Ruzious wrote:Pif, not sure why you keep making that argument about Monumental. It's just a less direct way to getting ownership of the Wiz - not necessarily any less appealing to Ujiri - who appears to have many strong interests outside of basketball.
The second part of your point is a really good one, Ruz -- in fact, it's what led me to change my mind & think that Ted (or rather
Monumental) does have something of special interest to offer Ujiri: namely, a way to advance his business career by extending it well beyond the confines of running an NBA team.
But, it has nothing to do with "getting ownership of the Wiz." Monumental is worth $3 billion; it's invested heavily in its own growth in multiple directions. Essentially, the Wizards are one of the products of Monumental. The team has no existence of any kind separate from Monumental. It could have that, of course -- if Monumental sold the team. But that wouldn't affect Ujiri; assuming he was a stock holder in Monumental, he would then own stock in a company that had no NBA franchise.
How much stock do you think Monumental could/should/would give Masai Ujiri to come work for the company & run one of its entities? If he were to get say 1% as a "signing bonus," for example -- that would be $30m or more to come over & take the job.
He'd be likely to be paid at least $12m/year or more. My guess is that he'd have a much bigger job than "GM of the Wizards." I can easily imagine Ted Leonsis viewing the expansion of basketball in Africa as an enormous business opportunity (it certainly is one!). It's way bigger & way more interesting than the Wizards.
So, now I think there's a good chance Masai Ujiri joins Monumental Sports & Entertainment. I just don't think he's likely to spend much of his time, if any, thinking about who should play for the team.
In that case, would Tommy stay? Or, who would Ujiri hire to replace Tommy?
