Where in the heck is Les Alexander? Gilbert & Cuban shouted to the friggin heavens after the initial deals went down. They wrote/leaked e-mails (Gilbert) & went on radio shows (Cuban) and got what they wanted. We haven't heard jack from Les and the Rockets are getting SCREWED! Les Alexander should mount up his legal team and sue the hell out of the NBA. Cuban whines then in a blink of in eye winds up with the sixth man of the year (and one of the MAIN pieces of the initial deal), the Lakers still save money, and Paul still winds up in the L.A. market. Poor New Orleans, a franchise the league can't GIVE away, gets compensation and we're flat getting ignored. I would drag the whole lot of these azzclowns into litigation or at least blast Cuban, Gilbert, and Stern publicly. C'mon Les, time to flex your muscles if you've got them!
that's not how Les is..he handles things differently than Cuban... I am sure he is doing something or is going to, but he is not a guy who goes on tv or the newspapers and spews his opinion on things
Alexander is hanging out in a steam room, which would be any room that he happens to be in, the steam being provided by Mr. Alexander himself.
I'm sure Les is taking care of it. It is almost class-less to destroy Stern in the media...if anything that would just make matters worse. Let's hope Stern corrupts the lotto and makes sure we get the 3rd pick (not 1st..just to not make it SO obvious)
Les can be considered an "old school" owner. One who saw his own investment in the NBA team skyrocket over the years. He bought the team for $85 mil, and now it's worth $443 mil(Forbes estimate) as the #5 most valued NBA franchise under Stern's direction. He and Jerry Buss are both fairly on the side of Stern. The vocal owners are the ones who recently bought their teams for insane money. This is part of the reason why you didn't see a huge stink raised by the Rockets and the Lakers. Hopefully, Stern will at least reciprocate this relationship by helping the Rockets out later on. You know, in case conspiracy theorists are correct when it comes to refs and lottery balls.
Les, Stern submarined your best hope for a star center and left your offseason plans in a shambles. I know you were opposed to tanking before, perhaps thinking an instant rebuild with Gasol/Nene was worth taking a gamble on. But, we're behind the 8-ball now and our best hope really does lie in the 2012 offseason. Maybe now would be a good time to tank it?
You can find the franchise value here. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/32/basketball-valuations-11_Houston-Rockets_322525.html They have a sweet stadium deal with lots of suites sold. Good TV deal. And lots of sponsorship. I mean, I'm sure Toyota sponsored the Rockets because of Yao, but they will still continue to pay for the naming rights. The Rockets are making plenty of money. I don't know how much Stern has a hand in all this success, but he has certainly been the commissioner throughout these years.
Jonathan Feigan of the chronical answered this question yesterday in his blog. He said Les has been right in the middle of all of this. Owners like Gilbert and Cuban have a tendency to be media whores, that's why it seems like they are more active owners than Les. The Rockets are actually a money making asset for Les, so don't worry, he's around making noise behind the scenes when it affects his product.
