Memphis Grizzlies website 3 Shades of Blue has been running a five part interview with Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley. It’s a very interesting and candid interview where Heisley discusses where the team is, plans for the future and the decisions that they’ve had to take.
It’s a must read for anyone that’s interested in the Grizzlies or anyone who’s just interested in hearing an owner discuss his team’s future. Here’s a few snipets:
The team’s goals and past in a nutshell:
Well when Jerry West came here I would have told you that we had not won more than 20 games in the history of the franchise, I told him I wanted to get into the playoffs. He shocked me and we got into the playoffs 18 months after he got here. That was a huge, huge jump and I think we had some fortunate things to happen to us. I think we had some great coaching. I think Jerry made some great decisions. That’s where we got but I think the key was Jerry always wanted to win a championship but in reality our #1 focus was trying to get to the playoffs. This time I think my focus is more on getting much further and have a legitimate chance to win a championship.
I don’t believe the team that took us to the playoffs ever had a chance to develop into [a championship team].
Discussing the move to Memphis (also touching on the Sonics situation):
Now we came here, we made a commitment to the city and our relationship is nothing like that. We have a contractual commitment to be here for a number of years. No matter what. That’s the commitment. And we are going to be here. And nobody has even intimated that we are going to do anything any differently. Do I believe we can be successful in Memphis? Yes. Do I think it’s going to be hard? Yeah. When I say successful I mean financially successful. In a small market that means you have to be luckier and better than what somebody does in Chicago. They got 8.5 million people and we got 800,000 people.
And
I’m simply saying that is the way finances work in professional sports; we could never have come to Memphis without this arena. We would not be here. We would not have moved here if they hadn’t committed. Not because I am trying to steal people’s money. I put more money into this move to Memphis than the state and city have put in together.
On the Lottery:
We’ve never been successful at getting the #1 pick although we’ve been one of the worst teams for years. It’s crazy this system they have. It isn’t just that we didn’t get it last year. I mean what is the sense of it? It’s devastating to a team, the worst team in the league, and all of a sudden you have a chance to get a player like Oden, who everybody says is going to be an impact player in the league and something happens and they are picking 4th instead of picking 1st.
And
If we got LeBron James, if we got one turn of the ping pong ball, we would have had LeBron James. We wouldn’t be seeing 4000 people in the stands. We’d be seeing sold out crowds. When I looked at buying the Vancouver Grizzlies, the Cleveland Cavaliers were for sale and they had 70% of their skyboxes empty. They were having 3-4000 fans in the stands. When they got LeBron James they started selling out the arena and went all the way to the NBA Championship. That’s what one player, and in this game with its dispersion of talent across being such a huge thing, that one player can make so much of a difference.
On trading Pau Gasol:
I didn’t trade him to take care of Pau. I didn’t trade him because the fans were down on him. I traded him because the coach, the General Manager, all of us, sat down and we said we’re not going to get there with this team. We’re going to have to break this team up, try to start from the ground up and build a team. Pau is young. He’s 27 but I can’t get there in two years I didn’t think and therefore Pau, who is injury prone and so on. So the point was now was the time to basically trade him and get value for him. Young value.
All of these coaches around the league – they all knew, they read it in the paper, everyone knew he was on the block – none of them stepped up. Then we went to Chicago. We tried to trade for dollar by getting an expiring contract. They didn’t want to go into the luxury tax. Then we went to LA. They were willing to do it. So we traded him to LA.
On future spending:
I am not going to get myself into the luxury tax or something like that down the pike.
And
3SOB: Kind of along this same line here, are you willing to spend $9 million or more on a free agent this summer or in the future?
MH: I don’t know. I tell you what. If they give me a superstar for $9 million I’ll take it. You think I’m kidding. Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? My point is that’s the problem in these situations. The question isn’t am I willing to make a $9 million investment. The question is will I make an intelligent business decision. Am I willing to pay $9 million for a Joe Baknickknack. No way! Do they think Joe Baknickknack is a superstar? Maybe. I don’t know but I’m going to basically do the best thing I can do.If I get a superstar player, you know I said 3-5 years, hell I might be able to get there in 2 years. I might be willing to do what I said I wouldn’t do and get an older player so everything changes depending on what the opportunity is. I’m going to tell you point blank we are going to be fiscally responsible. Let me just make a point to you. At our average ticket price, somebody with a $12 million dollar salary I have to sell almost 5000 seats to every game to pay for his salary. People don’t look at it that way. You have to put 5000 people in the stands EVERY NIGHT to make it worthwhile. People will say well there are people out there who do this. Well there aren’t many people out there selling 4, 6, 8000 season tickets a night going out running into the luxury tax.
On the financial hardship of Vancouver (and more on the process of how the move went down):
I had a much worse financial situation. I was paying $6 million a year to rent the arena. I didn’t have any sky boxes. I didn’t have any revenue from the concessions. I had no parking revenue. So I lost over $50 million in the first year.
On Jerry West’s rumoured role:
3SOB: Well, how are decisions being made now in the front office? Is Chris Wallace wielding the same influence Jerry West was rumored to have? Does Jerry West still have any influence?
MH: Jerry West is a good friend of mine. Obviously, I talk to him all the time. Obviously Jerry gives me his opinion. Obviously I listen to him some because he is a bright guy but Jerry West is not actively involved. He doesn’t call me and tell me what he thinks I ought to do. In the course of playing golf together or something he may say something.Chris Wallace is the General Manager. Chris Wallace is responsible for putting together ideas and so on. As opposed to when Jerry was here, I do take basically either approve or disapprove the decisions going forward involving the team. I am more involved. I don’t necessarily come up with the trades. I do basically look at the trades. I can’t say I can think of anything that Chris has wanted to do that we have turned down. Most of the player moves and trades it has been Chris that put it together. I did not call LA for example.
I loved this one because you rarely hear someone talk like this about another team
Take Boston for example. They’ve got Garnett and Allen who are fantastic scorers and everything else but in reality what they also got was a defensive coach out of Houston. They basically turned the team over to him and he was a great defensive coach. (Kevin) Garnett brought his enthusiasm to the team but my remembrance I don’t ever remember Minnesota ever playing defense anywhere near as good as this team plays defense. They got Pierce who everyone thought could play defense but he never really did. He bought into the system and now they’ve got one hell of a defensive team. Matter of fact, we outscore them! We score more points per game than they do. They just don’t let anyone score more than about 80 something points against them and we let teams score 120 against us.
Great interview. A joy to read and full of information. There’s a lot I don’t agree with Heisley on but it’s very interesting to hear from the man and hear his reasons.
