by shabba_93 on Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:12 am
Chapter 1: A New Washington
What the hell am I doing here. That is the question I asked myself, as I sat in the reception of the Washington HQ waiting for a meeting with Wizards owner Ted Leonsis. Only 24 hours earlier I'd been sat drinking in a little bar on a beach in miami. My name is Joe Hall but that probably won't mean anything to you, very few people have heard my name. My role in basketball has always been one behind the scenes or insignificant. I'd started out as a promising player myself during my high school tenure and even managed to take my ball to the college level signing on to play at Syracuse, however halfway through my Freshman year I sustained a career ending knee injury.
After that dissapointment I went back to my hometown and took up an assistant coaching job for my High School team. I eventually became the Head Coach there and in my five years in the role we reached the State Championship 1/4 finals once, made a semifinal appearance and finnished runners up once. After that I took on Head coach duties for a number of amateur and semi-pro teams having reasonable success. However it was 5 years ago I found my true calling. The key to my success as a coach was my people management skills, I knew my players well and treated them as friends, not employees. I became a sports agent. I had a great deal of success in the job as my Jerry Mcguiresque approach to it landed me with a number of high profile clients. The college boys wanted me to guide them into the nba and a number of first rounders over the years, including Washingtons no.1 pick last year John Wall, have been on my books. However I had become somewhat dissilutioned with the job and had a desire to get back into the actual basketball side of the game. I left the agent business shortly before the end of the 2010-11 season and took a vacation to miami. six months later and we're back to the present.
So as I was saying I'm sat in this little bar on a beach in Miami, looking at the bottom of my 4th glass of Jack Daniels. "same again" I told the bartender. As he placed the refilled glass back down on the bar in front of me my phone started to ring. I took it out of my pocket and checking the caller ID saw it was John Wall.
"Hey Johnny hows it hanging bro"
"I'm good man, I'm good but listen I've been talking to Ted"
"Ted?"
"Leonsis,anyway he's wanting a guy to do something with management and I threw your name into the conversation. He wants you here in Washington for a meeting at 1:30 tommorow afternoon. Think you can make it?"
"Hey if it helps me land a job then I'm in. Thanks alot kid I owe you one"
"Don't sweat it G. I'll see you later man"
With an air of triumph I put my phone away, put a twenty down on the bar and headed straight for my hotel. After 6 hours and a short trip up the east coast I landed in Washington. So back to where I started sat at Wizards HQ. What the hell am I doing here? None of the coaching staff had been fired nor had GM Ernie Grunfield so what was it they wanted me for? I was soon about to find out as his receptionist had told me to go on in. I put down the Sports Illustrated I was reading, straightened up walked over to the door and knocked. He answered and told me to come in so i walked over to the chair opposite his desk shook his hand and sat down.
"Glad to meet you Mr.Hall I've heard alot of good things about you."
"Well Thankyou."
"I'm going to cut to the chase with you here Joe as time is of the essence. The Wizards have been going nowhere for over a decade now and its time to for change. The kits and logos aren't the only thing changing this year. I want to build a new Washington. Thats where you come in. I've lost alot of faith in Ernie, he's regarded as possibly the worst GM in the league, and he's living up to it. he turns up drunk most days and I don't trust him to make the right moves this team requires. That's why I want you to become what I like to call.....a "trade manager". If you take the job you'll be given free reign over trades and free-agents signings, however I do have a few restrictions and demands. First of all whatever trades you make don't give up too much of the cap space we have, it's a big free agency next year and we may hopefully be able to pick up a high profile signing. secondly I would like you to offload Rashard Lewis. I'm way overpaying the useless hack and I want you to cut that contract. I also want you to bring in a better 2-guard who could provide another scoring option. And my last request is you bring in a defensive presence to play back up at Center. The rest is all up to you"
"Is that all you want me for. I left the agent business so i could be more involved in the game, not all the off-court crap"
"Don't give me that you ungrateful little shit. I could hire anyone for this job but i offered you it because if you do a good job of it and don't mess it up there will potentially be something better for you. It's a risk you'll have to take but are you willing?"
The cheek of it. This isn't what i wanted or expected but it was better than anything else I'd been offered. Sure it wasn't what I ideally wanted to be doing but if it lead to something more this could be a major foot in the door for my NBA career. If it didn't get me anything else what was there to loose? It would only be a few days work in the worst case scenario a full time job the best.
"I'll take it then I guess"
"I'm glad you decided to come aboard. my assistant will show you to your new office and you can start right away."
Ted likes to cut to it I see. And with that we shook hands once again and I vacated the room. after following the receptionist down what seemed like the longest corridor in the world I stood looking into my new office. It was basic, a desk stood near the window opposite the door, a cupboard in the corner and a couple of empty filing cabinets where placed around the room. I threw my jacket over the chair and closed the door behind me, and took a seat thinking to myself "what a load of crap"....
