's the push for improvements in player development or in strength & conditioning? You added coach Conelly which was a good move but it happened in the middle of the season after the media criticized you for not doing anything for your players! Now you have utilized one of your most valuable components in building a contender (cap space) in order to at best keep John Wall sane.

I just have one question. Would R.C. Burford or Sam Presti have done this trade? No! Look how Sam Presti manipulated cap space 4 or 5 yrs ago with Kurt Thomas. You say you want to use that team as a model, your not! Your not working hard enough to get it done. I don't work in the NBA and I can see that. So what does that say? I swear if the FO takes the safer pick in the draft I'm starting to go negative in all my discussions about this team. I've been defending this team to people that are pretty well respected and that's all I'm going to say.

[closg00]

A Bucks fan who posted on our board knows Ernie's MO all too-well. This was posted on our board 12/30/11

I'm an opinionated Milwaukee fan from a few of the other threads.

I enjoy weighing in on these Grunfeld threads every six-months or so because the guy was toxic for our franchise when he was with us.

Both Milwaukee and Washington have (had) one thing in common. A beloved yet completely incompetent and meddling owner. In our case it is Herb Kohl. In your case Abe. Both guys like the idea of "winning now" rather than spending years in the high lotto. Both guys are(were) up in age. Kohl is 76 and I think Abe died at 87 (?)

While it would be easy to blame all of Ernie Grunfeld's bad moves on meddling owners, I think that allows him off the hook. The bottom line is that the guy has been a GM from August 1999 (Bucks) through the current day (Wizards). In those 12.5 years, the guy has really made zero signature moves where you go "Wow, that was a great GM....that move(s) turned our franchise around"

In the draft world, he absolutely sucks. He doesn't find you Westbrooks, Serge Ibaka's or Wesley Matthews. Instead he finds you Marcus Haislips and Nick Young's at best.

In the contract world, he overpays everyone for fear of "losing an asset". Whether it was giving Tim Thomas $68 million to stay in Milwaukee, $20 million along with Scott Williams and a future #1 (Josh Smith) for Anthony Mason or your situations with the Arenas, etc bad contracts or trading the #5 pick away twice.

What Grunfeld excels at are two things:

a) He knows how to suck up to his owner. You guys can read into the Kohl/Polin/Grunfeld situation on a number of levels. The bottom line is that he's obviously a good insider politician, otherwise he doesn't last nearly as long as he has.

b) Grunfeld is more than adept at working the phones and getting deals done involving overpaid veterans. He engages in a bunch of "activity" involving veterans that you assume he might know what he's doing. Sometimes he blows enough future assets to put together a 43-win team. But in the end, you mistake that "activity" for being a good GM.

Just my two cents. You guys won't get significantly better until you clean house and get a new front office.

[Dat2U]

So, I posted a respectful response this evening that disagreed with Leonsis' position on Ted's Take. Two hours later my post was removed.

http://www.tedstake.com/2012/06/20/wiza ... /#comments

I'm finding it a real challenge to continue to support this organization.