You may get in trouble. You may get suspended from your job. You may bring on the wrath of advertisers. You may face the law of unintended consequences.
“Language that demeans will not be tolerated,” said CNN.
Whoops. Click here. This is happening a lot to bloggers out there.
Be careful before you hit send. A good life lesson for us all.
We are now 0 and 5 – but we are starting to play more as a team; and with more intensity and confidence. We have now started to get contributions from many players and I believe the team will now settle in and start to become more productive.
We are a very young team and we show lots of inexperience in crunch time. Last night was a good example; we had a lead going into the 4th quarter – and every time we came close; the Celtics ran a simple play – passed the ball crisply for easy points or a vet allstar hit a big three point shot. In fact – 3 point shooting efficiency last night was the crucial difference in the game results. A experienced historic player beat us. No shame in that.
A veteran laden team takes advantage of small details and break downs and capitalizes on them at the right time. We miss a free throw – we make a turn over at the wrong time. The only way for our young players to learn is to be thrown into the crucible of competition; live and learn. And gain experience. The Celtics; Lakers and Mavericks have the oldest veteran teams in the NBA; experience translates into wins, I understand that fact of life in pro ball.
As I have noted many times before – the process we are undergoing will be quite difficult – it is messy; it is painful; but we have no other course of action to pursue; we have chosen to build through the draft – manage our cap space wisely and build a team for the long term around young players. We will make trades at the right time; we will keep our players that form our core long term; we will add free agents when we believe it is the right time. That is the plan.
Rebuilding is a hard ship – I understand that – I am not wired to “smile” through it - I am just a realist- and have experience in rebuilding a team before – I understand that the process is a difficult one. I know that the media will pummel us with wicked pixels – the media reaction to a rebuild and poor performances and the mistakes that young players make – is a major reason that many teams that need a makeover or a rebuild decide to not pursue this course of needed action. It hurts. The short term pain of public opinion generated by the media is too harsh to take. But then again; if you have a veteran laden team that loses and there are a lot of those out there too – the media will pummel you as well. This all comes with the territory – no pain, no gain.
Winning cures all. I get that. We are 87 games into a new plan. 1 full season, 5 games into a new season.
I am patient. I want to see progress, I want to see our young players develop chemistry. I want to see effort. And development and players stepping up to be counted.
That is what will make me “smile”. Thank you.
As you can see - it is being redesigned.
We are still working the kinks out. Please bear with me and us as we stand it up and get it all working well.
And it is becoming a part of a Monumental Sports and Entertainment local network; that includes several microsites including Monumental Report; all toll – we think our local network can serve as a proxy for a next generation local sports and entertainment network; that serves fans – and residents/neighbors and advertisers well. It will have scale – reach lots of people; generate lots of commerce and lots of impressions for advertisers.
Stay tuned for more information about this development. Thank you.
I was speaking with some friends – a married couple – that had just celebrated the birth of a new born child.
The couple were discussing the birth and the first two weeks of parenthood; and the father said, ” I am surprised at how easy all of this has been on us”.
The wife then stared at the husband and said ” Easy? Excuse me? I was the one that birthed the child; that is breast feeding the child; that isn’t sleeping at all; that suffered the contractions. Easy? Easy for you to say!”
I laughed. But there was real genius to the sentiment here.
Being an observer is easy; being the participant is hard. The participant really knows about the process; the observer thinks they know! They usually don’t.
This is one the things that makes me sometime throw my hands up in frustration about some media reports I read. And the conviction that comes along with it via pixel generation. And the throw away lines to a big audience like the “easy” line above; without real critical thought. And without any grounding in reality. Nor caring about who it offends or hurts or diminishes.
I struggle conceptually with how a business reporter can write with such conviction about the progress of a company or its supposed travails and that reporter has never started a business – worked in a business- hired a person – managed a team; made a payroll. Raised a dollar of venture capital; dealt with a board – took a company public. Launched a product. Run a marketing campaign. Sold a product or service. Laid off a person – turned a company around. And on and on.
I once did a big interview with a reporter of a national media chain when I worked at AOL; and deep into the conversation it was apparent that the reporter didn’t know the difference between a balance sheet and an income statement. Didn’t know what GAAP reporting was; didn’t understand cash flow and OIBDA. He was a journalist – an English Major – and I ended up doing a tutorial on how to read a financial statement with him. Yikes.
The other day I read a report about a company that had suspended an operation and was “redeploying the 15 people that were assigned to the project”; and this news activated a huge set of articles about whether this was a good sign or a negative sign about a market and a competitive situation against two companies that combined employ more than 12,000 people. Stunning; so 15 people being reassigned vs. two market leaders with 12,000 people was that news worthy? Does someone who runs a business of say 10,000 people at scale around the world really compete with a company that has a side line business with 15 people dedicated to it? Really?
Or when a new blogger or reporter comes on the scene – has never played the game of hockey; youth hockey or any other organized sport. Hasn’t attended Caps games yet – didn’t grow up in the area and now starts opining and telling our franchise what to do to improve the team; who we should fire and hire. What we have done right and wrong in the past – without paying any dues; doing the work. Asking to meet with us; meeting the players and staff; mingling with other long term reporters to get the lay of the land. What other business can you do that in? It is so easy to set up a blog – to get hired as a young reporter and just start firing away to build an audience. Boom! Fire this exec. Pow! I want you – no I demand you do this! I am because I blog.
This is the new media world we live in. It is pixel buyer beware out there. Trusting what you read at times is going to be harder and harder. Becoming critical as a reader and considering the source is one of the new talents we all must develop as participants in this new world.
Birthing and raising a baby isn’t easy.
Generating pixels is.
Dan Grunfeld. Overseas life and travel; authentic; well written and real.
On SbNation.com. Great stuff here.
It is prime time now.
We have rebuilt quickly a roster.
A good mix of vets and youth.
We have kept the core together.
They are all coming into their prime.
We can not spend any more money.
We do not have a ticket left to sell.
We want a serious and focused group now.
Leadership comes from within. Torch has been passed.
A good insightful article. Thank you for caring and sharing.
And happy anniversary Japers’ Rink. 6 years old! A survivor and winner in the blogosphere. Maybe next year you will grow big enough to gain an assistant yourself 
. And in ten years…who knows maybe even a second assistant? Go Caps!
Crazy things that parents text their kids.
Here you go. Click here. Yikes – quite the site!
This is getting way out of hand.
I encourage our players to be interactive and to be transparent. I want them to be on Facebook or to Tweet away. To respond to emails; to be out and about; to sign all autographs; and to be approachable.
Thirteen years ago, I gave all of our players’ laptops and email addresses to jump start the effort. It was the first time in professional sports that happened.
Just so you know, I blog every day and I am on Facebook and Twitter. All of our players are as well. It is generational.What I did say in an interview was that while most people like interactivity, some fans have told me they don’t like seeing some players’ Tweets or posting personal photos and that seeing behind the curtain sometimes makes a fan lose some respect for the player.
Interactivity can cut both ways.
I hope this provides some perspective and context here as this is the third article I have read that makes it sound like I don’t encourage our players to be online and in social networks. Thank you.