The Amazingly Suck Theodore Leonsis Thread

[payitforward]

Pretty comical, or sad, that 2 of the "big 3" are no longer in the NBA.

Not to mention the "two first round draft picks next year."

Sure is fun "watching the rebuild unfold" -- except make that "fold" instead of "unfold."

[BigA]

Edit:

Never mind it's still there, took some digging.

http://tedstake.monumentalnetwork.com/2013/01/14/learning-to-win

So I wonder how/why the date of the post was changed to almost 2 year after it originally appeared?

[queridiculo]

Edit:

Never mind it's still there, took some digging.

http://tedstake.monumentalnetwork.com/2013/01/14/learning-to-win

So I wonder how/why the date of the post was changed to almost 2 year after it originally appeared?

They layout of the site was changed, I imagine they didn't preserve the original post dates, another hack job by the Wizards organization

[AFM]

Choke on a gyro, Ted. You've got mail, you giant turd.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Pretty comical, or sad, that 2 of the "big 3" are no longer in the NBA.

Here's the thing: that blog post from Leonsis was absurd on its face AT THE TIME. I'm not talking hindsight, I'm talking about what was known and actually said in response at the time. If chuckleheads on the Internet could see it, why couldn't the actual owner of the team?

[tontoz]

Pretty comical, or sad, that 2 of the "big 3" are no longer in the NBA.

Here's the thing: that blog post from Leonsis was absurd on its face AT THE TIME. I'm not talking hindsight, I'm talking about what was known and actually said in response at the time. If chuckleheads on the Internet could see it, why couldn't the actual owner of the team?

I guess bball knowledge is not a requirement for ownership. See Ranadivé.

[AFM]

Anyone want to talk about how incredibly unlikable Ted Leonsis is?

[payitforward]

I guess bball knowledge is not a requirement for ownership. See Ranadivé.

Leonsis is not in the business of basketball -- as I think I've only pointed out several dozen times. The business Ted Leonsis owns is Monumental Sports & Entertainment. It's an entertainment-media business. *That* -- not basketball -- is the industry in which it operates.

The Wizards are a *product* of Monumental Sports & Entertainment; the franchise is one of the products MS&S markets. MS&S, not Ted Leonsis, owns the Washington Wizards.

How does a business tell if one of its products is a success or a failure? By looking at numbers: volume and profit on the product. That is (except in rare and non-relevant cases) *the only way* a business makes such a judgement.

Hard as it may be to internalize the above facts, understanding them is the only way to get a handle on what is happening w/ this franchise. In Ted's post back then, he was marketing one of his company's products.

From the POV of Monumental, the Wizards have done well. Not because they got to R2 of the playoffs by beating a badly hampered Toronto team. Not because of their record. They are doing well, because the seats are pretty full at home, the TV contract is good, etc. I.e. because the fans are relatively happy -- as reflected in season tix sales, TV revenue, etc. Not as reflected in their unhappiness that "injuries" have caused a down season that "no one could expect." And certainly not as reflected by the POV of hard-core analytical fans. Who cares about those kind of weirdos anyway?

So, when we talk about Ted's "strategy," we are talking about his product strategy. Not his strategy to win a title. And when he thinks to himself that Ernie is "executing my strategy," he means the same thing.

When fans begin to desert the team, he may figure out his problem, and he may fire Ernie. Until then... welcome Markieff Morris, "an established player," as Ernie described him.

[keynote]

It's rarely good for your team owner to be mentioned in a Deadspin article.

http://deadspin.com/washington-d-c-makes-sure-no-billionaire-sports-team-1762288690

[queridiculo]

Leonsis greed knows no bounds, it's too bad that unlike Snyder and Lerner, he doesn't give a flying **** about building a winner.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Leonsis greed knows no bounds, it's too bad that unlike Snyder and Lerner, he doesn't give a flying **** about building a winner.

In terms of greed, I don't think Leonsis is anything special. Basically every owner of a sports team does what they can to get the city to build stadiums/arenas for them. It'd be nice if our politicians would tell them to f-off and pay for their own workplaces.

[LyricalRico]

Leonsis greed knows no bounds, it's too bad that unlike Snyder and Lerner, he doesn't give a flying **** about building a winner.

In terms of greed, I don't think Leonsis is anything special. Basically every owner of a sports team does what they can to get the city to build stadiums/arenas for them. It'd be nice if our politicians would tell them to f-off and pay for their own workplaces.

I tend to agree. Sports owners have nothing to lose IMO by asking for public funds, and there's no reason for them to refuse the cash if the politicians say "yes". I'm more likely to throw around a word like "greed" if the owner is threatening to move the team if they don't get hundreds of millions to build a giant new stadium at no cost to them, which isn't in the case here.

[gambitx777]

Ted is not the worse owner in the world. Yes a lot of people say hes cheap or greedy, I think that will be put to the test this year, because I don't see them having any issues going into the tax to get KD to come here, but they won't do it to not have a chance at a tittle. I mean I guess we being KD here and Idealy try to stay under the tax but I doubt it works that way.

[payitforward]

Leonsis greed knows no bounds, it's too bad that unlike Snyder and Lerner, he doesn't give a flying **** about building a winner.

In terms of greed, I don't think Leonsis is anything special. Basically every owner of a sports team does what they can to get the city to build stadiums/arenas for them. It'd be nice if our politicians would tell them to f-off and pay for their own workplaces.

I tend to agree. Sports owners have nothing to lose IMO by asking for public funds, and there's no reason for them to refuse the cash if the politicians say "yes". I'm more likely to throw around a word like "greed" if the owner is threatening to move the team if they don't get hundreds of millions to build a giant new stadium at no cost to them, which isn't in the case here.

Agreed. And I don't like the term "greedy" being applied to the general run of business people and their moves anyway.

Ted Leonsis isn't "greedy" any more than he's some kind of great public benefactor, just because he claims he has a double bottom line. He's just a guy Steve Case's brilliance blew up to the top of a tree where he sits absolutely convinced that he knows how to fly.

[montestewart]

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you raise the prices.

[BigA]

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you raise the prices.

You need to remember that you're paying for the entire fan experience, including G-Man and gourmet food options like the $5 water and $6 hot dogs. You should be grateful to pay those higher prices.

[queridiculo]

Paging uncle teddie, hope you sleep well raising ticket prices to watch this crap.

[BigA]

Paging uncle teddie, hope you sleep well raising ticket prices to watch this crap.

Fine to make fun of Ted here, but don't make fun of him at a game.

[BigA]

Ted was interviewed on 106.7 today (Grant and Danny). The segment is available on their podcast page.

Most of the interview was about the new arena league team, with some discussion of the Caps, and some discussion of the Wizards near the end.

They did ask him the key question of what will happen if they don't make the playoffs and lose the pick:

Question: "You have shown in the past that you would relieve a GM, and it's worked with Brian MacLellan. What would lead up to a conversation, what would you need to see/hear to decide if Ernie or Randy deserve to come back?"

Answer: "We're going to make the playoffs, we have to believe that, we have to be focused on that, it's all we're looking at and tonight is a really huge game. We need to have the players, staff, organization, fans believing in that now.

This has been an outlier year, mainly because of the number of injuries we've suffered. We had a bad road trip where Beal doesn't play at all, then we have a game where he plays 24 minutes and the team looks completely different. John Wall is a different player when he doesn't have to be the number 1 offensive scoring option, he can focus more on setting other players up.

We'll take a look at how we end the season in the off season, but right now we're focused on do we have our full contingent of players? Can we play the kind of system that we want? Can we up the energy on defense?

It sounds trite, but we really are in the mode that we need to take one game at a time. And be totally focused and conscious. We played that way against Detroit. One of our best games of the season. We also had the starting 5 I thought we would have after the trade deadline. When we have that starting 5 and can bring Nene and other players off the bench, we're a pretty good team.

We only have only 15 or so games to prove it, and we need to understand what's at stake."

[Dark Faze]

good god please let us miss the playoffs