Blog post by me for SportsTwo. I hope it's not too redundant for you guys. I wrote it within a day and figured I'd post it. Trying to help the cause (SportsTwo). http://sportstwo.com/content/1491-SportsTwo-Blog-Post-The-Inevitability-of-Larry-Ellison
Really good read DK. Reading this does make me more confident that Ellison will actually buy the team but I can't help but tell myself that Cohan is going to fuck it up and screw us over again!
Nice job of melding what's out there right now (wonder who was your sideline source?). While the sheer force of Ellison's riches are intoxicating, I believe we must not forget that I'm sure there were other acquisitions beyond Sun Microsystems that Oracle desired where they were out bid. So while I'm hoping for "inevitability", I think the other bidders are serious contenders.
Good point, Phil. To be honest, I don't know much about Oracle or what they've tried to do in the past. I'm sure with most things, everything has a price. If the bidding goes beyond what Ellison is willing to pay, then so be it. But, are the other bidders that stupid to overspend? Perhaps. I know nothing about them. What I do know is that this bidding process was put in place to give the Warriors a fair market value. Hopefully stupid bidding won't blow what's fair out of the water. From everything I've read, Ellison seems like the type that if he has interest in something, he'll get it. It seems he has a real interest in acquiring the Warriors as he did with Sun Micro, America's Cup, his yacht, and his Japanese-themed home. I just think with the Warriors, he's not going to give what the opposition wants, in this case Cohan. He'll give what's fair.
The contracts coming out of early free agency signings this year are changing things. It means the values of NBA franchises are going up. You have to be a richer owner to make even more money. The poorer owners like Michael Jordan will be forced to sell or liquidate their assets.
Well, I hope GS's new owner doesn't fall into the trap and makes some shrewd moves. Like you said in the article, GS is a large market. I think that means that the bids will go up, and right now we are kind of starving for a winning franchise of any kind. Ellison would be great for turning the Warriors into a respectable franchise, though any of the new potential owners should be an upgrade. The whole point of the new CBA was to save owners from themselves. It's kind of a double-edged dagger, they're making it worse for themselves and in the end, it could mean they have to take a harder-line stance, making the players suffer despite their own follies.
