I miss this dude so much. Just seeing him hear the question and immediately self reflect and know he’s fucking up is something we haven’t seen ONCE from Kellen Moore. Literally not once.
This is what people do not understand. They keep fixating on “profit” like Gayle is counting receipts and balancing a checkbook with these teams. This isn’t 1980. I don’t know when people will grasp this, but too many people still cannot get it.
Tom Benson bought the Pelicans for 300 million like 13 years ago and they are currently worth 5 billion dollars.
The NFL cuts each owner a 500 million dollar check as their portion of shared revenue just for existing.
And it will NEVER decline.
This is clearly an owner who runs mostly on emotion and impulse.
Two weeks ago she was as embarrassed as she’s ever been. Hence that statement.
Now she’s proud of herself and her helpers for their Paris week extravaganza. Embarrassment gone.
Results on field are secondary.
As I cool off, here’s what I think:
Her statement at the QB club event was real and made out of anger and embarrassment, and she meant it.
This one was clearly written by Greg Bensel, the most tone deaf guy on Airline Drive, because she asked for a positive, gracious statement.
Gayle’s previous statement seems to be a lot of BS now. She just wanted the fans to have some optimism before heading to France, just so they can fill their pockets. It was all a bunch of smoke!!! IMO! @Saints
I would have absolutely no problem with a fire sale, even with the unfortunate anti-tanking rules. It would at least signal there is a vision and a direction to this thing.
Latest Pelicans intel, via @FearTheBrown:
- People around the league believe the Pels and Dejounte Murray want to work together to "find [Murray] a better situation."
- Jordan Poole told the team that he "would be open to opportunities elsewhere."
- Joe Dumars is "extremely high" on Jeremiah Fears.
- Teams are continuing to monitor Herb Jones; Pelicans still asking for around 2 first-round picks.
- Warriors recently inquired about Yves Missi.
The media should ask nothing but questions about how they spent the week in every session they get with a coach or player, particularly Kellen Moore, next week. Literally nothing but this. Put it on blast.
Grant retweeted
Your run-of-the-mill fan thinks the Pelicans need to get healthy and the Saints need to fire their coach. They probably barely think about Gayle Benson. In bigger markets, this would be such a big story that "Sell The Team" chants would ring through the stadiums every game.
Grant retweeted
I've said this in the past, but I think THIS is where the Pelicans/Saints being in small markets have really hurt them. If this were happening in New York, the entire national media would be all over this. But most are happy to ignore how bad things are going in New Orleans.
Christ these keep nailing it.
The Saints operation, if you aren’t watching it up close, LOOKS like a professional operation.
But they aren’t. Not close. But because they aren’t knifing each other and turning over the entire staff every year, the lack of dysfunction masks it.
Grant retweeted
The Saints and Pelicans are not dysfunctional like the Jets; they're outright being run like minor league franchises.
And while the Knicks/Jets ownership has had pressure applied to them, the New Orleans teams have been able to operate with essentially no retribution.
This, and the subsequent tweet about ownership change, absolutely hit the nail on the head.
The more these teams suck, the more the people who care about them (a shrinking number) will start to absolutely despise her.
There won’t be a way out of this for them.
Grant retweeted
Only way out of this is ownership change. As many have reported, Gayle's group doesn't care in the slightest about the teams being successful. The more people who realize this isn't a Moore/Mosely or even a Loomis/Dumars problem, the louder it gets, the closer to a resolution.
Grant retweeted
It's probably still above 50%, and she'll always have the contingent of people who believe Gayle is the sole reason professional sports in New Orleans still exist, but her group running the teams themselves into the absolute dirt has wittled away at her formerly infallible image.
Grant retweeted
One thing I will say that surprises me is that I think Gayle and co's local approval was likely well into the 90s pre-Covid.
When cracks really started showing from 2022-2024, it still never got below probably 80%, and I figured that was the floor.
It's much lower now.
