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Punish the offenders, not the fans. Kawhi Leonard’s uncle tried this with the Lakers and failed, but apparently succeeded with the Clippers. He has been banished for five years, but it should’ve been lifetime. The team is fined $30 million, a drop in the bucket to the owner who, with other executives, got suspended for up to a year. Leonard gets fined $700,000, also a drop in the bucket for someone who should also have been suspended. But five first-round draft choices eliminated for the Clippers, a team that was already acquiring draft picks in an obvious rebuild! That’s just grossly unfair to the fans, since that’s a virtual “death penalty.”
The needs of the two outweigh the needs of the many. The Clippers gave up future MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, 10 first-round draft picks, two first-round draft swaps and $30 million. For Kawhi and his demand to sign Paul George.
Columnist Bill Plaschke asks the question, ”How can any of the Clippers partners or sponsors or fans trust this team with their dollars or their time or their affection after they were apparently caught knowingly breaking one of the NBA’s cardinal rules?”
The answer is that, just as was the case with the cheating Houston Astros, just as was the case when the MLB canceled the World Series, just as was the case with Tom Brady and the deflated footballs, the fans will soon forgive, forget and return, because we as a nation have come to expect and accept corrupt behavior at every level of nearly every industry.
Hardly a Sterling performance for the Clippers’ owner!
What am I missing here? The Times has reported that Forbes valued the Angels at $2.9 billion, yet Stan Kroenke has offered Arte Moreno $4 billion to purchase the team and its related assets. One can understand overpaying by a bit to acquire something special, but overpaying by more than a billion dollars is highly questionable.
Once the signatures are done and the deal to buy the Angels is completed by Stan Kroenke, his first act as the new owner should be to change the club’s name back to Anaheim Angels or California Angels. That would set things right again.
Last Tuesday morning I texted my 18-year-old cousin — whose family has been Angels’ season-ticket holders since 1986 — to let him know of the sale of the Angels by Arte Moreno.
He responded back quickly “best day ever!” To put things in perspective, the Angels last won a playoff game in 2009, when he was 1. Yes, there is joy in Orange County.
As a lifelong Angels fan, I am thrilled about the sale of the Angels to Stan Kroenke. He knows how to put the right people in the right positions and let them do their job. He has proven that.
I only have two requests. Please keep the current local announcers. They have been loyal and always looked at the glass half full during the last decade of constant losing. Please also keep the prices affordable. As a comparison, to go to a Dodger game it is at least two to three times as expensive. When you have a family of four, this amounts to hundreds of dollars more per game.
A sincere thank you to Arte Moreno. Not for lowering beer prices. Not for the wayward free-agent signings. Not for meddling in personnel decisions. And certainly not for having Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani together without winning a postseason game.
No, Arte, thank you for finally selling the Angels to someone with a remarkable history of building successful teams. It may be the best thing you ever did for the franchise.
Is Bill Shaikin employed by The Times or the MLB players’ union? All we hear is that ownership stinks (except the spend-crazy Dodgers) and multiple-millionaire players are at risk. One argument he cites against a salary cap is record sale prices for teams. Like anyone with a house whose value keeps rising he should know that such is meaningless until you sell that asset. And right now owners buy teams to keep, not to unload and make a quick profit.
Source: Read the original article on www.latimes.com
Written by https://futureknowledge.in/
