They're the two most hated team presidents in D.C. Sports, Bruce Allen and Ernie Grunfeld, and no one else even comes close.
Which is what makes this dilemma proposed by Danny Rouhier so darned difficult to sort through.
You can only move on from 1. Who do you give the pink slip to?
— danny rouhier (@funnydanny) March 29, 2019Rouhier made his case for Grunfeld Friday on 106.7 The Fan.
"To me the answer's Ernie Grunfeld as well, and I know I've made this kind of my passion project, to bring this up and do this all the time, but here's why. I actually believe in Ted Leonsis. This is a smart, sharp, and as you said, loyal -- maybe even to a fault -- but a really savvy guy. He's seen a lot of things coming before they happen, a.k.a. look no further what's going on with The Green Turtle, the sportsbook. It's not even legal yet! It's gonna be. He knows it. He'll be there. He's been on the forefront of a lot of things. You don't get to where he is by not seeing the angles, by being a dolt. He ain't a dolt. That's a smart man right there.
"You can see what happened with the Washington Capitals. Now maybe he's lost patience to some degree. I couldn't speak to his mind. I know this: He tried do it one way when he came to Washington, when he got ownership of the Capitals. He tried to go the Dan Snyder route. Let's buy Jaromír Jágr, let's buy a couple different players, and let's just go get it with a super team. You can't win that way. You've gotta win the way you do in other sports with stability, young players under team control, cheap contracts, etc. You've got to win with draft picks.
"He adjusted. The adjustment, and then they win Presidents' Trophies, and then they're knocking on the door year after year after year after year. All it took was a slightly different voice, who was already in the building, by the way, a disciple of George McPhee, for them to break through and win the ultimate prize.
"It wasn't because they weren't consistent. It wasn't because they weren't really good. They were always in position to compete. His own manifesto about how to be an owner says, 'An honest assessment is required at all times. Is this team as constructed good enough to win a title? If not, you blow the damn thing up.' I added the 'damn' part.
"He hasn't done that with the Wizards for some reason. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because Ernie Grunfeld's cheap. They don't announce any terms of contracts when they give 'em in secret.
"You cannot possibly, if you have any knowledge of sport, look at the Wizards with John Wall or without and say, 'This group, where we have no future assets, no ability to improve. We're over the salary cap,' before they made all those trades, 'before we get guys opting in, like Dwight Howard, before we draft a player, we're over the salary cap with this group, that has capped out a couple years ago, where John Wall killed himself for 82-plus games to be an All-NBA player. And that guy ain't walking through the door again, after a couple knee surgeries and now you add this Achilles' situation.'
"For some reason, his loyalty to Ernie Grunfeld defies all belief, it defies all logic and reason, and yet he's done it. I believe he is capable of being an owner, because we've seen it with another sport in the same damn building! He is smart, he is sharp and he can do it. If you employ a David Griffin, if you employ a GM that sees the angles, that sees where this league is going, the Wizards could be good. It's tough path, because Ernie's dug them a thousand-foot grave they've got to climb out of like it's Bane's prison.
"Flip to the Redskins: uh-uh. I don't care who you put in there, it's Dan Snyder's thing. They're doomed because it's Dan Snyder. That's why that's my answer."
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