| Chattting with the Big Cheese - Part Two |
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| Written by Chip Crain |
| Friday, 04 December 2009 10:36 |
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This is the continuation of an interview 3 Shades of Blue had with Grizzlies majority owner Michael Heisley on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009. We left off the first part of the interview with Michael Heisley discussing Allen Iverson and what happened with him in Memphis. We continue now with Mr. Heisley's comments. MH: So that's what happened with Allen. Now I don't know why people are having a problem with all of this. That's the reality but it's too matter of fact. It's very tough to be one of the greatest players to ever play the game and get towards the end of your career, get traded, get injured, go through this process and keep an equilibrium. I'm not sure how Kobe or anybody else would handle that. But Allen's going to have to come to grips with his game and where he's going to play and how much he's going to play and how all of this is going to work out. Now I hope he gets to go with Philadelphia 76ers. I talked to the General Manager. I hope he gets there. I think it would be spectacular for the 76ers. It would be great for the league to have him close out where he made his name. It would be a great story. Their PG is injured. He's going to be out for 8 weeks. They'll have a lot of time for Allen to show what he can do. That's the Allen Iverson story. I'm sorry I can't give you anything else. I often wonder where all of this BS comes from. Not just Memphis but everywhere. Everyone is speculating. Nobody wants to get the real story. Where do they get that information. They watch those soap operas. They think this [stuff] up and believe that it's fact. So they print it. Then some other person prints another story and references it, saying according to sources and the source is that nutcase who made it up to begin with. It's unbelievable. So anyway I really do hope that Iverson has a real good opportunity to have a good run in this league and nothing would make me happier. The most unhappy person is my wife right now. That's her favorite player and always has been since I got involved in basketball. She was a little upset with me that I couldn't work it out. I did everything I could. So what else? 3SOB: The draft picks, Thabeet, Carroll, Young, how do you think they're working out? MH: Well Thabeet's a big guy. He hasn't played basketball but for 6 years when he came to us. He's a tremendous talent. He's a great defensive player. We've got a lot of work to do with him on the offensive end. I still think he's going to be a major factor in this league once. In the Portland game he was spectacular. He blocked the dunk on LeMarcus Aldridge. I think he had three blocks in that game. So I think there is a lot of talent there. At one time I thought that DeMarre [Carroll] was going to be ahead of [Sam] Young in terms of developing and adapting but Young looked good last night because Rudy wasn't there. I thought that Young had a very, very good game. I think we got what we drafted which was high energy guys that could play both sides of the ball. 3SOB: Back to your role with the team. What do you think you've learned since you took over most of the decision making on the team and being the point man for the team? MH: Well first of all, let me clarify my role. I've tried to make that role fairly clear. When Jerry West was here, I let him do what he wanted with basketball operations and I did not get that involved because I wasn't going to get involved in the final decision. After Jerry left, since I had been in the league for seven or eight years, and next to Jerry West for five or six years, I decided to participate in the decisions. A part of the decisions includes the information that comes from the management group, not just me. That group includes Chris Wallace, Tony Barone, Lionel Hollins, and several other people on the team. We get together often. There's a lot of discussion. After the discussion, I may make the decision, or I might say to Chris "I don't have a real good feeling, you make the decision." That's the way it works, just like it does in my other businesses. I don't think basketball is the same as business, but I do think making decisions in your life should contain the same process, mainly gathering information. When you think you are confident enough to make a decision make it, or if not, turn it over to someone you feel is capable of making a better decision. That's what I do in my businesses, in my life, and in basketball. That's what happened with the Thabeet selection. The DeMarre Carroll and Young picks, I had virtually nothing to do with those decisions. I did not know them. I'd never seen them play, and had not viewed the tapes, so it was turned over to Chris and the basketball people. The only decision I made in the draft was Thabeet. I made that after much discussion with the group. In the beginning, Ricky Rubio was a serious consideration. We also looked at several other players but gave very little thought to Jennings. Looking back, a number of people are shocked at the way things turned out in the draft. It's not a science. It's almost like a crap shoot. Many people in the league tell you about the great one they picked. I picked this guy & that guy. But no one ever sits around and talks about bad picks they have made. Look at Boozer. Everyone in the league passed on him. It’s all part of the process. We all make mistakes. Does that mean that everybody that was an owner or a GM was incompetent? I don't think so. It’s just a very decision to make. You don’t always know what is going to happen. The game is so different at the NBA level. You get these players from college and high school, but the NBA is so different. It’s a different game, and some players adapt to it better than others. 3SOB: You were also involved in the Randolph trade... MH: Right. I was very involved in it. We first considered Randolph when he played in New York and was eventually traded to the L.A. Clippers. We decided to look at Randolph again this year to help build up our front line. I played a major role in the Randolph trade. I wasn't the only guy. Chris Wallace was there and others. Nobody was against the trade. I don't want to make this sound like Mike Heisley pulled this out of the dark or something. I'm just saying I thought we needed help at the power forward. We looked at three or four people, and with our situation, who we could trade, who we would have to give up, we felt that the Randolph trade was the best us at that time. I think it's turned out to be a great trade for us. |
Comments
Heisley is straight forward in his answers and gives more than you asked. It seems fairly obvious to me that he saw that the Grizzlies were not going forward in any area and does what any good business man does - he takes control.
Now, does he really have enough basketball knowledge and insights to run the team as he is? I don't think so. In your part one he says he determined how many minutes that AI would play. I don't know how any coach can work well under those conditions.
Hollins is doing a fair job so far. I would imagine that he is thankful that AI is gone because of the limitations it put on him in coaching and the atmosphere it brought to the team.
I just hope that in the end that Heisley doesn't take all the credit or even most of the credit if the Grizzlies improve and do make the playoffs in a couple of years. I know that others will take the heat if the Grizzlies do not improve.