After the Washington Wizards shipped Bradley Beal off to the Phoenix Suns, I went looking for answers in the Ted Leonsis bible — his 2010 book, “The Business of Happiness.”
I looked through the index and scanned the titles of the various chapters — “He Shoots, He Scores,” and “Rebuilding at Happy Company.”
I searched for explanations in “How Did I Come to Know What I Think I Know” and pored over the chapter “A Higher Calling.”
Try as I may, I couldn’t find any passage — in a book that promises to reveal “6 Secrets to Extraordinary Success in Work and Life” — that addresses the trade of a star player signed a year ago to a $251 million contract extension.
That contract, with its no-trade clause, made Beal the most powerful person in the organization.
Now he’s gone. In exchange, the Wizards get Chris Paul, who likely won’t be unpacking his bags, Landry Shamet, multiple second-round picks and the right to swap picks.
Maybe this deal is the Leonsis “7th Secret.”
In some circles, Michael Winger, the newly arrived team president, is getting credit for pulling off such a dramatic move so quickly after his arrival. But Debra Winger could have made this deal. It is such a low return on investment that I’m betting even Ace Rothstein himself wouldn’t even have taken the action on it when he signed off on the Beal contract extension two years ago.
Let us not forget that truth, as much as Transparent Ted would like us to after he threw fired general manager Tommy Sheppard under the bus on an ESPN podcast. There is no contract extension or no-trade clause without Transparent Ted’s approval.
Six second-round draft choices? Ernie Grunfeld, the former general manager who seemed to despise second-round picks, would have told the Suns to keep their draft picks and send some crypto instead.
I get there were few other options, and for the Wizards to move forward once again under this new front office, the untradeable Beal had to be traded. He is a terrific player. But he is a second or third piece on a championship-contending team — like he now will be in Phoenix with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Beal is not the foundation you build a title team around.
But in the conversation of pathetically foolish sports moves in this town, the Wizards finding themselves in this position ranks among the worst.
For that, you can thank Transparent Ted, who, after 13 years of full ownership of the franchise — following becoming a part-owner in 1999 when he bought the Capitals from Abe Pollin — put himself here. That’s 24 years of being in the NBA business and this is what he has to show for the knowledge he has supposedly absorbed over that time.
Then again, I suppose Transparent Ted thought he had it all figured out when he had the nerve to write a book called “The Business of Happiness” — which came out the same year he took over full control of the basketball team following Pollin’s death.
That’s when Transparent Ted pronounced that his ownership would be one of transparency. “I try to pride myself on being transparent and honest, both good and bad,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
He didn’t say how hard he tries.
Transparent Ted wasn’t very transparent when he secretly gave the arsonist fireman Grunfeld a contract extension as general manager in the fall of 2017, according to the Washington Post. And then there is his famous promise he made to reporters in 2019, when Transparent Ted said, “We will never, ever tank.”
I guess you could make the case this isn’t tanking. It’s more like a drowning.
Before the trade, when Transparent Ted was strutting around town over the remake of the Wizards front office after years of wallowing in the Grunfeld mess, he went on the radio and boasted of his record as a team owner — not just of the Capitals, who won a Stanley Cup in 2018 and have been a consistent winner — but, shamelessly, his tenure as Wizards owner.
“Just look at my track record as an owner, and what we did with the Caps, and with the Wizards when I first came here — we’ve made the playoffs five of the last 10 years,” he told 106.7 The Fan.
For a fan base that has been walking through the desert for more than 40 years, this boast is tone deaf — but transparent. It reveals what Transparent Ted thinks of himself. He’s very impressed. He’s a happy guy. It’s his business.
⦁ You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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