Spurs trying for best team money can buy
Jeff McDonald
LAS VEGAS — When Spurs majority owner Peter Holt walked into the room for the NBA Board of Governors meeting here earlier this week, he was greeted with a cacophony of catcalls and good-natured ribbing.
His fellow owners couldn't believe the supposedly thrifty Holt had signed off on one of the most expensive offseason makeovers in recent Spurs memory.
“They all think I'm cheap as hell,” Holt said.
Not anymore. In the span of less than a month, Holt and his ownership group have done some serious damage to their miserly reputation.
In the eye of an uncertain economy that prompted many NBA teams to put a lock on their wallets this offseason, the Spurs went barreling past the luxury tax threshold to acquire Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess.
The Spurs already are about $8 million over the dollar-for-dollar tax line, with still more roster pieces to add. The final tariff bill is likely to breach $10 million, on top of a payroll pushing $80 million.
In his first interview since the offseason began, Holt this week explained the reasoning behind the Spurs' out-of-character summertime spending spree. In Vegas terms, it was time to go all in.
“We strongly feel we've got a real opportunity here at the end of the Tim Duncan era,” Holt said before the start of a Spurs summer league game. “If you're in this business long-term, you've got to take care of the opportunities that come up. Even though short-term, it's going to cost you some real money.”
The Spurs, indeed, have been spending real money this summer. It's only looked like Monopoly money.
They took on the remaining $29.2 million owed Jefferson, who came over in a June 23 trade with Milwaukee. They spent the full $5.8 million mid-level exception on McDyess, a figure that comes out closer to $11 million after taxes.
They still are in healthy negotiations with draftee DeJuan Blair, a lottery-caliber talent who's likely to command more than the garden-variety second-round pick.
All of it is part of a rebuilding project the Spurs front office deemed necessary in the wake of a first-round playoff ouster against Dallas, in order to maximize the final years of Duncan's career.
Duncan, an 11-time All-Star, is under contract through 2011-2012.
“Our owners have been committed to putting a team on the floor that can compete to win a championship,” Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said. “Peter and his group have given a lot to this city, and this is another example of that.”
Few would have blamed Holt for pulling in his horns this summer. His ownership group, which took over in 1993, already had overseen four NBA championships — or four more than any previous ownership group.
It has been a good run.
Confronted with the same financial slump that has ravaged the coffers of nearly every NBA owner — just this week the league office announced that half its teams were in the red last year — Holt could have decided to take his Larry O'Brien trophies and cash out.
Instead, he bellied back up to the poker table, looking for one last score. Like most high-stakes gambles, it's a strategy not for the faint of heart.
“I'm not saying we're all not worried,” Holt said. “There's no crystal ball when it comes to the economy.”
In the face of a frightening horde of economic down arrows, Holt fell back on a business adage older than Forbes itself. You've got to spend money to make money.
At the box office, there are signs his investment is already paying off. Holt says he's noticed a drastic uptick in ticket sales since the Jefferson trade on June 23.
He says the team is up to a 71 percent renewal rate on season tickets, about a month off last year's pace but still a dramatic increase over earlier in the summer.
“All of a sudden, the fans seem re-energized,” Holt said.
The Spurs' No. 1 fan seems re-energized as well. Leaning back in his chair at UNLV's Cox Pavilion this week, Holt was relaxed and confident, eager for the days to come.
He had the look of a man who had pushed his chips to the center of the table, and knew he was sitting on a winning hand.
“We're ready to kick some ass,” Holt said. “I couldn't be more excited.”
