Normally, the books I read about the business side of sports are about labor disputes. This one instead focuses on on the work of a team's general manager. It's a very good description of the job.
Title/Author:
“Game Changer” by Bob Whitsett
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
If someone followed professional sports in the Pacific Northwest during the 1990’s, chances are good that he or she has heard of Bob Whitsett. He was the general manager for the two NBA teams in that region at the time, the Seattle SuperSonics and the Portland Trail Blazers. Plus, for a short time, he was also the GM of the Seattle Seahawks. All of this work made him one of the more prominent front office personnel at the time and he writes about this work in this memoir.
The most interesting story of the book, in my opinion, was the work he did to keep the Seahawks in Seattle. For those who were not aware or did not follow football at that time, the team threatened to move to Anaheim unless Seattle built the team a new stadium. Whitsett worked hard to secure the votes to get the stadium, negotiated contracts (his arrangement to sign two players in the midst of the campaign for the new stadium was very good) and still ran the Trail Blazers at that time. It shows just how much multitasking that he was doing.
Multitasking is a good word to describe what Whitsett writes about, as he was constantly at work – or so it seemed. Whether it was contract negotiations, putting out fires, public relations, working with players or a multitude of other tasks, Whitsett was on top of his work. It goes with his upbringing, and he started out in the business by doing anything needed. As he called it, he started as a “gopher” with the Indiana Pacers and worked his way up, becoming one of the youngest GM’s in the NBA when he got the job with the SuperSonics.
One of the big topics he has in the book is negotiations. On this topic, I do believe that this topic had the best stories and also included a nice checklist for anyone who has to do negotiating in their job. While each skill he describes is explained by how he handled contract negotiations with players and their agents, they had great tips for everyone else as well. Also, he had a great story about his first draft choice signing, Clark Kellogg. Kellogg was a first round draft choice by the Pacers, but at the time, the team didn’t have enough revenue to pay Kellogg the going rate for a first round draft choice. As Whitsett could only amount one maximum amount and let Kellogg and his agent know this, he nonetheless signed the player. How he pulled it off is an excellent tale on how one can still accomplish their negotiating goals. An excellent book by an excellent sports executive
I wish to thank Flashpoint Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
