We Wizards fans are an emotional bunch.  When we fall, we fall hard.  It doesn't take much -- probably due to our low self-esteem, unfortunately.  That's why we gravitate towards fixer-uppers, drifters, and underachievers.  But don't question our love -- it is true, deep and as over the top as a 12 year old girl's crush on the kid with the dimples and curly blond hair.  (Have I hit 75 words yet so I can post this dang poll already?!!) 

I'm sure you all have followed the story this week about Daniel Snyder suing the Washington City Paper.  I won't go into the details of the situation or why Snyder's allegations are bogus and his actions are reprehensible -- you can read that stuff elsewhere.  Instead, I will argue why we, the members of the BulletsForever community, have an obligation to support the Washington City Paper.

Dan Snyder does not like to be criticized -- who would?  But he has shown he is willing to take extreme actions to stop that criticism.  During the 09-10 season, after fans started bringing signs critical of him to games, stadium officials confiscated signs as fans entered the stadium.  And then in November 2010, in response to Dave McKenna scathing critique of Snyder in the Washington City Paper (http://mirror.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/40063/the-cranky-redskins-fans-guide-to-dan-snyder.html), Snyder's attorney wrote a letter to the City Paper threatening to put the Paper out of business.

Why does this matter to the BulletsForever community?  Based on the flimsiness of Snyder's allegations, I believe that Snyder's real goal is to intimidate those who dare to criticize him.  Not just the City Paper, but every small paper, magazine, blog, or writer tempted to criticize him.  You don't think that every writer or blogger writing a negative piece about Snyder will now think -- even if only for a split second -- "Will this get me sued?"  And if that happens, I bet a lot of writers will pull their punches, at least a little bit.

If Snyder owned the Wizards, Mike Prada and SB Nation would be affected and threatened, and so would this blog community.  Fortunately, our Wizards are owned by Ted Leonsis, not Snyder.  But we still have interests here.  Any attack on the press is an attack on all of its readers.  By declaring war on the City Paper, Snyder has declared war on all of us.  So, we need to respond.

Everyone should respond in the way that is most meaningful to him or her.  I am responding by writing this post, and contributing to the legal defense fund that the City Paper has established.  You can read about it here:  http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/legaldefense. 

By standing up to Snyder, we are standing up for a free and unintimidated press, and standing up for ourselves.   

I started posting here at Bulletsforever almost two years ago, and as I have said before, it saved my sanity.  Like many of you, I presume, I don't personally know anyone who can talk about the Wizards in as much depth as I can, so I can only find such people online.  The first place I went was the Washington Post's Wizards Insider.  It was o.k. for a while, but frankly, many of the posters there were downright asinine.  In my freshman year in college, my roommate was quite a loser.  There was at least two occasions when I was sitting on my side of the room studying and he was on his side, lying in bed in his underwear with a lighter, trying to ignite his farts.  That's how I would describe my days of posting on Wizards Insider -- me trying to have a decent conversation, and many others trying to light their farts.

Posting on Wizards Insider was driving me crazy, but then I found Bulletsforever.  The intelligent conversations we have here were/are such a relief.  It's not always intelligent, and I think Mike needs to skim the pool perhaps a little more frequently, but it is quite good as internet chatrooms go thanks to the efforts of Mike and his editors and contributors.

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There haven't been many posts on this blog lately, for many reasons:  no especially electric new developments, Mike's off building his D.C. media empire, etc.  So, I thought I would roll out this subject for discussion.

In recent weeks and months, we've discussed what the Wizards SHOULD do going forward.  But let's discuss what we think Grunfeld WILL do, for better or worse.  We know the statements Leonsis has made, and thus the sort of direction and expectations he has for Grunfeld.  We know Grunfeld's history, the types of teams he has built in the past, and the types of players he tends to favor.  We know the Wizards have the #1, #30, and #35 picks this June.  We know Leonsis wants to get more picks.  We know the Wizards have cap room.  We know Grunfeld is able to make trades.  And we know who the coach is.

So, who does Grunfeld pick with the #1, #30 and #35 picks?  (And who should he pick instead?)  What other picks will Grunfeld get (if any), and who will he pick with that pick or those picks?  What free agents does he sign this summer?  What trades does he make this summer and this season?  What is his long range plan?  And do you approve or disapprove?

Even though I chose the headline I did, there are a lot of conclusions you can draw from what I write below, each rather troubling.  The statement issued by the Wizards today after Stern announced Gilbert's suspension initially struck me as odd, but it took a while for me to realize how odd and problematic it was.  There has been lots of criticism of Gilbert's actions and comments since the gun incident, but the Wizards organization's statement today is just as unwise, coming from people who should know better.  The Wizards' statement is so bad that it might become evidence in the criminal trial for Gilbert, used by Gilbert's attorney to discredit any negative testimony offered by Ernie Grunfeld or anyone from the Wizards organization (as I explain below).  Yeah, that's pretty bad.


In its statement, the Wizards organization stated that it, "fully endorse[s] the decision of the NBA to indefinitely suspend Gilbert Arenas."  That statement was illogical and problematic for many reasons, including the following:

- Arenas is the team's franchise player.  He is a central figure in the team's marketing, and the team's customers buy tickets in large part to see Arenas.  You "fully endorse" the league's decision to deprive your customers of your main attraction?  Even if the team isn't going to support its player, shouldn't it support its customers?  Is a season ticket holder revolt coming?

- The Wizards organization has a financial interest in Gilbert being suspended.  It does not have to pay him during the suspension, and (if I have this wrong, please correct me) since his salary during the suspension will only be counted 50% toward the salary cap and luxury tax, the Wizards save 150% of Gilbert's salary during the suspension.  That's $296,000 per game, or roughly $600,000 per home game.  I don't know if Gilbert's suspension can be sufficiently long to help bring the Wizards under the luxury tax threshold, but if so, the Wizards can avoid the tax, AND share in the distribution of the collected luxury taxes.   

- The Wizards have a great financial interest in Gilbert's contract being voided, and this is where it gets really interesting.  As many have discussed, if the Wizards can void Gilbert's contract, they not only can save money, but can start rebuilding more quickly.  But more importantly, they can sell the team for more money.  We've seen it before -- when an owner is looking to sell his team, he seeks to cut payroll before the sale.  In any business, the lower the future liabilities of the business, the more the business is worth, and the more it fetches in a sale.  Someone out there will know much more about this than me, and if so, please post your thoughts below, but when a business is being sold, to price that business you usually take key business data, such as sales, earnings, etc., and multiply by a multiple.  The multiple varies by industry and other factors, but I think is usually is between 2 and 6 or so.  So, if the Wizards can get rid of the remaining $80 million of Arenas's salary, by saving that money (and let's ignore other factors here for simplicity), when they sell the team, they can raise the asking price by $80 million times that multiple.  So we are talking about the Pollins gaining hundreds of millions of dollars in the sale by voiding Gil's contract.

Now, the Wizards organization can probably only void Gilbert's contract if he is convicted of a felony.  And wouldn't you know it, members of the Wizards organization are fact witnesses in the criminal case!  I don't mean to call anyone a liar here, but I can tell you as a lawyer that Gilbert's attorney may very well seek to discredit and treat as a hostile witness any member of the Wizards organization who offers testimony in any way harmful to Gilbert's defense on the basis I have spelled out here.  Talk about ugly.  And that's why the Wizards' press release today was so problematic -- they were applauding the suspension of their own franchise player.  Add to that the fact that when Grunfeld first heard about the incident, it's been reported very soon thereafter he started thinking about voiding Gilbert's contract.

- Consider this from the perspective of a Wizards player.  Your teammate is on trial, your organization is trying or may try to void his contract, and your teammate's attorney is claiming in court that the organization's employees are fudging the truth to the detriment of your teammate, putting him at risk of going to jail, in order to save money.  How do you feel about that?  How do other players in the league feel about that?  You think the Wizards are going to score big in free agency when players are at least considering the above possibilities?  That's why I chose the headline for this post that I did -- seeking to void Gil's contract can become very messy.

- Now, consider this from the perspective of Ted Leonsis.  If the Wizards void Gilbert's contract, your purchase price goes up (but you are saving Gilbert's salary and have a cleaner slate to rebuild), and because of the above, the Wizards' reputation among its players and league-wide may be harmed, making it harder to attract free agents.  If I am Leonsis's attorney, I am spelling all of this out for him, and we are thinking hard about whether to run to court to get an injunction preventing the Wizards from voiding Arenas's contract before the sale of the team.  The best of all possible worlds for Leonsis:  the current Wizards' organization does not void Gil's contract, the criminal case is resolved without all the terrible things I've mentioned above occurring, and then after Ted has the team, he can make the choice as to whether to void the contract or not.  For the that reason, it could be wise for Leonsis to seek an injunction, or better yet, to get the Wizards to agree to not void the contract without going to court and creating anomosity with the Pollins.

Now, of course I am not saying all of the above will happen.  I am just saying that there are all sorts of weird and perverse motivations, incentives and possibilities at play here,  so much so that this situation could become very interesting and potentially destructive to the organization we follow so closely.