Geez, it's not like the Colangelo's spent money wisely either. Or made great moves all the time. Sarver is inept as an owner, but what exactly is everyone comparing it to? Oh yeah, the same guys that traded for Penny Hardaway and Hot Rod Williams and signed Luc Longley to a huge contract.
Sarver is not a good owner, but I'm tired of everyone making the Colangelo's out to be gods. They produced some fun seasons, but they also produced 37 years of NOTHING to show for it. Sarver has done the exact same thing--produced some fun seasons but in those 5 years, he has nothing to show for it. The key figure there is 5 years.
In 37 years, if Sarver is still owner of this team and we haven't won a title, then there will be plenty of room to talk.
Chap, I wonder how many on this thread remember Colangelo before he became (minority/general managing partner) "owner." For pretty much the first 20 years of the Suns existence Colangelo was a pawn for Dial, who owned most of the team. Colangelo was constantly pushed into making awful trade after awful trade because ownership didn't want to pay "big city" salaries. Even the DJ-for-Robey trade was made in the name of money. People forget that.
Colangelo was the most skewered sports figure in all of Phoenix. Many couldn't believe he survived the drug scandal. Ownership wanted to sell and move the team to San Diego (IIRC).
Colangelo "bought" the team primarily because he wanted to repair his name. It was his personal agenda to put a champion on the floor. It was pretty easy for him the first 10 years to throw money every which way -- BECAUSE IT WASN'T HIS MONEY. He sold his "partners" on the idea that if you spend the money it will come back in spades with sell outs, merchandising whatever.
Well, at the end of the day, that business plan didn't work in basketball and, for all of the 2001 WS bluster, the D-Backs almost folded six years into operation under the same business plan.
When Colangelo stepped away from the Suns he walked with $10 million. That's $10 million of a franchise that was valued at nearly half a billion. His full cash investment in the Suns was believed to be about $1 million. After all, even as a long-time GM, Colangelo never made the kind of money that could buy a sports franchise.
I think Colangelo was savvy and he worked very hard to serve the sports fans in this town ... in so many ways he was a slave to their impression of him. OTOH, he created this false image of being a godfather of Phoenix pro sports, when in reality he was always at the proverbial table playing with other people's money. If they didn't like him so much, more than a few investors in his two franchises probably could have sued (and won) for Colangelo's breach of fiduciary responsibility. Some close to the Suns in that era have speculated (in private) that if Sarver hadn't bought the team, Colangelo would have had to sell everything to pay off debts to investors on either side of the ledger.
Anyway, I think Suns fans were spoiled during those years because Colangelo made Suns fans feel like they were supporting a real big city team. In reality, the Suns, the D-Backs, and all the other teams are finally showing that Phoenix is NOT a big city. It's a really big medium market and ownership that has every intention of sticking around has to make smart money decisions.
I'm still no fan of Sarver -- I'm certain you're not defending him here, either, but let's face it, this management team has no vision for what kind of team they want to be. At least Colangelo always had a vision, for better or worse, always had a plan that homer fans could buy into, to drink the kool aid. That's what separates Sarver from Colangelo. That's why the fans can wax on about the golden JC years while bitching about Sarver.
