A lot of precedent goes into the high Rox price. Ballmer quickly got return on his investment so it showed that buying an NBA franchise is worth it. Secondly there was a lot of interest from potential buyers like Beyonce so that probably jackes up the price too. Most importantly though the Rox have been top 4 in profitability since Les' tenure, that shows he has a bang up incestment/managing team in the org. So you have a precedent showing massive $$$, lots of interested competitors and a history of $$$, no wonder the price got jacked up so much.
Fertita is mafioso, young and brutal and won't put up with any of this crap they were doing to an 80 year old owner. It's time somebody muzzles Morey and locks up Harden with the white tigers if he shows up drunk again.
As a few others have pointed out here, my biggest concern here is this: how much is he willing to spend? Historically, the Rockets rarely if ever dip into the luxury tax, but now times have changed. We're in win-now mode, and in order to win you have to spend. Is Tilman wiling to spend right now after this major acquisition?
They want to minimize it as much as possible, but their willingness to re-sign Livingston and Iguodala shows that they understand and are willing to do so to keep the team together, even with KD's (b**** made) move to take less.
Tilman for sure, but now Les is going to be far more liquid after this sale which is far more preferable for him at this stage of his life I'm sure.
I'm pretty sure if Alexander had Durant who was willing to take a discount he will also keep Iguadala and Livingston. I mean he ends up paying the same amount so why wouldn't any owner pay that? Pointing to rare cases like GSW is not really a good comparison because spending to the lux tax doesn't mean you get a team like GSW. Knicks, Blazers and BKN Nets were historically the highest lux tax payers I don't see you praising their owners.
Hey OP, you mind doing the new owner a solid and editing your Thread Title to spell his name correctly. Correct spelling is in the tweets you posted in your OP here's how: in the upper right of your opening post you will see Thread Tools. Click that and you will see Edit Title. Cheers
Are they paying luxury tax though? If Durant had insisted on the max, they probably would have let those guys go.
I'm not going to have an argument about ethics and ethical business practices in the GARM, nor am I going to discuss politics here, which you brought up. I'm concerned about Fertitta buying the Rockets and have said why. That he cares nothing for history in his business dealings should concern some here. That he has been dogged with rumors of mob connections since I first heard of the man concerns me. I hope there is nothing to those rumors. I hope he is respectful of the history of the Rockets. Perhaps he will be. It would be good for business, and it would be good for the fans. Fans like me. As I said, I'm not going to view him through rose tinted glasses. His business practices concern me, whether they concern you or not. I'm not naive. I don't need a lecture on how ruthless business can be. I've been on both sides of the topic during my life. What I care about here are the Rockets. Again, I wish someone else had purchased the team. If the man turns out to be a great owner, I will lead the applause, but it won't change my opinion about his history as a developer. Hey, and as far as Les is concerned. I've lost track of how many times I've praised his ownership. He hasn't been perfect, not by a long shot, the uniforms being an obvious sore spot, but that Alexander had the balls to hire Morey counts for a lot, in my opinion.
Wow @MVP4THREE is a complete dumbass. What an idiot... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/tilman-fertitta-probably-cant-buy-the-rockets.284271/
I don't think you understand what I'm getting at, I didn't say anything about Alexander. Les was in a position to dip into the lux tax if necessary - he's owned the team for years and has already recouped his investment several times over. And I don't disagree with your other points at all. I'm talking specifically about the Rockets situation. The Rockets are already, although minimally, over the luxury tax threshold. We're closer to a championship than we've been in decades (not counting 2009). In the next year or two (or even next week or two if the Melo trade comes to fruition) we will likely have opportunities to improve the team to further cement ourselves as contenders, which would put ourselves further into the luxury tax. Would a brand new owner who paid over 70% his net worth to acquire the team be eager to pay an aggressive luxury tax over the next couple of years to preserve our "window"? They are paying a **** ton of tax lol. They prob would have let one of them go, but GS isn't a good comparison which is why I didn't bring it up. With GS, the moment they signed KD they knew they were gonna pay a ton of luxury tax over the next few years. KD's decision to take less helped, but at the end of the day they're still paying a ton of tax. My question/concern is, would a new owner who just paid a record price for a team be willing to make moves like that?
Thank you, sir. I also like to post that HowTo regarding editing titles any chance I get, just because people don't know it exists, and appreciate the ability to fix their typos. It's one of the great improvements from previous bbs software.
Oh I knew how to fix misspellings in titles. It's just I didn't know correct spelling of Tilman. My phone auto corrects it to 2 L's all the time