Chris Granger steps down.

#3
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#6
Not being anywhere near Sacramento I don't get to see the downtown in the new Arena and things but I know that Chris Granger played a major part and those things happening. Someone mentioned earlier in this post that the Kings are not where they are today on the business side without Chris Granger. For that I say thank you Chris and I wish you well in your future endeavors.
 
#7
https://twitter.com/CarmichaelDave/status/876963082760708096

Carmichael Dave‏Verified account@CarmichaelDave 32m32 minutes ago
More
Make absolutely no mistake: the Sacramento Kings and the City of Sacramento got weaker today. There is more to this.

27 replies9 retweets35 likes
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This is what I DIDN'T want to see........
I don't know that I buy it.. Someone asked:
Was it expected, or was there yet another example of instability within the Kings organization and Granger got tired of the non-sense?
He said:
Not my place to speak for chris and I take the man at his word. Draw your own conclusions.
How do you make a bold claim saying there's more to this, but won't say what it is? ok....
 
#8
He was a guy that you absolutely could not let get away he is/was a highly saught after exec and has a great reputation around the league. He basically runs the best arena in the league and is largely responsible for the buildings success to date.

I know people want to hope it was a mutual parting or it was at Grangers request but he has nothing else lined up! CDs tweet is not encouraging and even if theres no clear as day proof its not like we have earned the benefit of the doubt, CD wouldnt just say that. We just could let the Cavs out dysfunction us for one day ugh.
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
#9
I don't know that I buy it.. Someone asked:

He said:

How do you make a bold claim saying there's more to this, but won't say what it is? ok....
Those cryptic tweets leave you to speculate.....there was also a tweet by CD that said it was too hot and he needed to log off......something about people being adjusted and he already had a starring role in that...... I think m getting the gist of those tweets.

Doesn't sound good what ever the reason is.
 
#10
I don't know that I buy it.. Someone asked:

He said:

How do you make a bold claim saying there's more to this, but won't say what it is? ok....
Would it be so hard to believe that the kings FO somehow screwed this up? Especially considering the kings recent history?

We'd all like to believe that the kings FO has finally got their act together but if it turned out to be otherwise I for one would not be surprised.
 
#11
To recap,

Dave said in a string of tweets tonight:

1. The loss of Granger is (now, present tense) "absolutely devastating" for the Kings.
2. "There is more to this"
3. Linked to a fan tweet asking whether "Granger got tired of the non-sense" and said draw your own conclusions.

Then the caper, full text but moving the order of one setence:



I'm going to log off for a bit. ... It's too hot. I've seen this movie before and had a starring role.

Enough people have 'adjusted' lately.


Well then, the first three tweets certainly paid a picture, from a person that's clearly trying to communicate a problems exists and implying that the failure to walk the company line could be a problem for any KHTK that goes negative / against the Kings company line on bad news. Barling knows this well, Dave knows it REALLY well.

And then Dave shut it down, seemingly making reference to those events and the lack of his ability to say what he was thinking. While Dave said that he thinks "enough people have adjusted" and seems to want to paint the picture here, I doubt he persist or spills the beans. I doubt any other staff at KHTK or the Bee diverts from the company line.

While many are focused on the fact that Granger isn't leaving for another job, he was under contract with the Kings and it was his choice not to return. It would have been tampering for other teams or organizations to speak to Granger (which does happen, but less so for top shelf team staff than players which is a free for all). The "story" was "broken" by Voison, who has a well earned record of shoveling crap for the team.

While getting the place open was a huge task and they spin this as the job consisting of mostly selling sponsorship, going forward its worth noting that a big chunk of the pitch to the NBA Board of Governors was that the Maloofs had failed to properly market the team extract the funds that were laying around them. How they priced tickets, marketed the team, all of it. Not just a new arena bump, but that the business ops were poorly run. The new arena bump should smooth some growing pains, but if the business ops aren't run well, there will be less money to spend.
 
#12
I don't know that I buy it.. Someone asked:

He said:

How do you make a bold claim saying there's more to this, but won't say what it is? ok....
He almost expressly said why in the next tweet. He was fired by KHTK for being critical of the team. KHTK just suspended staff this spring for being critical of Vlade.

Expecting KHTK staff to break open the dirt on the owner is like waiting on OJ to find the real killers
 
#13
^^Great points above and since the kings went without revenue sharing for the first few years of the arena I'm wondering if there was a ton of pressure on Granger to generate dollars that just were not there, espcially with the state of the team and possible tanking outlook thats coming up. Our payroll has not exactly been bottom of the barrel the last few years.

Granger was out and about representing the franchise beautifully and if I remember correctly he was hand picked by David Stern to run the business ops for us. No matter how it is spun it is a huge loss for the team.
 
#14
Dave isn't stupid. Why would he go beyond what he's already said and put his kush job in danger? He's already gotten fired once and he saw what happened to Damien when he dared to belittle Divac. Personally I think he's already said too much.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#15
so just when we thought that there would be a drama free offseason for the Kings, we are now putting our own conclusions together based off Carmichael saying that "there is more to it" than what appears on the surface? Is Vivek back at it again.....maybe it's someone else?
 
#16
so just when we thought that there would be a drama free offseason for the Kings, we are now putting our own conclusions together based off Carmichael saying that "there is more to it" than what appears on the surface? Is Vivek back at it again.....maybe it's someone else?
Check this stuff out.

https://twitter.com/Devin_Blankship/status/876962528458297344

https://twitter.com/Devin_Blankship/status/876973011638693889

Keep in mind that this guy is a former Director of Media Relations.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...emarcus-cousins-sacramento-kings-real-problem

Skip the stuff about Cousins because that's irrelevant and fast forward to the end of the article where they start talking about Vivek. Or more specifically when they start talking about Kolokotronis. This is concerning stuff.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#18
I said said he sick of dysfunction, but I didn't say Vivek. My guess is that Matina played a large role in the dysfunction and perhaps the departure here.
Matina of course did such a great job running the team during the later Maloof years where they attempted to harvest anything they could from the carcass of the Kings franchise before throwing it out to sea.
 
#19
I don't see why fans would be concerned or displeased that the current de facto president of basketball operations was: (1) The de facto president of basketball operations during a time when the franchise was horribly mismanaged on that side; and (2) General counsel during the effort to move the franchise to five or six cities. Nope not at all

Arnovitz was here for a bit and he noticed: the size of her role, how vague her duties and how behind the scenes she was, that she was a holdover from the failed era, etc. The following podcast with Lowe expands.

Local media ... crickets.
 
#21
Check this stuff out.

https://twitter.com/Devin_Blankship/status/876962528458297344

https://twitter.com/Devin_Blankship/status/876973011638693889

Keep in mind that this guy is a former Director of Media Relations.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...emarcus-cousins-sacramento-kings-real-problem

Skip the stuff about Cousins because that's irrelevant and fast forward to the end of the article where they start talking about Vivek. Or more specifically when they start talking about Kolokotronis. This is concerning stuff.
So she was front and center during the darkest days in the franchise and now she's back clean as a whistle??? I'm afraid VERY afraid.
 
#22
The last time the Kings changed heads of business operations, the person leaving cited family reasons; at least a few folks seemed to claim that Matina had a least a little dirty hands; and she grabbed the reins and hold them from the shadows. https://www.sactownroyalty.com/2010/3/23/1387421/kings-dramatically-reshape Ironically, the link above seems to imply that Vision also broke that story in the Bee, hmmm, go figure.

I shed no tears for crummy Thomas then, but this is twice in seven years.

In part because she's tied in EVERYWHERE. Local politics and development, long history and ties with the business side of the Kings, seems to have played a large role in Vlade's hiring, is super tight with Peja. She did more with Peja's contract and transition that Hedo. Vivek seems to trust her a ton. She's tapped into both sides of the shop and around town and has the ear of the owner. Her role makes Chris Mullin's first season here small by comparison.

Sure hope the advice is better than it was 7 years ago.
 
#23
As some has pointed out, granger was hand picked by David stern from the NBA offices to work with the Kings business operations.

That means he lived and worked in New York for years prior to the Kings job and he is from Indiana. He graduated from Yale.

I'm sure there was politics involved in his departure, but he didn't seem like a Sacramento lifer to me, unlike jerry Reynolds, when he 1st accepted the position. He came and did his job well and effectively and now he wants bigger thing in the future.
 
#24
Matina of course did such a great job running the team during the later Maloof years where they attempted to harvest anything they could from the carcass of the Kings franchise before throwing it out to sea.
She has 100s of lives! Seriously, I just wonder how the **** has she survived for so long when better performing officials both in the basketball and business operations have been pushed out.
 
#25
She has 100s of lives! Seriously, I just wonder how the **** has she survived for so long when better performing officials both in the basketball and business operations have been pushed out.
As was mentioned above, she obviously has dirt on powerful people. No one survives this long with an organization that has such a high turnover. From what I've read and heard, both personally and 2nd hand, you do not mess with this woman. She will come out on top.
 
#26
Dave danced around everything above a bit without really saying anything. Said that he still didn't know whether or how he wanted to get into what's going on and what he doesn't like.

Skimmed that Granger was massive in saving the team and how much he likes and appreciates him. Katie ran through the approved talking points. And that's about it. Matina's name, the similarities to 2010, nor the quality of work by the two being elevated during the end of the Maloof era were not mentioned.
 
#27
Nobody has really spelled out what's so wrong with her. Was she the catalyst whispering in Joe/Gavin's ear to move to Anaheim or sell to Seattle? Was she the one who drafted Quincy Douby? Did she hurt Webber's ankle? Did she talk Vivek into firing Mike Malone? Is it her fault none of the STH ever got their seats from Arco Arena?

I just want to know the list of bad thinks Matina has done to earn such a lofty place in Kings villain lore. Someone's got to be in charge - why not her?

I have seen a few very disgruntled old-school rank & file Kings fans - twitter pals - jump ship due to the current regime's "snobby" ways of dealing with fans.

If Matina helps bring more of a "Maloofs in their prime" feel to G1C I don't see what is such a bad thing about that.

Chris Granger was a great project manager for the arena and he did a great job getting us from there to here. I don't see how or why the Kings should want to keep him around now though.

Nobody has published any legit reason to dislike or fear Matina.

edit - one more thing... the Kings ticket pricing structure is downright vulgar - they are charging Warrior champion Bay Area prices for the Sacramento Kings. One of the linked articles I read says Matina was a catalyst for lowering ticket prices when she first took control back in the 90's. If there is a culture change away from the intense focus on the wine & cheese crowd and she can "put cheeks in the seats" that's all to the good.
 
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#28
She and Reinhart ran the show from 2010 till the sale, so if you consider that to be the Maloofs' prime ... well that's certainly an opinion.

Regarding pricing of tickets, sure they lowered the prices of the top few rows but if you recall during that era The lower section tickets were so poorly priced and marketed, that large swaths were on sold for most games. Again, purportedly the marketing and pricing strategies were so bad that the pitch to the NBA argued that competent management would dramatically increase revenue.

There are a fair number of arguments that the team will be fine, but asserting that dredging these two back up based upon their acumen for pricing tickets in a manner that is best for the team, does not hold water
 
#29
She and Reinhart ran the show from 2010 till the sale, so if you consider that to be the Maloofs' prime ... well that's certainly an opinion.

Regarding pricing of tickets, sure they lowered the prices of the top few rows but if you recall during that era The lower section tickets were so poorly priced and marketed, that large swaths were on sold for most games. Again, purportedly the marketing and pricing strategies were so bad that the pitch to the NBA argued that competent management would dramatically increase revenue.

There are a fair number of arguments that the team will be fine, but asserting that dredging these two back up based upon their acumen for pricing tickets in a manner that is best for the team, does not hold water
That's fine and you for sure know the details better than me (timeline for one... I thought Matina jumped in with the Peja/Hedo stuff so assumed her tenure included the 'best of times'). ... but here and Reddit there seems to be a lot of hysterical Matina fear-mongering that isn't supported with any specific examples. I had a different impression from the linked article as far as when Matina's influence was most obvious.

So still... what did she do that makes everyone so mad at her? Fire Darren? I'm not following