Re: ryan on ownership

[Eggcentric@xxxxxxx]

< Does anyone on the list have any insight into why Ryan is so down on 
the new owners? And please do not simply chalk it up to "they're simply 
too enthusiastic." I would imagine Ryan would love an enthusiastic group 
of owners particularly after Gaston. > - Tom Murphy

Insight? Probably not, Tom.  But here is my .02 cents anyway. I would 
love to raise my rate to .03, but honestly, after so much resistance to 
my .02 bargain rate... 

Here are Bob Ryan's two references to the new owners -

    < I might even go so far as to label him (Walter) ''lovable.''
    But that is not a word anyone other than Wyc Grousbeck and Steve 
    Pagliuca, those time-warped dreamers, would use to describe the 
    finished product. The question is not necessarily whether the 
    Celtics will advance. It's whether the fans want them to.  That 
    would require further viewings, and people may already have 
    decided that enough is enough for one season. > - Bob Ryan

    < So it's 1-1 and the Celtics are going back home to a building 
    they hardly own. But 1-1 it is, and if you aren't grateful for that 
    good fortune your name must either be Wyc or Steve. > - Bob Ryan

MY TAKE is that Bob Ryan feels:

1) The new Celt owners very much overpaid ($360 mill for a franchise 
that Forbes Magazine estimated the value of at $218 mill) for a 
product/team they naively overrated and assumed through their smarts 
that they could actually improve the bottom line, make scads of money, 
and have a little fun.  

2) The new owners are living in the past (''time-warped dreamers'' 
caught up in the Celt's storied history) and that they could not believe  
their precious purchase could lose even one playoff game on the road.  

3) The new owners are even more naive for thinking their team 
was actually worthy of raising ticket prices even before the season 
ended and the playoffs began. 

4) That anointing co-owner and venture capitalist Stephen Pagliuca as 
de facto GM rather than replacing Wallace with an experienced GM,  
also smacks of hubris.  To be fair, I should mention here that Pagliuca 
was the starting PG at Jefferson Memorial Jr. High before studies got in 
his way.

Is it a stretch to assume that Ryan is simply thinking that our new 
BT are sophomoric CONTROL FREAKS?  That he questions if Harvard 
B School ever offered a course in NBA Basketball 101?  Is he fearful 
that we will eventually see co-owner Wycky Grossbeck succeeding 
Obie on the bench, his dad as head scout, and his mistress dispatched 
to Monaco as VP of Euro operations?   

Eggy