Steve’s a nice guy. But, it’s results that are important. The Celtics are 354-299 since he took ownership. There’s also that funny looking piece of hardware earned in the 2007-2008 season. The Celtics were down and out when Steve Pagliuca arrived, and what did he do?
He didn’t fire half the employees, leverage a loan, and then divide up the franchise, selling bits of it to the Pistons and the Lakers. He didn’t run into the building, take all the valuable memorabilia out, let the Celtics fall to bankruptcy, and then sell his booty at a giant profit.
No sir. He added another wonderful chapter to the story of the greatest NBA franchise of all time.
Steve Pagliuca has struck the right mix of short term profitability, long term franchise asset growth, wins, and a synergistic branding with Boston. It is for this reason that I endorse Steve Pagliuca for sports team owner.
Wait, what? He’s running for state senate? Wait… yoo ess Senate? For reals? Oh come on. He’s no more qualified to be a US Senator because he’s a good businessman than I’m qualified to be a chef because I’m good at riding a bicycle. This really opens up some doors for me. I’m good at something, so I can do anything! I wonder what my next job should be. Maybe our dear readers can help.
Pagliuca can be my Senator, only if Kevin McHale becomes Republican Senate leader. That way, Pagliuca will be facing off against someone willing to give him way too many goodies for way too low a price.*
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p>*If you don’t follow basketball at all, Kevin McHale is a former Celtic who moved on to run another team. He gave up Celtics superstar Kevin Garnett in a very unfair trade; Garnett is the keystone to the Celtics team today.
…until Alex Beam weighs in on whether or not you are HOTT!
…trust me, I’ve met him.
with an assist from Danny and Doc.
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p>Didn’t see him facing up Kobe, or down in the low paint against the Pistons, or raining in threes. Did you?
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p>What exactly – other than being a very minority owner- has he done for, with, or to the Celtics that contributed to the championship? I’m with sabutai, McHale had more to do with number 17 than Pags. The only asset he brings to the team is one he parks in his seat in the owners’ box.
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p>What’s next, the New York Times taking credit for the two World Series championships because they own 17% of the Red Sox?
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p>Time to outsource Pags to India, with all the jobs he sent there.
That way the players here can concentrate on the shooting.
China too.
Mmmm… a sammich with corned beef, kraut, Swiss, and just a little Russian on toasted (not grilled!) rye. Throw in a Dr. Brown’s cream soda and a pickle and you’ve got a meal worthy of endorsement.
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p>What? Rubin? Reuben? Whatever. Pass the half sours.
Proves you would make an excellent best boy grip. And could be depended on to not even blink when you got sent back to the deli to return a grilled Rubin, I mean Reuben. “Toasted not grilled dammit, where did you go to get this, Dorchester?”
Doug Rubin is the best political consultant with a sandwich based last name.
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p>And Dick Cheney is the Vice President with the best burger named after him (at Bartley’s)
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p>If only their politics would taste as good as their sandwiches…
Steve Pagluica would make an excellent sports teams owner. He should buy the Bruins, too.
…until I hear him support the restoration of the 90% marginal tax bracket.
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p>And until I get a personal check made out to me, with the dollar amount left blank.
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p>Then I’m in. Totally.
I, of course, confirmed that I was going with a winner before casting my vote for “car salesman for Ernie Boch, III.”
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p>Thanks for a great post!
There is a part of me that wishes it was still legal for Pags to buy votes. I mean he is already wasting probably over ten bucks per MA voter with the cost of his campaign so far, why not give the check to us? The irony is even if he paid me 10 bucks I still wouldn’t vote for him but at least this way the money goes back to the people of MA and not to Doug Rubin.
Why shouldn’t he get paid for doing work for Pagliuca. You may not like his politics, but don’t begrudge him a paycheck for his job.
but if Pagliuca offered Doug normal political consultant money and not Basketball player money would he be posting here on behalf of Mr. Pagliuca? Is his support for sale to the highest bidder? Fair question that Doug has yet to answer.
working for Republicans, etc. then maybe I’d start to worry, but having him involved in state politics is better than having him not involved in state politics. In that vein, he’s entitled to the best job he can get. People will view him through the lense of a paid political guy who’s friendly to the blogging community — and be able to make a rational decision with those disclaimers known.
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p>Give Doug a lot of credit for being out there and using his name; there are certainly people on BMG who have worked for campaigns and offices who have routinely posted without any disclaimers. So long as people know, there’s nothing wrong with it. Working in politics is not easy, I do not begrudge Doug for taking work with Pagliuca at all.
if Pags had spent the past few years spending these millions on the “pagliuca foundation” and made it very PR-y, so he became known for it, he’d have had a much better shot at winning.
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p>It was very unreasonable for a complete political novice literally connected to the hip of Bain Capital, especially in this economy and post-Romney, to think he could run in Massachusetts and have any shot at winning.
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p>He needed to do something with his millions that would have endeared him to the voters before he ran. Thousands of computers in schools across the state? Hundreds of scholarships for inner city kids? Affordable housing projects across the state sold at cost through a nonprofit entity? He’d have been so much better picking a cause and running with it, so he actually had something to run on. $3-5 million over a few years can actually go a long way and could have made him a well-known, highly respected name in the state, much more so than being a minority owner of the Celtics.
Sabutai has already speculated to this effect.
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p>Perhaps this race is his way of introducing himself to Massachusetts Democrats, in preparation for a role in next year’s campaign.
I don’t seriously think he’d run against Deval. He’d be a carpet bagger if he moved to a district to run for congress — and would he want to? Should Martha win, he’s not going to be the next AG…. I’m running out of constitutional offices… LOL.
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p>Plus, should he not win this race and decide to run again in the future, not only has he still not done anything political and not only is he still the Bain Capital guy who eats companies and spits them back out, often much worse for the ware, but he’ll have the stain of a big campaign loss, after having spent millions, on top of it. Losses don’t always hurt — Romney’s US Senate bid a good example of that — but they do if it’s not close, after millions of dollars of effort.
you can do any of those jobs with no hands. But why would you want to?
The Lawrence Trib endorses Pags too.
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p>I would never know this if I didn’t follow Dan Kennedy on twitter. Makes my feet hurt less after 3 hours of climbing stairs for Capuano in the rain on the friendly streets in Dorchester.
…Dick Cheney WASN’T a stalwart defender of civil liberties and due process – I am shocked!:)