If your phone rings and it’s Transparent Ted Leonsis on the line, don’t be surprised. He’ll just be asking how to run a winning NBA franchise.
The last time he did this was 2019, when he fired Ernie Grunfeld and was looking for a new general manager, and perhaps, along the way, discover some sort of secret Technik way to win.
Transparent Ted called 78 people to find out the best way to replace Grunfeld, who had put together a record of 568-724 over 16 seasons as the Wizards general manager. He called Barack Obama, according to the Washington Post. He called Gregg Popovich. He called David Falk.
He wound up with Tommy Sheppard, whose office was right next to Grunfeld’s and who Transparent Ted fired Wednesday night.
You call 78 people and you hire Tommy Sheppard? Transparent Ted must have ran out of minutes.
“Tommy Sheppard was relieved from his duties as General Manager and President of the Washington Wizards,” Tranparent Ted said in a statement. “Failure to make the playoffs the last two seasons was very disappointing to our organization and our fans. A search for new leadership will begin immediately for an executive from outside the organization. I would like to thank Tommy for his dedication to the Wizards organization and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Not a lot of transparency there.
He could have done this when the season ended April 7 with a Wizards loss to the Houston Rockets, finishing the season with a 35-47 record, a replay of the previous year. What was the point of having Sheppard meet with the media for the postseason press conferences three days later? What changed?
Was it Sheppard’s postseason press conference that tipped Transparent Ted over?
Among Sheppard’s comments was this very transparent quote: “We won 35 games. That’s disgusting to me.”
That may have been a little too much transparency for the owner. That’s the kind of transparency that’ll get you fired from Transparent Ted’s TV network.
There’s a big space between “disappointing” and “disgusted.” But Sheppard spoke the truth. The four decades of failure of this organization, with the occasional illusionary success mixed in, has left Washington basketball fans disgusted — if they care that much anymore.
Sources say there may have been friction between the two over the future of the Wizards highest-paid player, Bradley Beal (How funny is it that sports betting evangelist Ace Rothstein’s $400 million player is being sued by a fan because of an argument over a lost bet?).
Trading Beal has to have been a subject of debate within Wizards management. He makes $50 million a year and has not proven to be the kind of player that championship contenders are built on. He is a piece — a big piece — but not a foundation. He played in just 50 and 40 games in the last two seasons.
But the $251 million five-year max contract extension Beal signed in June 2022 includes a real no-trade clause, which means that he would have to approve any trade deal the Wizards tried to make for him. Right now, Bradley Beal is the Wizards general manager.
Sheppard loved Beal and was reluctant to try to trade him, sources said. Transparent Ted is believed to have fallen out of love after this season.
Whoever the next general manager is will likely have that task of making that trade to help the Wizards rebuild yet again and one that Beal will agree to. That person won’t be whoever’s office is next to Tommy Sheppard’s.
“A search for new leadership will begin immediately for an executive from outside the organization,” Transparent Ted said in his statement.
That didn’t go so good the last time.
Washington made a run at Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri after his franchise won the NBA championship in 2019. Transparent Ted was ready to make an offer of $10 million a year and a piece of the team, according to an ESPN report.
Transparent Ted denied the Wizards’ interest in Ujiri in a June 2019 statement. “Any reports that we have interest in Masai Ujiri as a candidate are simply not true, and we have never planned in any way to ask for permission to speak to him during our process.” But sources have told me that the NBA considered a tampering charge against Washington.
The Washington owner was turned down by Tim Connelly, a Baltimore native and former Wizards scout and director of player personnel, who interviewed with Transparent Ted but opted to stay with the Denver Nuggets as president of basketball operations.
Connelly is now the president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves, having signed a five-year, $40 million contract in May 2022. But now his boss will be baseball cheater and weasel Alex Rodriguez. Life in Minneapolis may not look so good anymore.
What may not be attractive to any GM candidate is inheriting Wes Unseld, Jr., as their coach, although Connelly and Unseld worked together in Denver. Washington has had two straight “disgusting” losing seasons under Unseld, a defensive expert who has coached two “disappointing” defensive squads. But reports have been that he isn’t going anywhere, after two years of a four-year contract. It’s hard to believe you would hire a new general manager and not allow that person to make their most important hire right from the start.
But, hey, if you’ve got any ideas, write them down and stay by your phone. You may be getting a call.
⦁ You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
Editor’s note: After the publication of this column, the Wizards contacted The Washington Times and strongly disputed any suggestion that tampering charges against the team were considered. NBA sources also contacted The Times and relayed that there was no basis to conclude any rules were violated and therefore no charges were ever considered. The Times and Thom Loverro stand by the column.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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