Further, what do you think Morey hates more, Harden having strong player control OR Tilman handcuffing Morey's moves? I think Morey has accepted the *players movement.* In fact, he has embraced this movement. I think he likes their involvment and looks at it as an advantage in terms of recruiting. BUT, OWNER handcuffs.....is a different story. I think Griff could deal with LeBron....it sounds like dealing with OWNERSHIP that is not rowing in the same direction makes it more difficult.
They got to 4 finals and won a ring. If not for injuries and durant maybe they with 1 or 2 more. That is 2-3 rings and 4 finals. If Morey did that I am sure people would be ecstatic. At the end of the day there is pressure when you are at the top.
Morey has said this many times, he is very pro player empowerment. That empowerment doesn’t get in his way. The only thing that can get in his way is ownership and how it could handcuff his options.
Broussard said he texted with him this morning and he said "things were taken out of context." And now he's going on The Jump. Just own it!
What would you specifically like to set the record straight about? Well first of all the fact that I even need to do this at all or felt compelled to do this speaks to the original point I was trying to make in the piece and obviously did it very poorly. The whole backdrop of that conversation was about the noise around that Cavaliers team and the media portrayal of all of it. The fact there was so much scrutiny in everything we did, when I was speaking about being uncomfortable and "miserable", it was my inability to deal with that media scrutiny. It wasn't the man himself. It was everything that came with a team led by LeBron James. Had nothing to do with being miserable with LeBron. We had & have a positive relationship. The other thing that bothered me the most and frankly none of this matters other than it's inherently wrong, the story was designed to be all about the Pelicans and how our past & how everything we learned through our failings we were going to apply to how we build this Pelicans family. The writer got a great deal of information from many people in the organization about our team & what we were trying to do. I was disappointed the story became about me and the sensationalized version of quotes taken totally out of context and quite frankly, none of the information was new information. I've said this many times in media while working in media the past 2 years prior to coming back. I was just disappointed with the way everything got presented. Let's get to the point then. What would you like to say about your relationship with LeBron and working with him/his agent Rich Paul? And I said this & this is in the story, if you look at the story itself & read it in it's entirety, the part about the noise around building a star-laden team is alluded to in a very cursory way towards the end. The entire backdrop of the conversation was about that and how poorly I dealt with that. My relationship with LeBron & Rich was very strong and remains very strong. As recently as a week ago, LeBron tweeting something about my wife & a charity event she was working with. Absolutely we had a strong relationship & enjoyed working together. In the story, "LeBron wasn't the same animal about winning as before that accomplishment." What were you seeing different in 2016-17 than he was in the previous 2 seasons. Again, this was a conversation that started around our failings previously, the things we learned & how we'll learn from them and apply those lessons moving forward with how we build the Pelicans. I failed miserably in getting everyone to the right sense of urgency following the championship. My belief at that time was there's no way anyone born in Akron, Ohio, delivers the first championship in 52 years to Cleveland, Ohio and be the same human being. It's not possible. You're a person. My fear at that time was he wouldn't have the same desire to win. What we've seen is he's gone to multiple Finals since so it was an unfounded fear at the time but the article doesn't give you the context. LeBron has addressed this & said he doesn't have anything left to prove. This wasn't new information but presented in such a way that made it sound like I'm currently saying that and that's not at all what took place. You also said "Everything we did was so inorganic and unsustainable, not fun, I was miserable. The moment we won the championship, I knew I was gonna leave. There was no way I was gonna stay for any amount of money." What made you feel that way? Again, it was my inability to deal with all of the scrutiny around that team. Everything was in the public eye all the time. That was not an enjoyable process. When the only thing that marks success for an organization is winning a championship, that's not a terribly enjoyable thing. Having said that, no one cares whether or not someone who's miserable enjoys what they're doing. We were blessed to have people in our lives like Kyrie Irving & Kevin Love & LeBron who were playing at a high level and coach like Ty Lue. That was a journey well worth going on but all the noise around it sapped the joy from it & piece does touch on becoming caught up in results every single day that your joy for basketball becomes sapped. It was inorganic. We went from a team in the lottery multiple years to a team LeBron comes back from & you must win a championship right now. You can't do that in a sustainable way. It's damn the torpedo, let's go win right now. That's not an enjoyable process from a team building perspective because it's not sustainable & it's totally inorganic. The piece goes into some detail about comparing & contrasting by way of example of Golden State got to go through the process. Learning how to win together, lose together & deal with that and go forward. We didn't get that opportunity. That was not an enjoyable aspect of things. Why make these comments and knowing where the comments can go? This was done in a conversation that took place in Summer League. It was done in the backdrop of 'We're doing a story on the Pelicans & everything you've done in the past & how that led you want the opportunity with Ms. Benson & what led you to this as being the right opportunity & do it in an organic way.' The conversation that took place was in the context of this is person I am and how I got here. I never believed the story would be written about me. I believed it was going to be written about the Pelicans & where we are headed in the future. It never dawned on me that would be something that was focused on. You've been on both sides of this player empowerment era. I look at it having been in that circumstance and this is a totally different era. The signature shoe situation has changed a lot of what happens. The mathematics behind what happens. Players have the bandwidth now financially to take a year-to-year chance & continue to hold organizations accountable. The money is tremendous in the game, off the court. It affords players a different sort of leverage than they had before. The whole league is dealing with that. I've dealt with it just as others have. How will things be different this time around in New Orleans? I would have told you from a media perspective I would be more well positioned to deal with the noise. I can't help but look at the irony of us sitting here having this conversation. I'd ask the three of you, had I made these comments about any other player, would it be a 2-day media cycle? You're talking about a guy who by himself is sensationalized for the sake of ratings & click bait. That happens with him all the time. Should I have learned the lesson? Absolutely but nothing could crystallize this more clearly the point I was trying to make that we're having this dialogue now. You also said you think your team can be the fastest pace team in the history of the game. How does this team compare to those 7-seconds-or-less Suns? Stylistically, we'll be different. If you look at those teams, the way we played would have been bottom of the pace. Teams are playing faster. This team has a huge advantage with length & athleticism that lends to playing fast. We should be able to defend at that pace. Where do things stand with Zion? Absolute cannon of an arm. Can throw it 65 yards on a spiral. He's done a good job with our coaches. He's putting in 2-a-days because he cares about being great. The piece touches on we went long on the human element. We called it a recruiting class. They look at themselves as a family. What has surprised you in your time with him? How grounded he is. He's incredibly humble. He's team oriented. You can hear it from others but when you feel that from him, how much he does NOT want to be in the spotlight, how much he does NOT want it to be about him, as an organization you feel like you have to protect him from those things. Some of what we learned from around a LeBron-led team, we hope helps puts him in a better position to succeed.
