The Untold Statement Made By Harvin's Departure

[sam1313]

Great read! Thanks for taking the time and effort!!

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[hawksfansinceday1]

You have a strong point, there. That mentality is why RG3 is still being given a chance to start in Washington. All they can see is how much they paid for him. I think this is a fallacy an owner is more likely to fall into, because he's more closely connected to the outlay for the product, than say Griffin's coach, who wasn't even with the org when they got him. I think certain things are deal-killers, overriding everything else, such as a player refusing to go on the field when the coach tells him to--that's why Harvin is gone. I also think these smart techno-geek billionaires like Paul Allen are cerebral and pragmatic and know that sometimes one must cut one's losses (good money after bad) and move forward.

I'm sure you know that there have been many, many instances of high draft choices playing over better players that were either low round choices or undrafted FAs. Coaches and GMs have been doing this since at least the 50s when pro football started its ascent to being this country's most popular sport. It's the old 'cover your ass' syndrome and as I stated in my post above, it's an ingrained aspect of American business culture and a true detriment to said culture. Obviously not all coaches do this, but the ones that don't either have GM power as well or are willing to risk termination by their boss, the GM that drafted said underperforming high draft pick.

I think you're onto something when you talk about techno-geek billionaires being different but unfortunately I don't believe that approach lasts and many business people who start out as mavericks so to speak, end up gravitating toward the mean much as EntiatHawk described about the startup he was involved in. IMO Paul Allen unfortunately fell into that trap with the Blazers and Seahawks and listened to his 'advisors' far too much. It may have also been why Whitsett was in charge of the Seahawks as long as he was and furthermore IMO those problems culminated in the Ruskell/Holmgren mess. The difference seems to be that Allen rather than continuing down the path of listening to a bunch of sycophants and ass coverers, realized he needed a different approach and as far as the Seahawks are concerned anyway, hired Pete Carroll, a man who as the Harvin mess makes very clear, is more interested in a winning culture than justifying his mistake/covering his ass. Of course when you've won the Super Bowl the year before, it makes that course of action easier for the boss to swallow, but I still believe Pete and John take this route no matter what based on the roster churn we saw leading up to last year and doing things like starting an untested 3rd round draft choice over a guy that was paid millions and so forth.

Congrats to Paul Allen from learning from his mistakes as a pro sports owner (the Blazers culture is vastly improved these days as well) and taking actions that stopped the bleeding rather than continued the slide toward the mean and thus constant mediocrity. Maybe he's a little more there than just "The Accidental Billionaire" after all?

 

[BirdsCommaAngry]

Thank you for the compliments, guys.

Excellent post, OP. If you have the time would you be willing to list some of the books & authors you've been enjoying?

I'm currently finishing off Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell but other than that I haven't been reading many books lately. The three books that figured predominantly into my post were The Talent Code (Daniel Coyle), The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg), and Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman), all of which are fantastic despite Kahneman's book being considerably longer and slower reading. What I've been reading more than any other author or genre, and reading almost religiously for the last year or so now at that, are the articles on LessWrong.com. I can't recommend their work highly enough.