Celtics To Leon: Business is Business!

by nickagneta on Jul 1, 2009 10:04 AM EDT Comment 11 comments

Being a businessman, I understand that executives and business owners and people who run businesses have a responsibility to the greater good of the organization, a responsibility to the stockholders, a responsibility to the other employees and a responsibility to the bottom line. But that doesn't mean that those people who make the tough decisions aren't people and that sometimes the decision you make doesn't cause you to lose sleep and think as to whether a more Good Samaritan decision wouldn't have been the better one. Business men and women are people too.

Enter Leon Powe, Danny Ainge and the Celtics tradition of family. Leon Powe spent the better part of the last three years being everything the Boston Celtics wanted him to be. He came off the bench, he started, he rebounded, he developed, he learned and he contributed. And those contributions allowed Danny Ainge to trade away a lot of young talent so that the Celtoics could have the Big Three and those contributions helped this team win over 150 games and a championship and many playoff series over the last two years.Leon Powe was the consumate professional and the epitome of what NBA experts like to call a "second round bargain".

So what happens to Leon? He wrecks his knee doing everything asked for him just as his contract is running out and just as he is due for his first big NBA pay day. And his reward for being the company guy and doing whatever asked of him and more....the door. Sorry Leon, business is business and our window of opportunity tells us to usher you out the door. I don't know about the rest of you but that's a house with doors and windows that I'm just not used to seeing our favorite basketball team live in. This is a Celtics business I'm not used to seeing. Casting away team favorites and good people because of harsh business decisions is the way of the modern Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. Not the Celtics. They've always been about family and pride and mystique and being together through it all.

I understand the business behind the decision and I understand that the greater good is served by not letting a roster spot on a championship contender be taken up by a guy who might not even be able to play this year. It's a tough one. But it doesn't mean I have to like it. Leon has done more for this team than Giddens and Pruitt ever have and probably ever will. He deserves the chance to rehab and come back and be able to show this organization that he can contribute again and be worth that contract that he has already so richly earned and deserves.

And possibly, he will be back. Danny can still trade two or three players for one in an attempt to upgrade the team and keep a spot open for Leon, but there's just as good a chance that Leon will not be back with this team next year as they compete for a championship that Leon's contributions are somewhat responsible for because he was good enough to keep and let others be traded for players currently on the team. I hope that is the situation and Danny finds a way to resign him. Because if you know the Leon Powe story, and that's a story better told by others but one worth listening to, you know this is a guy that you can root for and a guy that will come back and be worth keeping.

Leon Powe is a good man and a good man is hard to keep down. The Celtics should know this and do the right thing to ensure Leon Powe is a Celtic with a chance to show that he can and will come back. I hope for the best for you Leon. You've been a good Celtic and you're an even better man. You deserve better than a "business" decision.

Be respectful and keep it clean. Thanks.

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Great post, thanks for writing it.

I agree with you and I feel bad for Leon.

I don’t know if, economic wise, the Celtics could have offered him a minimum contract which wouldn’t have increased the luxury tax. I was surprised to learn that Danny didn’t make any kind of offer to Leon, even a “discount” one, especially after all Leon has done for the team and Doc’s will to re-sign him.

However after a terrible offseason last summer (Danny basically did nothing to improve the team), I feel like he made the right choice here by keeping us an open roster spot which can be filled in many ways until we know what our needs will be just prior to next season’s opening night. Maybe our roster will be filled and we won’t need Leon. Maybe Danny won’t have added many good players and we will need Leon to come back soon.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m sure that Leon will be back with the team, and I hope he does sooner than later (February 2010 seems so far away). At the same time he isn’t totally rejected from the Celtics family as he’s got guaranteed access to Waltham and the medical staff to help him do his rehab.

It was a tough decision to make, and unfortunately Leon’s injury happened at the worst possible time of the season both for him and the Celtics. If not injured he would been negotiating a big extension now and his future would look bright. It’s not the case and I just hope that things ultimately turn well for him and the team, but I’m sure he keeps faith in the organization and his former – very odd to type this word but it’s the sad truth for now – teammates.

by Drucci on Jul 1, 2009 2:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

agree, nice post

its a shame that the celts dont have enough big men off the bench to make up for having one guy sit out for the first half of the season. That would be the fault of upper management as well i guess.

It almost seems to me like Ainge doesnt know the direction hes going right now, and is praying that they get somebody decent to come to boston.

Still, watching Tony Allen suit up in Celtic green and knowing Leon Powe, Mr. Celtic himself, is out of a job, or playing for another team, is a shame.

It was tough losing Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes, but the prize was KG in return. This is just losing a great player and person for nothing- it stings a lot more.

by jimmyt on Jul 1, 2009 5:11 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Keep Powe, loyalty counts and besides, he has more in the tank

ACL’s pose not the problem they once did. Emotion counts for much; the team likes Leon, the fans like him. Truly, sacrifice is sometimes not enough; in Powe’s case, it should be.

by socal celt on Jul 2, 2009 4:59 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Business as usual, Nick.

Great fanpost, like always.

Reporter: About a year ago I asked about the Celtics-Lakers thing and you said you'd really only seen it on TV. Now you've been through it, can you talk about playing the Boston Celtics for the NBA championship?
Kobe: It Sucks.

by indeedproceed on Jul 2, 2009 12:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

here is the door leon ??

ainge is a dirt bag how can you spit in the face of a guy who sacrificed hi career for the team he was a big piece to our championship and was solid when kg was hurt and dont give me this garbage that it is a buisness move dump pruitt dump that thug tony allen that every chicago hoodlum wants to kill him thats the player you want to keep over powe its a disgrace all the players that play with heart get shafted ainge to me you no longer are a celtic to me you are a backstabber red is rolling over in his grave you disgust me …….

by lohaus#54 on Jul 2, 2009 5:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

You know what really steams me about this?

It’s that we aren’t talking about showing the door to an expensive player or long time player. We are talking about a guy who was a perfect example of what a franchise wants in a player and in a person. A man they could put out in the forefront of their PR campaigns to charities and youth organizations and the community and be proud to call him one of theirs.

And what would it have cost them? $1.6 million(luxury tax included) this year with a team option for the next year and a roster spot? Danny, for all intents and purposes, left a roster spot open two years in a row awaiting. In 2007-08 he went with 14 guys until signing PJ, or was it Sam. Last year he paid Sam to do nothing, essentially the roster spot was empty for all the contributions on the court that Sam gave last years team.

And given the fact that it appears that Danny is going to go hard after a full MLE big man and probably a full LLE wing or quality, he’s really not going to need the roster spot this year. Say the C’s sign Rasheed Wallace and Anthony Parker and Robert Swift and Marbury. Are you telling me that Leon doesn’t deserve the chance to be secure and paid during his rehab?

The playoff rotation will be set from day 1. The starters, Wallace, Parker, Marbury and House is your nine man rotation. No one else should ever need to see the floor in the playoffs unless there’s foul trouble. Also, by spending all that free agent money, the chances of them bringing back Baby is probably small. So Swift, Walker, Giddens Pruitt, Hudson and Leon can’t make up the last of the bench?

I just don’t get it. I think this was a bad humanitarian and PR move on Danny’s part even if, business wise, it makes sense.

by nickagneta on Jul 2, 2009 7:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

to nick agneta

i agree 100 percent with you its like the knicks years ago with bernard king did the knicks tell bernarg hey see you until you come back no they waited for him and it worked out powe is no king but its about some type of loyalty and respect ….

by lohaus#54 on Jul 3, 2009 10:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

We are all Celtic fan’s we can agree on that. Now what every one wants is fairness RIGHT!! It has to work both ways, for players and the team. When you here players say they want money…all the money they’re worth (Stehon M.) in the past. How can we condem them when a team treats a player like Powe, like garbage. It has to work both ways. Players are not stupid…if players cannot get your loyalty thin how can you expect to get theirs?

A good business deal used to be everyone walked away feeling pleased with the result. Now the norm is if you don’t stick your finger in someone’s eye it’s not a good business deal. The celtics were founded on loyalty and then winning. Do you people think all the past Celtic players ( Cousy,KC Jones. Sam Jones Tommy H., Bill R., Jo Jo W. Hondo) were payed there true financial worth. Of course they weren’t. But they did it and from there loyalty came this steller franchise.

RED understood this but Danny — will understand it.

by tyquinton on Jul 2, 2009 8:37 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs