Interesting Vivek article.

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Siranthony

Starter
#1
#1
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...-ranadive-kings-golden-1-center-nba/91837248/

Interesting tidbit: "Yeah, and this is what was absurd. I’d never actually spoken to the coach (Michael Malone, who is now head coach of the Denver Nuggets). I’ve spent more time with this coach than I did with the previous coaches combined … I still have the highest regard for him, but you’re put in a difficult situation. I mean from Day One, the GM (Pete D’Alessandro, who now works with Malone in Denver as the Senior Vice President of Business and Team Operations) and him didn’t get along. They hated each other’s guts."
 
whozit

whozit

Starter
#2
#2
Siranthony said:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...-ranadive-kings-golden-1-center-nba/91837248/

Interesting tidbit: "Yeah, and this is what was absurd. I’d never actually spoken to the coach (Michael Malone, who is now head coach of the Denver Nuggets). I’ve spent more time with this coach than I did with the previous coaches combined … I still have the highest regard for him, but you’re put in a difficult situation. I mean from Day One, the GM (Pete D’Alessandro, who now works with Malone in Denver as the Senior Vice President of Business and Team Operations) and him didn’t get along. They hated each other’s guts."
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I thought the part about Abdur-Rahim was interesting. Talk about dysfunction.
 
ElRey

ElRey

Starter
#5
#5
"
“Yeah, and this is what was absurd. I’d never actually spoken to the coach (Michael Malone, who is now head coach of the Denver Nuggets). I’ve spent more time with this coach than I did with the previous coaches combined … I still have the highest regard for him, but you’re put in a difficult situation. I mean from Day One, the GM (Pete D’Alessandro, who now works with Malone in Denver as the Senior Vice President of Business and Team Operations) and him didn’t get along. They hated each other’s guts. They didn’t even want to share an assistant. Then later on, I found out that the GM had fired a guy who was part of the coaching staff and had sued us. (As Ranadive confirmed, he was referring to Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the former Kings assistant coach turned assistant general manager who left the organization in the 2014 offseason. According to multiple people with knowledge of the situation, the Kings – under threat of a civil lawsuit for “hostile work environment” – paid the final two and a half years of Abdur-Rahim’s deal. The people spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the situation).

“And in retrospect, when I was told about (the Abdur-Rahim exit), I was shocked at some of the things that had happened. But there was – they tried to fire (Malone) right from the get-go, and I was peacemaker. In fact, (team president) Chris (Granger) was in the office when I sat everybody down and I said, ‘Guys, this is – we’re all in one boat.’ My exact (message) was, ‘You can’t say there’s a hole in the other person’s side of the boat, because if there’s a hole in the boat we all sink.’…These two guys (Malone and D’Alessandro), they never spoke. They hated each other. They hated each other’s guts. It was like one person would say one thing, and then the other person would say another thing. And they wanted to get rid of him very early on, and I was the one who said ‘No, no, let’s make it work. Let’s make it work.’”



Looks like PDA did a lot more damage than originally thought! arrrgh... Thanks PDA!
 
funkykingston

funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
#6
#6
If true, this makes things even more ridiculous than I thought.

But again this is Vivek's view of things and has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Especially when I read the bit about Petrie not wanting to be there when Geoff said the opposite at the time. The truth is somewhere in the middle of all the different accounts.
 
upinsmoke

upinsmoke

All-Star
#8
#8
chasen4r1 said:
Man.. I forgot how quickly my fiery anger towards PDA can get stoked. That guy set us back years.
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Sabotage. How about the gerbils first move as gm being the signing of Carl Landry! Because it's common basketball knowledge that a player of DMC's skillet would be perfectly paired with an undersized ground bound non shooting pf with no legs. Our yeah and don't forget to push the pace.
 
Kingsfan23

Kingsfan23

All-Star
#11
#11
As a Vivek supporter this article just reinforced my current belief, he wasn't the catalyst for Malone firing/Stauskas etc and has been needlessly taken to the shed by the national media. I will continue my support

Interesting that he confirms Karl tried to trade Cousins
 
upinsmoke

upinsmoke

All-Star
#12
#12
Kingsfan23 said:
As a Vivek supporter this article just reinforced my current belief, he wasn't the catalyst for Malone firing/Stauskas etc and has been needlessly taken to the shed by the national media. I will continue my support

Interesting that he confirms Karl tried to trade Cousins
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The fish always rots at the head. What happened to Vivek isn't terribly uncommon with businessman who venture into pro sports because the rules don't translate. Vivek has become incredibly successful in the tech industry by being driven by data it's what he knows. In sports there are things that can't be measured (intangibles) and that is just one example of many where the rules don't apply. Also to be frank he was bamboozled by his "friends" in Mullin and Gerbil just to name a few. Firing Malone was Viveks fault because he's the ultimate decision maker who has to scratch those checks.
 
A

andjel

Bench
#13
#13
upinsmoke said:
The fish always rots at the head. What happened to Vivek isn't terribly uncommon with businessman who venture into pro sports because the rules don't translate. Vivek has become incredibly successful in the tech industry by being driven by data it's what he knows. In sports there are things that can't be measured (intangibles) and that is just one example of many where the rules don't apply. Also to be frank he was bamboozled by his "friends" in Mullin and Gerbil just to name a few. Firing Malone was Viveks fault because he's the ultimate decision maker who has to scratch those checks.
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That is one way to describe this. It can be spinned different way, that makes more sense to me.

One can say that he was fully aware of his lack of knowledge in pro sports, so he picked two advisors that are supposed to take care of that, Mullin and Gerbil. It is not like those two are not in the pro sports industry.
Him overriding those two advisors regarding Malone's firing would be the case of a businessman venturing into something he has no clue about. Once the fallout was evident, the advisors are sacked, and based on Vlade's tenure Vivek learned his lesson.

The difference is that the mistake was wrong hiring of advisors (which is correctible) vs arrogance which is much tougher to change.
 
bajaden

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#14
#14
funkykingston said:
If true, this makes things even more ridiculous than I thought.

But again this is Vivek's view of things and has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Especially when I read the bit about Petrie not wanting to be there when Geoff said the opposite at the time. The truth is somewhere in the middle of all the different accounts.
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In fact, by the accounts I read at the time, Petrie did volunteer and help out with the workouts. I felt at the time Vivek should have retained Petire to see how things would work out. He said no one was there, but he has to remember that it was him that fired everyone.
 
IfAt1st

IfAt1st

Starter
#15
#15
Sorry, I don't trust Vivek as far as I can throw him.

Well, actually, he's so small I could probably throw him farther than I trust him.

Vivek has spent a lifetime creating a persona and narrative about his actions. He's a professional at it!
So interviews are simply a tool by which he manages perceptions.

He says he didn't want Stauskas, despite everything that was shown in the War Room videos?
So what happened (in the 2014 draft) ... I’d had another player who had tried out for us that I had liked, and that I had thought was great. And by the way, I’ll tell you, it was (Orlando Magic point guard) Elfrid Payton. But everybody else wanted another player – (Nik) Stauskas (now of the Philadelphia 76ers). And so they told me to say (Stauskas), and obviously I’m not going to say that I wanted Payton but they picked Stauskas. I made a big deal of all-for-one and one-for-all, so ‘Whatever you guys decide, I’m going to say yeah to Stauskas.’ That got put on camera, but what was I going to say, that ‘Hey, I don’t agree with their choice?’
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Sure - Vivek was the one who wanted someone else, but he took the fall for everyone else telling him to pick the wrong guy?

Sorry - not buying it.

Then, he says he didn;t fire Malone.
Sorry, Malone is on record as saying it was Vivek that caused him all that pain of firing.

Between the two of them, I trust Malone's word way more than Vivek's damage-control statements 2 years after the fact.
 
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notoriousBEN3

Bench
#16
#16
Great to get a little clarity, but I will say that Vivek comes across VERY defensive. He doesn't seem to be pinning much, if any, blame on himself. Obviously there is a learning curve with any job and it's good to hear him say that, but it still kind of sounds like he has no idea what he's doing, and it's on Vlade now. Hope Vlade know's what HE'S doing...
 
jcwkings

jcwkings

All-Star
#17
#17
Vivek fails to take any blame for the turmoil, I don't trust the guy at all and hope he is telling the truth when he says he is letting Vlade handle basketball decisions.
 
hrdboild

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#18
#18
This just makes me sorry that I ever defended him. Even now after the dust has settled he doesn't come across to me as a hard-working professional who has learned some tough lessons and is the better for it. Instead he comes off as oblivious and desperate, in way over his head, and pointing fingers at everyone but himself. The narrative that has developed here is that Vivek was too active and eager early on but he's given over control to Vlade now and things are headed in a positive direction. Listening to how Vivek answers these questions though paints a very different picture. He apparently knew the Malone/D'Alessandro feud was a problem and did nothing to resolve it, instead letting it fester long enough to sink multiple seasons. He says he's talked more to Coach Joerger already than the previous coaches combined? That's a stunning admission. You believe in a guy enough to make him your first hire, run your first draft in the absence of a tenured GM even, and then you don't even take the time to talk to him about the team? For years? Apparently the only reason Malone got fired is that he didn't cozy up to the owner like his more career-minded colleagues. Which is a damned tragedy.

Is the dysfunction over? It might be. But if it is it won't be because Vivek has done anything proactive to stop it. He provided the money to keep the team -- for which all Sacramento Kings fan will always be grateful. But beyond that, he's shown himself to be as clueless about running a professional sports team as this organization's previous owners. I have serious reservations about Vlade's personnel decisions so far but that's the wagon we're hitched to for now so we'll see how far it goes before the wheels come off. Whomever chose Stauskas over Payton deserved to be fired and considering Vivek is the only man left standing, we can be reasonably sure that they have been. That doesn't mean Vlade will be any better. He's passed on a lot of talent already in his two drafts. I do like the new coach though he wouldn't have been my pick. And for what it's worth, I don't think he's a better coach than Malone.

Ultimately it doesn't matter though. Tickets will be sold. Games will be won or lost. Players will be traded, signed, drafted, and one season will follow the next. I'm trying to remain cautiously optimistic from a distance but as the new season approaches I'm finding myself more excited by the other story lines around the league that haven't worn out their welcome. Is Minnesota the next Western Conference dynasty? Can James Harden average 30 points and 15 assists for a season as the focal point of the entire Houston Rockets offense? What happens in San Antonio now that the Big Fundamental is in a suit instead of a jersey? Is Embiid for real? Will the Bucks field the most skilled all-bigman lineup ever? Will Michael Kidd-Gilchrist resume his rise as the best wing defender that nobody cares about? As a basketball fan there's a lot to be excited about. As long as the Kings have DeMarcus, they'll always be just a few pieces away from being really good. I don't necessarily see those pieces on the team right now, but there's plenty of good basketball to watch in the meantime and if it never happens... well, baseball season is always going to be just around the corner. :)
 
gunks

gunks

Hall of Famer
#19
#19
I dunno. .... I have mixed feelings about the article.

On the one hand, I agree with those saying it should be taken with a grain of salt. There is a lot of fact denial and buck passing going on there. Petrie wanted to be here. Vivek pushed 4 on 5. Vivek wanted Nik.

On the other hand, that little **** PDA is as good a skapegoat as any. F that guy. And you could tell by his answers in the interview that Vivek, at the very least, is aware of his mistakes (even if he wont cop to them). It remains to be seen if he's learned from them.

Even a couple years ago, when Vivek's constant antics drove me up a wall, I'd acknowledge that the potential was there for him to be a good owner.

He can BS about the past all he wants, hopefully he isn't BSing about the future. It would definitely seem that this is now the Vlade show. So, onward and upward (one would hope)!
 
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bajaden

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#20
#20
I always find it interesting to hear everyone's take on an article like this, and how people seem to be reading a different article than I did. I will admit, I have no agenda with Vivek. I don't love him or hate him. Most of what I know comes from someone else's opinion. What I got from the article, is the he still has a business operation that takes most of his time and that he would rather leave the day by day operations in the hands of whomever he's hired.

In that regard, to my mind, he admits making some bad decisions. He admitted in the article that hiring the coach first was a mistake, but explains why he did what he did. There is a difference between an explanation and an excuse. He admited his choices at the time were determined by the situation. A situation he had never been confronted with before in business. He admitted that his lack of knowledge of how the NBA worked, and keeping things close to the vest, were foreign to him. He was coming from a different world that operated entirely different from the NBA.

He didn't say it in these words, but he basically admitted that he followed the advice of people he shouldn't have listened to. People that had agendas. The question now is whether you take him at his word or not. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time he's addressed any of this, and it does help to clear the air some. He confirmed what was reported in regards to Malone and PDA. That they hated one another. And that PDA tired to get rid of Malone from the outset.

I can see his point of view, and I can put myself in his shoes to some extent. In any event, it's water under the bridge now. All we can hope for is that he has learned from it, and he is letting Vlade run the show. I like to know where the buck stops.
 
Padrino

Padrino

All-Star
#21
#21
hm. vivek doesn't really come across well in this interview. he deflects often and strikes an unearned defensive pose.

i can certainly appreciate the realities that he was faced with upon purchasing the team; he had little time to move on hiring a gm and head coach. but it seems in very poor taste to air out the franchise's dirty laundry in this way, particularly with regard to the relationship between pete d'alessandro and mike malone. vivek speaks of the differences between silicon valley and the nba, and how the former prizes the sharing of information while the latter prefers to keep its secrets well-guarded. then he proceeds to leak information that's best left on the inside, including a forceful assertion that PDA and malone "hated each other's guts" and a petulant gesture that he's prepared to "write checks" to minority owners who are unhappy with his stewardship of the franchise thus far? it's not a good look AT ALL.

i dunno, vivek just doesn't seem like a terribly sympathetic figure to me. rather than babbling on and on about being a "peacemaker" and who he really wanted to draft in 2014 ( :rolleyes: ), i'd prefer it if he just said, "look, i've gotten a few things right since assuming ownership of the team, and i've gotten more than a few things wrong. i'm learning better what it takes to be an nba owner, and i intend to do my best for sacramento kings fans from here on out." leave it at that. no need to dig deeper holes. no need to reopen old wounds. no need to smear the names of those since departed from the franchise's employment.
 
S

sdballer

Starter
#23
#23
Padrino said:
hm. vivek doesn't really come across well in this interview. he deflects often and strikes an unearned defensive pose.

i can certainly appreciate the realities that he was faced with upon purchasing the team; he had little time to move on hiring a gm and head coach. but it seems in very poor taste to air out the franchise's dirty laundry in this way, particularly with regard to the relationship between pete d'alessandro and mike malone. vivek speaks of the differences between silicon valley and the nba, and how the former prizes the sharing of information while the latter prefers to keep its secrets well-guarded. then he proceeds to leak information that's best left on the inside, including a forceful assertion that PDA and malone "hated each other's guts" and a petulant gesture that he's prepared to "write checks" to minority owners who are unhappy with his stewardship of the franchise thus far? it's not a good look AT ALL.

i dunno, vivek just doesn't seem like a terribly sympathetic figure to me. rather than babbling on and on about being a "peacemaker" and who he really wanted to draft in 2014 ( :rolleyes: ), i'd prefer it if he just said, "look, i've gotten a few things right since assuming ownership of the team, and i've gotten more than a few things wrong. i'm learning better what it takes to be an nba owner, and i intend to do my best for sacramento kings fans from here on out." leave it at that. no need to dig deeper holes. no need to reopen old wounds. no need to smear the names of those since departed from the franchise's employment.
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This times 1000. I'd rather not hear anything else from him with regards to the basketball side of things.
 
Bricklayer

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#26
#26
Padrino said:
hm. vivek doesn't really come across well in this interview. he deflects often and strikes an unearned defensive pose.

i can certainly appreciate the realities that he was faced with upon purchasing the team; he had little time to move on hiring a gm and head coach. but it seems in very poor taste to air out the franchise's dirty laundry in this way, particularly with regard to the relationship between pete d'alessandro and mike malone. vivek speaks of the differences between silicon valley and the nba, and how the former prizes the sharing of information while the latter prefers to keep its secrets well-guarded. then he proceeds to leak information that's best left on the inside, including a forceful assertion that PDA and malone "hated each other's guts" and a petulant gesture that he's prepared to "write checks" to minority owners who are unhappy with his stewardship of the franchise thus far? it's not a good look AT ALL.

i dunno, vivek just doesn't seem like a terribly sympathetic figure to me. rather than babbling on and on about being a "peacemaker" and who he really wanted to draft in 2014 ( :rolleyes: ), i'd prefer it if he just said, "look, i've gotten a few things right since assuming ownership of the team, and i've gotten more than a few things wrong. i'm learning better what it takes to be an nba owner, and i intend to do my best for sacramento kings fans from here on out." leave it at that. no need to dig deeper holes. no need to reopen old wounds. no need to smear the names of those since departed from the franchise's employment.
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On the flipside:

a) its not as if these events had just happened, and everybody noted them and went on. Blame in fact was assigned. To Vivek specifically. So at the point you have been falsely accused (if it is false) the desire to set the record straight is a much more powerful one than a desire to keep something behind closed doors. After all what's the point of that? Everybody already decided Vivek was the villain and an idiot. The whole point of closed doors it to shield any one person from that blame. Well, the blame fell anyway. If it happened to fall on you, you might justly be expected to try to return it to the rightful owner.

b) because of the major stink of everything that went on the entire Kings brand was damaged, to the degree of its a stupid loser franchise, and specifically with a standard attack line that since Vivek is still there, things can never get better. So again, for the sake of the Kings reputation, for money, to be able to sign free agents, etc., you might very well decide to open up (truthfully or untruthfully) and point the finger at people no longer with the organization so you can say, look, we had bad apples, they have been purged now, we're fine at this point, come sign with us!
 
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bajaden

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#27
#27
Padrino said:
hm. vivek doesn't really come across well in this interview. he deflects often and strikes an unearned defensive pose.

i can certainly appreciate the realities that he was faced with upon purchasing the team; he had little time to move on hiring a gm and head coach. but it seems in very poor taste to air out the franchise's dirty laundry in this way, particularly with regard to the relationship between pete d'alessandro and mike malone. vivek speaks of the differences between silicon valley and the nba, and how the former prizes the sharing of information while the latter prefers to keep its secrets well-guarded. then he proceeds to leak information that's best left on the inside, including a forceful assertion that PDA and malone "hated each other's guts" and a petulant gesture that he's prepared to "write checks" to minority owners who are unhappy with his stewardship of the franchise thus far? it's not a good look AT ALL.

i dunno, vivek just doesn't seem like a terribly sympathetic figure to me. rather than babbling on and on about being a "peacemaker" and who he really wanted to draft in 2014 ( :rolleyes: ), i'd prefer it if he just said, "look, i've gotten a few things right since assuming ownership of the team, and i've gotten more than a few things wrong. i'm learning better what it takes to be an nba owner, and i intend to do my best for sacramento kings fans from here on out." leave it at that. no need to dig deeper holes. no need to reopen old wounds. no need to smear the names of those since departed from the franchise's employment.
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No offense intended, but it strikes me that it wouldn't matter what Vivek said. You wouldn't like him regardless. Your mind seems closed when it comes to him, and that's fine. If I'm wrong on that, I apologize. But the way you putting it, he's dammed if he speaks out and tells his side of it, and he's dammed if says nothing. Sort of a lose/lose for him. I don't think he was trying to paint himself as a sympathetic figure. He basically tried to say, as tactfully as he could, that he really didn't know what he was doing when he took over ownership of the team.

I understand that's not exactly what he said, but if you listened carefully, that was the implication. Hey, no one, and I mean no one wants to admit that they screwed up, much less on a national level. In regards to smearing names, the only name he actually smeared was PDA, and as far as I'm concerend he can do that everyday seven days a week. He mentioned Malone, but didn't smear his name. Malone didn't like PDA, and why would he if PDA was trying to fire him from day one?
 
bajaden

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#28
#28
Bricklayer said:
On the flipside:

a) its not as if these events had just happened, and everybody noted them and went on. Blame in fact was assigned. To Vivek specifically. So at the point you have been falsely accused (if it is false) the desire to set the record straight is a much more powerful one than a desire to keep something behind closed doors. After all what's the point of that? Everybody already decided Vivek was the villain and an idiot. The whole point of closed doors it to shield any one person from that blame. Well, the blame fell anyway. If it happened to fall on you, you might justly be expected to try to return it to the rightful owner.

b) because of the major stink of everything that went on the entire Kings brand was damages, to the degree of its a stupid loser franchise, and specifically with a standard attack line that since Vivek is still there, things can never get better. So again, for the sake of the Kings reputation, for money, to be able to sign free agents, etc., you might very well decide to open up (truthfully or untruthfully) and point the finger at people no longer with the organization so you can say, look, we had bad apples, they have been purged now, we're fine at this point, come sign with us!
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You said it better than I did. Damm, I hate admitting that.:eek:
 
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