The Egregious Eight: Who Are The Worst Owners In Sports?

Hmmm...maybe it was a bad idea to fire Rick Adelman

8)   William Clay Ford, Sr.   The Detroit Lions were 31-84 with Matt Millen calling the shots.  Incredibly, during Millen’s reign of ineptitude Ford actually gave him a $5 million a year contract extension.  How is that even possible?  What an insult to Lions season ticket holders and fans.  After the Lions started the season so pitifully last year, Ford’s son finally pressured the old man into giving Millen the axe.

7)   John Moores    San Diego tax payers were hoodwinked into building Petco Park by Moores and then he didn’t spend the money necessary to field a quality team (or even a major league caliber team during the past two seasons).  Moores and general manager Kevin Towers often talk about San Diego being a small market.  Kansas City, Cincinnati and Minneapolis are small market cities…not San Diego.   Due to a recent divorce, Moores was just forced to sell controlling interest of the franchise to former agent Jeff Moorad.   Hopefully, next season Padres fans can look forward to the club signing players a little better than guys on their last legs like Vinny Castilla, Tony Clark, Jim Edmonds and Cliff Floyd.

6)    Dan Snyder    The poster boy for meddling owners.  Snyder bought the team so I suppose he can do whatever he wants.  However, the Redskins will never be successful unless Danny Boy can learn to get the hell out of the way.  If he’s not throwing Monopoly money at high profile free agents then Snyder can probably be found berating his revolving door of head coaches in the training room.   Although Snyder seems to have perfected how not to run a professional football team, he is buddies with Tom Cruise.  So he has that going for him…which is nice.    

5)    The Maloof Brothers    Although there definitely was a lot of early success in Sacramento, the Kings fortunes during the past few seasons have really soured.  One reason for this descent into the abyss is the meddling of team owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof.  Since they are seemingly joined at the hip, I’ll just count them as one owner.  Despite GM Geoff Petrie’s preferences, the Maloofs insisted on hiring both Eric Musselman and Reggie “Hang Time” Theus.  Both coaches were ineffective and had very short stints on the bench.  Interim coach Kenny Natt also didn’t do anything to distinguish himself.  Now Paul Westphal has been brought in after the Maloofs wouldn’t pony up enough money to ink Kurt Rambis.  With Sean May being the “big” free agent acquisition this off-season, it doesn’t seem like the Maloofs have any interest (or resources) to make the Kings a winning basketball team again for a long time.   

4)    James Dolan      The stench of the Isiah Thomas Era in New York still is not completely gone…however it’s getting close.  Dolan giving Thomas a blank checkbook for all those years to wreak havoc on such a storied franchise bordered on being criminal.  Dysfunction doesn’t even begin to describe the atmosphere and culture in the Knicks front office while Thomas was running the show.  The decision to hand the car keys to Donnie Walsh was a prudent one and Dolan obviously made a concerted effort to stay out of the spotlight last season.  The Knicks aren’t going to sniff the playoffs in the foreseeable future, but at least Mike D’Antoni’s high-octane offense adds a little luster to a Big Apple that had become very tarnished. 

3)    Michael Heisley    Although it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that Heisley is a successful man in his other business ventures, he is an absolute embarrassment as an NBA basketball team owner.  The latest chapter in an ever expanding list of baffling decisions was the recent declaration by GM Chris Wallace that all full-time Grizzlies scouts had been terminated.   Of course there is also the debacle known as the Pau Gasol trade.  Wallace is a bad enough general manager as it is without the owner forcing him to trade the team’s best player for pennies on the dollar.  The only way Memphis will ever become a formidable franchise in the league is if Heisley sells it someone that has an interest in actually winning games. 

2)    Robert Sarver    I am 99.9999% sure that I will never have enough money to buy an NBA team.  I wish my financial circumstances were different, but facts are facts and I’m a realist.  In April of 2004, it was announced that a group let by Robert Sarver would be buying the Phoenix Suns.  Approximately two months later, the team traded away the 7th pick in the draft (Luol Deng) for a future choice mainly for luxury tax purposes.  In 2006 the Suns traded the 21st pick (Rajon Rondo) along with Brian Grant’s sizable contract for a future draft choice for salary cap relief.  Also, the No. 27 pick (Sergio Rodriguez) was sold to Portland.  The following year the No. 24 pick (Rudy Fernandez) was sold to the Trailblazers.  In addition, Kurt Thomas along with two future number one draft choices (2008 & 2010) were traded for a future conditional 2nd round pick.  I just have one simple question for Sarver:  Why in bloody hell do you want to own a professional basketball team if you can’t afford it?

and the worst of the worst is…

1)    Donald Sterling     The Los Angeles Clippers’ putrid performance over nearly three decades speaks volumes.  During the time Donald Sterling has owned the team, the Clippers have finished the regular season with a winning record a grand total of two times.   Although Sterling recently has shown a willingness to open up the purse strings and spend some money on players, allowing Mike Dunleavy to retain the dual role of coach and general manager is the ultimate F#ck You to anyone caring an iota about Clippers basketball.  Dunleavy has taken incompetency to an entirely new level during the last couple of seasons (42-122 record) and Sterling refuses to hold him accountable.  Unless Dunleavy has pictures of Sterling fellating farm animals one can only deduce it is because Sterling doesn’t want to pay his coach/general manager to sit at home picking the lint out of his navel.  This is simply unacceptable and the primary reason why the Worst Owner In Sports trophy resides on Sterling’s desk…and will remain there until Dunleavy is dumped.  

Drew is also a featured blogger at Sir Charles In Charge.  Subscribe to the Pacman Jonesin’ feed by clicking here