When does an owner go too far?
Inevitably, the beginning of the NBA season this week means my ability to watch football drops significantly. In the time that I was able to watch a lot of NFL, though, I saw the still-winless Tennessee Titans headed for an epic collapse.
This year’s Titans are like last year’s Detroit Pistons: Seemingly on the brink of a championship the previous season, they started off slow, kept losing, and eventually the “They’ll get it together” vibe noticeably shifted to “They just stink.”
While the Pistons tried to turn it around by taking turns experimenting with benching All-Stars Allen Iverson and Rip Hamilton — which only made the team chemistry and morale worse — Tennessee is benching their starting QB, Kerry Collins, in favor of one-time franchise player Vince Young. The only difference is that the decision to bench Collins came not from their longtime head coach, but directly from their 86-year-old owner, Bud Adams.
Columnist Joe Biddle of The Tennessean wrote about it today:
Adams has meddled with the Titans in the past and with the Oilers when they were in Houston. He told the Titans they were drafting Young. Now he is telling them they will play Young.
NFL owners who constantly stick their noses over in the football side of things usually do more harm than good.
Three of the worst owners in that regard are the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and Oakland’s Al Davis. All have failed to move mountains like they would prefer.
How would a situation like this play out in the NBA, with an owner directly impacting on-court decisions usually left for a coach? The League isn’t known for having as many overly hands-on owners, and the closest thing I can think of that mimics the Titans scenario never actually happened: In the Michael Jordan biography When Nothing Else Matters, author Michael Leahy recounted a story of MJ — when he was part-owner of the Wizards — toying with the idea of having head coach Leonard Hamilton wear a walkie-talkie during games, through which Jordan could give him “suggestions” that would be more like instructions. Jordan ultimately decided not to do that, but when MJ came back as a player for his own hand-picked coach in Doug Collins, he was pretty much calling the shots as a player/coach/owner. (Jordan had to give up his part-ownership in order to play, but most people assumed he’d get his stake back when he was done on the court. But that’s a whole other, long story.)
Like it or not, the owner is everybody’s boss. And if he or she decides to make a personnel move, eventually they’ll get their way.
How would you feel about your favorite NBA team’s owner taking a hands-on approach with on-court decisions?
October 29th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
control says:
Something like Mark Cuban? He seems a little hands on, does Dallas even have a GM?
My team (Raps) are owned by a company instead of one person…so the only way (as far as I know) they affect shit is by demanding profits and being a little bit tight with spending money sometimes.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
BiG ShoT BoB says:
In our case the warriors are basically being run by the owner
October 29th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Captain Jean Luc-Picard says:
You make the investment and you’ll have the discretion too.
October 29th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Buffalo Brave says:
They’re 0-6, at this point Vince Young SHOULD be starting.
And LOL @ them not mentioning Mork Cuban right off the bat.
Cant stand that dick head.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Me says:
But in the case of the Titans it’s a good call. One Jeff Fisher should have made.
There’s gonna be a couple good QB’s in the next draft. The Titans will have at worst a #5 pick prolly. This season is already lost, so he needs to know if he has a starting QB on his roster or not. Vince should start the remaining games no matter how he plays. They should know Kerry Collins is the backup next year no matter what.
I dunno, owners shouldn’t meddle in those decisions. But what about when he’s making the right decision?
October 30th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Timmy D says:
I already deal with it every night, Im a Grizzlies fan. Heisley already ruined the team by trading Pau for nothing and now he acted like he had a plan and was bringing in some nice young talent and then ruined it by taking Thabeet when nobody else in the organization wanted him and by trading for Randolph and signing a washed up AI.
He also hired a coach and a GM that are both yesmen b/c they cant get high end jobs with any other team in the league. Heisley is one of the worst owners in the league and nobody talks about it b/c he has made the whole Grizzlies organization an irrelevant franchise.
October 30th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Kyballer312 says:
As stated…like it or not the owner IS the owner…if I owned a team and was paying a multi-million dollar payroll you best damn believe I would have my hands in some if not most of the decisions on the court…fantasy owners do it all the time and its the same thing only these guys REALLY own their teams…