Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Gee, who saw THIS coming???

I first saw this at the CA, but the NBA has issued a statement regarding the proposed sale of the Grizzlies to The Blue Devil Boys:

“The NBA has not yet received from Messrs. Davis and Laettner sufficient information to conduct our review of their proposed purchase of the team, in accordance with NBA rules. Among other things, and despite numerous requests from the NBA, we have not been provided with important information about other potential investors, including the sources and amounts of funding that they would supply.

“In addition, based on the limited information that we have received, it appears that certain elements of the transaction would not comply with NBA rules. As a result, and contrary to their public statements, the NBA is not taking any action at this point with respect to the proposed transaction.”

Well, in New York they have a saying about such situations, and like all things New York, it's brief and concise:

MONEY TALKS, BULLSHIT WALKS.

It appears that The Blue Devil Boys aren't doing much talking, are they? All along, they only planned to put up a certain percentage of the $252 million needed to buy Mike Heisley's 70% of the Grizzlies, they had $40 million in, tops. They have been out for MONTHS looking for suckers, er, investors willing to make up the other $212 million needed.

Now, the late, lamented (and SAINTED, as far as I'm concerned) Bill Veeck used to buy Major League Baseball teams the same way, and with the exception of the St,. Louis Browns, was pretty successful. That's because he always found the right people to invest, and they ALWAYS got their money back, and more.

From the start, neither Brian Davis nor Christian Laettner has been upfront about who would "invest" in this team. Watch Laettner in this video interview with Jarvis Greer of WMC-TV (video is down at the bottom of the page) as he tells us that the NBA has told them not to reveal any of the details.

Wouldn't that imply to you, me or anyone else with a modicum of intelligence that there actually WERE other investors? Guess there weren't, and if these potential investors check out that the Grizz have been hemorhagging money out of Heisley's wallet on a consistent basis, they're not likely to be investors.

(Side note: With all of the goodies we gave them to bring the Grizz here, how the hell is Heisley losing as much money as he says is?)

Folks, I WANT the Grizz to succeed here, I want them to win an NBA title, I have never missed a home playoff game. I also want REAL answers to our questions, and now, so does David Stern.

Which suggests to me that this deal will NOT go through, and it's back to the drawing board for Mike Heisley.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heisley got Memphis suckers to rescue his investment. If he weren't now greedy about profiteering off us, Pitt and Fred would pick the team up and run it right.

polar donkey said...

Heisley bought this team in Vancouver for about $120 million. He moved it to Memphis because of the $254 million stadium. Two months after the stadium opened in September 2004, he put the team up for sale at a price of around $330 million.

Len said...

Now, the late, lamented (and SAINTED, as far as I'm concerned) Bill Veeck used to buy Major League Baseball teams the same way, and with the exception of the St,. Louis Browns, was pretty successful.

Well, Veeck was successful in buying the team. Thank the Random Quanta, since if he hadn't we never would have had the wonderful spectacle of Eddie Gaedel getting his one plate appearance as a Brown.

Veeck was correct in his analysis that St. Louis could support only one major-league team, but he was unsuccessful in his goal of running the Cardinals out of town, owing to Gussie Busch deciding he wanted to be a baseball baron as well as a beer baron.

My epitaph is inescapable. It will read: "He sent a midget up to bat."
--Bill Veeck